VANCOUVER - The No. 15 Lewis Clark State Warriors got a key two-run double in the second inning from Bobby Tannehill, and Alfonso Casillas finished off the UBC Thunderbirds with a three-run homer in the ninth, giving LC State a 6-0 win in Friday's rain-soaked series opener at Thunderbird Park.
Five of UBC starter
Tavis Bruce's six innings of work were solid, but two walks in the second inning came back to haunt him thanks to Tannehill's double.
The short-handed offence, missing
Blake Carruthers and
Kevin Biro due to leg injuries, couldn't produce much against Austin Pentecost, who went seven strong for the Warriors. When the T-Birds got their big chance with the bases loaded and no out in the fifth inning, Pentecost got
Ryan Taylor to ground out, struck out
Matt Spillman, and got a little lucky that
Andrew Firth's frozen rope set its course straight for centre fielder Jordan Payne's glove.
"Really when you look at that game, giving up those two runs, it's those two walks that killed us," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "It was a good swing out of Tannehill, but it's the two walks that Tavis has to be able to avoid. We had our big inning chance in the fifth, bases loaded nobody out. Pentecost is a good pitcher and chances like that don't come along very often but we just couldn't get a good swing out of it, so when you go through the game, it's really giving up the two early runs and then not being able to take advantage of that fifth inning when we had the chance."
Billy Silvestri's sac fly in the fifth inning tacked on one more for the Warriors, and after both offences fell silent for a few innings, Casillas provided the exclamation mark for the Warriors with a three-run bomb to left off
Markus Fergusson. He was the only Warrior with a multi-hit performance, racking up three in the game.
Sebastian Wong had two of UBC's five hits filling in at centre field for Carruthers, who will miss the series along with Biro.
"With the bye next weekend its one of those things where we just want them to take the extra week because we need them at 100 per cent going down the stretch," McKaig said.
The T-Birds fall to 11-6 in the conference and 18-10 overall. LC State increases its lead atop the Cascades, now 12-4 in the conference and 22-8 overall.
The teams continue their series tomorrow with a doubleheader at Thunderbird Park, beginning at 1 p.m.
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