VANCOUVER - One of the most important series of the regular season awaits the UBC Thunderbirds at Thunderbird Park this weekend, where they will battle the Lewis-Clark State Warriors for NAIA West supremacy. The T-Birds are coming off a tough 1-3 series at the College of Idaho, but are just a half-game back of the Warriors heading into their head-to-head clash.
The venue for the games this weekend was changed from Nat Bailey Stadium to Thunderbird Park due to weather concerns.
GAME TIMES
Fri., Mar. 30 - No. 15 Lewis-Clark State at UBC (3 p.m. at Thunderbird Park, Vancouver)
Sat., Mar. 31 - No. 15 Lewis-Clark State at UBC (1 p.m. at Thunderbird Park, Vancouver) - DOUBLEHEADER
Sun., Apr. 1 - No. 15 Lewis-Clark State at UBC (11 a.m. at Thunderbird Park, Vancouver)
UBC Thunderbirds
2012 record: 11-5 Cascade Conference, 18-9 overall
Last week: L 5-4, L 7-3, L 7-6, W 13-5 at College of Idaho
The T-Birds knew they would be in tough against a very dangerous College of Idaho team, who were coming off a road split with LC State and leading the conference in hitting. Sure enough, the Coyotes got the jump on them with three straight wins to start the series before the T-Birds exploded for 13 runs to escape a potential sweep situation in Caldwell.
The 'Birds certainly weren't at their best last week, but considering how close they came to winning two, or even three games in the series, there's plenty to be optimistic about for UBC fans.
Blowing two seperate late-game leads in their 11-inning game three loss isn't exactly a confidence-booster for the bullpen, but
Conor Lillis-White didn't start the year with more than 13 innings of scoreless pitching by accident, and he should be able to bounce back strong within the friendly confines of Thunderbird Park this weekend.
As for the starters, UBC got a second straight fantastic performance by
Danny Britton-Foster. He narrowly missed out on making it back to back complete games, and although he surrendered the tying run with two outs in the ninth in game three, coach
Terry McKaig has to like what he is seeing out of his most experienced hurler over the last two weeks.
Tavis Bruce didn't have his best start of the year in Caldwell, but four runs over six innings against the top hitting team in the conference isn't terrible either, and he is still third in the NAIA West in ERA among starters at 2.23.
At the dish, centre fielder
Blake Carruthers was on fire last week. Most of the offence struggled through the first three games of the series, but Carruthers posted eight hits through those first three games before ironically going hitless in the explosive series finale. Despite that, he is now the team leader in batting average at .385.
Slugger
Nick Senior is next at .358 to go with 27 RBI. He's been stuck on five homers for a while, and the dimensions of Thunderbird Park will make it tough to add to that total this week, but he's far from a one-trick pony, getting on base at a .467 clip and a perfect seven of seven on stolen base attempts.
Lewis-Clark State Warriors
2012 record: 11-4 conference, 21-8 overall
Last week: Bye
The Warriors had last weekend off after splitting their series with the College of Idaho in mid-March. Hopefully for the 'Birds, that break has given Trent Bridges some time to cool off, as he is hitting .404 with a .661 slugging percentage coming into this series.
He isn't their only major threat at the plate though. Five Warriors are hitting .342 or better this season, and Alfonso Casillas is sitting with Bridges in the .600+ sluggers club. Casillas also leads the conference with seven home runs and 40 RBI. As a team, the Warriors are leading the Cascades by a wide margin in the power department, averaging almost one home run per game.
Another man to watch this weekend is Jordan Payne, who is hitting .344 with an impressive 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts with just 22 games under his belt on the season. That pace suggests that it's only a matter of time before he decides to take off this weekend, so the T-Bird backstops will have to be on their toes when he is on the bags.
On the mound, Austin Pentecost has been lights-out this year, with a 1.94 ERA in seven starts and a microscopic .172 opponent batting average. Anthony Armanino has been solid as well with an ERA just over three, and although his walk numbers are higher than ideal, his strikeout numbers are right up there too.
Sal Arena has been almost untouchable in relief, with a 1.06 ERA in 17 innings of work. Michael Noteware has had a few starts and a few appearances out of the bullpen this year, and he's been solid either way, with a 5-1 record and nearly a strikeout per inning with a 2.34 ERA.
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