VANCOUVER - The nightcap of Saturday's scheduled doubleheader was pushed back to Sunday due to rain, but the one game that the UBC Thunderbirds and Lewis-Clark State Warriors did manage to get in looked like a copy of Friday's tilt, as the Warriors held a slim advantage for most of the contest until Alfonso Casillas helped them break down the door in the ninth for an 8-2 win.
On Friday, the 'Birds failed to capitalize on a bases loaded and no outs situation when the game was still close before Casillas' three-run bomb put it away in the ninth. On Saturday, the 'Birds had two more shots with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh and eighth, down 3-2, but again they came up empty and again Casillas made them pay with a two-run single in the ninth to open the flood gates for the Warriors.
David Otterman went six innings for the T-Birds but was hurt by two-out hits, which accounted for all three runs he gave up. Billy Silvestri had an RBI single in the first, and he doubled in the fourth before coming around to score on Aaron DeGuire's two-out single.
Casillas' first big hit of the day came in the fifth. After Otterman sat down the first two hitters, he walked Trent Bridges and then ran the count up to 3-0 on Casillas, who got the green light and made the most of it with a double down the right field line to score Bridges from first.
UBC responded in the bottom of the fifth, when a would-be double play turned into a run thanks to an errant throw to first on the turn.
They added another run in the seventh with their first bases loaded no outs opportunity on a fielder's choice off the bat of
Andrew Firth, but Terik Gofinch got
Nick Senior to fly out and
Jerod Bartnik to ground out to end the threat with no further damage.
Gofinch got into trouble again in the eighth, hitting two batters and giving up a double to
Sebastian Wong to load the bases again with no outs, but Sal Arena came in to preserve the one-run lead beautifully, striking out
James Stewart and getting
Ryan Taylor to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.
Casillas hit a bases-loaded single to cash in the first two runs of a five-run ninth inning for the Warriors. He now has five hits and six RBI through the first two games of this series.
Senior and Taylor both had two hits for the T-Birds, and leadoff man
Matt Spillman had three walks on the day.
The T-Birds fall to 18-11 overall and 11-7 in the Cascade Conference standings, while the Warriors move up to 23-8 overall and 13-4 in the conference.
The teams will wrap up their series with a doubleheader on Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m.
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