VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds survived a couple of close calls against the Simpson Red Hawks in their doubleheader on Saturday to come away with the sweep, winning 6-5 in 11 innings in game one and 6-2 in game two at Thunderbird Park.
GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
Tavis Bruce got the start in game one, and although he struggled at times with a few too many walks and a high pitch count, he managed to get through six innings with just one run allowed.
The T-Birds gave Bruce a nice lead to work with in the second.
Gabe Mark led the inning off by crushing a double to left field.
Mike Hole then bunted for a single to put runners on the corners, and
Brody Hawkins started the scoring with an RBI single to left.
James Stewart and
Matt Spillman followed that with an RBI single each, and
Andrew Firth tacked on a fourth run with an RBI groundout.
Carruthers added another RBI single in the fifth to make it a 5-0 game.
The Red Hawks did their only damage against Bruce in his final inning of work, pushing a run across on a wild pitch to make it 5-1.
Bruce left after six complete, but
Markus Fergusson struggled in relief, walking all three batters he faced in the seventh.
Connor Smith did well to minimize the damage after entering the game with the bases loaded and no out, but the Red Hawks tacked on two runs on sac flys to make it 5-3.
It stayed that way until the ninth, when freshman closer
Conor Lillis-White and his 0.00 ERA took the mound.
After a leadoff walk, his perfect start to the season came to an end in an unfortunate way, as what looked like a double play ball up the middle ended up finding its way to the outfield when the middle infielders hesitated to take charge of the play for a split second.
“Both guys headed in the same direction and it was just one of those things where they both pulled back thinking the other guy would get it,” said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. “But the thing for Lillis-White was the walks. In a 5-3 game, a leadoff walk in the ninth can't happen, so no matter what happened on that play it was just too many walks from our relievers today.”
After the defensive miscue allowed runners on first and second with no outs, another walk loaded the bases, and then a sac fly made it 5-4 UBC. After a big strikeout for out number two, Lillis-White walked in the tying run on a full count pitch to Mitch Garcia.
UBC could do nothing in the ninth or tenth, but
Jerod Bartnik's pinch hit single to lead off the 11th put them in business.
Matt Spillman's sac bunt moved him to third, and
Nick Senior made Simpson pay for intentionally walking
Andrew Firth to get to him.
Senior, who led the conference in average coming into the game, was 0-5 at that point. He made up for that with one mighty swing, missing a three-run homer by just inches, but giving Bartnik plenty of time to scamper home from second to score the winning run on his double off the right field wall.
GAME TWO
In game two,
David Otterman had an outing similar to Bruce's, making it through 6.2 innings with only two runs allowed, but battling a high pitch count that eventually cut his day short.
“We didn't pitch it very well. We have certain expectations for our guys, and the problems with Tavis and David today was their pitch counts,” said McKaig. “Just too many balls, the strike percentage wasn't high enough, they'd get two outs and then two guys would get on instead of nailing down a one-two-three inning. If you look at the line, its okay, but they need to be better.”
UBC got RBI singles from Firth in the first and fifth innings, but Simpson starter Rick Hogan seemed to have the 'Birds stymied at the dish until the seventh.
That's when they broke it open with a four spot thanks to two timely, albeit fortunate, two-run singles.
First it was Carruthers dropping a blooper into shallow right just out of the reach of the diving right fielder. Then
Sebastian Wong duplicated the feat in centre field, finding the turf with his blooper to tack on two more and make it a 6-2 game.
That was plenty of cushion for the 'Birds, as the Red Hawks managed just one hit and no runs over the final four innings.
Reliever
Matt Trimble earned the win, working the final 2.1 innings for UBC.
The wins move UBC to 15-6 overall and 8-2 in the Cascade Conference, while Simpson falls to 10-15/1-8.
The Hawks and 'Birds finish their series with another doubleheader at Thunderbird Park on Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m.
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