VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds softball team went undefeated on the first day of the 2012 Northwest Cup tournament in Clackamas, Ore., hosted by Concordia University.
 
"Today was a good day for UBC softball," said T-Birds head coach Phil Thom, whose team left Vancouver for Clackamas at 4:15 a.m. "UBC is learning to bear down and hold a lead for a win."
 
UBC won the first game of the event, which started at 1 p.m., by a score of 3-1 over the hosts, Concordia.
 
Down 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning, Jess Hodge (4th, Vancouver) nailed a 2-0 pitch over the left field fence for a three-run home run. The homer plated Brittney Meyer (3rd, Delta, B.C.) and Yasmin Bains (1st, Richmond, B.C.) to give UBC the lead for good.
 
The host Cavaliers didn't go quietly, though, loading the bases in the top of the seventh.  With one out, rookie reliever Jamie Randall (1st, Richmond, B.C.), who replaced starter Nicole Day (3rd, Surrey, B.C.) in the top of the fifth, struck out the final two batters for the save.
 
Randall would shut out the Cavaliers for the final three innings for the save, while Day picked up the win.
 
Concordia's lone run occurred in the second inning as Jordyn Brown scored on a wild pitch after singling up the middle and advancing through the bases on a sacrifice bunt from Kate Santos and a grounder to first from Breeanne Larkin.
 
Concordia outhit the T-Birds nine-to-five in the game but stranded 13 runners in the seven-inning affair. Ashley Suter took the loss, while Lacey Romo allowed just one hit over the final three stanzas.
 
UBC won its second game of the day by a score of 8-6 over the College of Idaho.
 
Again, the Thunderbirds won on a three-run home run, this time from Meyer in the top of the seventh inning as UBC was down to its final out. She hammered a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence for her second homer of the game.  To go with the two home runs, she finished the game 2-4, with three runs scored and four runs batted in.
 
Meyer erased a 6-5 College of Idaho lead, which the Coyotes took into the final inning after scoring three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Meyer's first home run put UBC up 2-0 in the top of the first. Rookie Kelly Rumley also hit a home run for the Thunderbirds.
 
The win went to pitcher Leigh Della Siega while Janelle Wiebold took the loss for College of Idaho.
 
UBC has two games on Saturday at the Northwest Cup, against No. 1 Oregon Tech (9 a.m.) and No. 23 Corban College (11 a.m.), before the team finishes the event on Sunday with match-ups against Corban, for a second time, at 11 a.m. and Northwest Christian (Ore.) at 9 a.m.
 
- with files from Jason Dormeyer (Concordia Sports Information Director)