VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds swept the Corban College Warriors again on Sunday by scores of 8-1 and 5-2, winning five of six games in their weekend series at Thunderbird Park to tighten their grip atop the North Division standings in the NAIA West.
Corban leadoff man Kyle Kunkel walked to begin game one, and eventually scored on a wild pitch, but UBC starter Dave Otterman settled down and was lights-out after that, and the offence was all T-Birds the rest of the way.
A
Keaton Briscoe RBI groundout tied it in the third inning, and one of
Andrew Firth's four hits in the game brought home two more UBC runs in the fifth inning to put the T-Birds up 3-1.
Then they broke it open in the seventh on a huge two-out rally. After their first two batters were retired in the frame, the next seven hitters reached base safely to push five runs across.
Blake Carruthers had an RBI double,
Greg Densem and
Bob Foerster had RBI singles, and two more scored on an error to make it an 8-1 game.
Otterman got the win, scattering three hits over eight innings, striking out seven.
Dave Forbes worked a scoreless ninth for UBC.
"Dave throwing eight innings for us was key," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig, noting the toll a six-game series featuring one 18-inning contest can take on a pitching staff. "If he struggles and only goes three or four I don't even want to know what today would have looked like so for him to throw eight was outstanding."
Caleb Virtue took the loss for Corban, giving up three runs on seven hits through the first 4.1 innings.
In game two, the Warriors again jumped out in front early - this time with Kyle Taylor smacking a leadoff single up the middle and eventually scoring on Steven Blum's RBI base-knock.
The Warriors added one more in the third with Taylor doing the damage again. He led off the inning with a double down the left field line and Blum's sac fly cashed him in.
But like game one, the T-Birds eventually took over both on the mound and at the plate. The bats came alive in the fourth, when Carruthers sent a double to left field that scored Briscoe. UBC added two more in the fifth inning on a
Sebastian Wong single to take the lead. RBI singles from Foerster and
Matt Spillman in the sixth provided the insurance to make it 5-2.
The T-Birds racked up 24 hits in the 14 innings they came to the plate on Sunday, marking a nice offensive turnaround after the bats fell silent during Saturday's 18-inning marathon that ended with Corban's first conference win of the year.
"That's what it's going to take - we can't wait around for the big home runs with this team so we need lots of guys contributing and having multi-hit games," said McKaig. "Something I notice every time I'm putting the lineup together is that we have a lot of depth on this team."
T-Birds starter
Shawn Hetherington, who has been used primarily as a reliever in his UBC career, shook off the two early runs to throw a complete game in the seven-inning contest. He shut the door the rest of the way and allowed just five hits to get the win.
"We knew there would be question marks on the mound about who can throw today and how much, so we figured the offence would have to win us some games, but as it turned out both starters did a great job too," said McKaig.
Hetherington's counterpart, Nate Hiebert, also went the distance for Corban and was saddled with the loss, allowing eight hits and five runs in six innings of work.
UBC moves to 21-7 overall and 17-2 in the conference, giving them some breathing space at the top of their division in the NAIA West. Second-place Lewis Clark State College began the day at 10-6 in conference play.
Corban falls to 1-12 and 6-22 overall. They return home next weekend to host a four-game set with the College of Idaho.
The T-Birds will be at home again next week when Concordia comes to town for four games. Doubleheaders are currently scheduled for Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday, April 9 at 12 p.m. and Sunday, April 10 at 11 a.m.
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