RIVERSIDE, CA - The second seeded UBC Thunderbirds kept their season alive with a 5-3 victory over the no. 5 seed St. Thomas Bobcats at the 2011 NAIA Baseball Opening Round - Riverside Bracket.
The win advances UBC to a 3:00 p.m. game against Cal State San Marcos while the Bobcats season comes to an end. UBC lost their first tournament game 6-5 to Concordia (Calif.) on Thursday and must win out in the five-team, double-elimination format to book a spot in the 2011 AVISTA-NAIA World Series.
Friday's early morning win, first pitch was 9:00 a.m., relied on timely hitting to take an early lead and highlight reel defence to seal the win.
UBC took the lead with a pair outs in the bottom of first.
Adam Quan reached from his lead-off spot after getting hit with a pitch and advanced to second on a ground out.
Andrew Madsen plated Quan with a single and advanced to second on the throw home.
Greg Densem followed with a single of his own to right-centre to cash in Madsen.
The T-Birds doubled their lead in the bottom of the third, again with a pair of outs.
Andrew Firth doubled to the wall in left field, knocking in Densem and
Blake Carruthers - both of whom reached base by virtue of a walk.
St. Thomas got on the board in the top of the fifth with an RBI single from Hector Bello and cut the lead to two runs with another single in the top of the seventh which chased T-Bird starter Danny Otterman. Otterman lasted six and two-thirds giving up six hits and a pair of runs (one earned) with six walks and three strikeouts before giving way to Dan Britton-Foster.
UBC got one back in the bottom of the seventh with
Keaton Briscoe stroking a double to the gap in left-centre. That was the last pitch thrown by St. Thomas starter Danny Sanchez. Briscoe then stole third on reliever Anthony Perez's first pitch and scored on a Carruthers sacrifice fly.
St. Thomas chipped away with another run in the eighth but it could have been much worse if not for a spectacular play from Firth. With runners on first and second with only one out and one run already in, Firth made a diving grab on a sharply hit ground ball to third base, stepping on the bag for the force out and throwing across the diamond to turn two and get UBC out of the frame.
In the ninth, Britton-Foster picked up a pair of easy outs before Carruthers made a spectacular diving catch on a shallow fly to centre field to end the game.
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