FRESNO, CA - Facing an old rival, the no. 10 ranked UBC Thunderbirds fell 5-0 to the no. 15 Fresno Pacific Sunbirds Thursday afternoon in their second game of the season. FPU improved to 3-3 on the season while UBC dropped to 1-1.
FPU starter Jesse Darrah struck out six in five scoreless innings and combined with Sunbird relievers on a three hit shutout. Andrew Douglas had two RBIs for FPU and Alec Mehrten and Trent Soares each finished 2-for-3.
Sheldon McDonald took the loss, going 4.2 innings and giving up three earned runs and two walks while striking out four.
Eric Brown worked the second half of the game and gave up five hits and a pair of earned runs.
Offensively UBC managed just a trio of singles off the bats of
Bob Foerster,
Greg Densem, and
Blake Carruthers.
"It was not a good showing against an always tough Fresno Pacific University team. We didn't do a good job at the plate but credit to their starter, who was on and hitting the low 90s with his fastball," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "We didn't pitch ahead in the count enough to hold off their always aggressive hitters and then they got a few runs on us early which has us on our back heel. It's back to work tomorrow with a practice before we get into another stretch of tough games."
UBC takes on Whittier College on Saturday and then Concordia-Irvine on Sunday.
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