VANCOUVER - After watching two late leads evaporate yesterday in game three of their series with the College of Idaho, the UBC Thunderbird hitters made sure to leave no doubt about the outcome when they put their side on top in the eighth inning on Sunday, putting up a six-spot to lift the 'Birds to a 13-5 win over the Coyotes in Caldwell, Idaho.
BOXSCORE
The Coyotes put up a run in the first, but the 'Birds came right back with four in the second inning to take their biggest lead of the series up to that point.
Mike Hole,
Brody Hawkins,
Ryan Taylor and
Matt Spillman all had RBIs in the second to give UBC starter
Alex Graham some breathing room.
It didn't last long though, as the Coyotes added two runs in the third to make it a 4-3 game, and then pushed the tying run across in the fourth on a sac fly to chase Graham from the game.
The teams then traded runs in the seventh to make it a 5-5 affair heading to the eighth, where the UBC bats woke up in a big way.
Blake Carruthers got things started with a leadoff walk, and
Jerod Bartnik followed that up with a bunt single.
Sebastian Wong was given a free pass to load the bases up, and
Brody Hawkins drew a walk to force the go-ahead run across.
The 'Birds were just getting started at that point though.
Gabe Mark was responsible for the first significant blow - a two-run single to put UBC up 8-5 - setting the table for a true dagger from Spillman. The T-Birds leadoff man ripped a triple into right-centre field to score two more runs, and he was cashed in by an
Andrew Firth single to make it an 11-5 game.
Hawkins added a sac fly in the ninth and Taylor tacked on an RBI single to flesh out the 13-5 scoreline.
"Big bounce back win for us today," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "We are a little thin right now because of injuries and have faced a lot of adversity in the past two days so this was a character win against a very good team."
UBC had 15 hits in the ballgame, including multi-hit efforts from Spillman, Firth,
Nick Senior, Bartnik, Hole and Taylor.
Connor Smith got the win, going 4.2 strong innings in relief. He allowed just two hits and one run.
UBC improves to 18-9 overall and 11-5 in the conference. College of Idaho is now 22-9 overall and 8-4 in the conference.
The T-Birds are now a half-gam back of Lewis-Clark State for the Cascade Conference lead. They will get a chance to rectify that situation next weekend when they host those LC State Warriors for a four game set, beginning Friday, March 30.
-30-
