VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds shrugged off their injury troubles on Saturday to sweep a doubleheader against the Concordia Cavaliers in Portland, edging them 2-0 in a 10-inning game one and taking game two 9-3.
Without their starting middle infielders or centre fielder, and still missing veteran catcher
Greg Densem since the start of the season, the 'Birds have shown some character on the road this weekend with three straight wins to start their series against the Cavs.
Game one was scoreless after nine innings, as
David Otterman had his best start of the year, allowing just one hit with nine strikeouts over eight innings of work.
Larsen Kohler was great for the Cavaliers as well, still on the mound into the tenth inning, but the UBC offence finally broke through in the extra frame on a
Mike Hole triple.
Hole's shot to left field was originally caught by Jimmy Sanchez, but he was unable to control the ball completely and it popped out of his glove as he dove and hit the ground, allowing
Nick Senior and Jarod Bartnik to score.
Conor Lillis-White maintained the shutout for the ninth and tenth in relief of Otterman to earn the win.
Tavis Bruce got the start for UBC in game two but struggled, walking four and giving up two runs on five hits before
Nathan Kirby took over in the third.
Kirby gave up another run in the fourth before settling down to finish the final 6.1 innings of the game, allowing just one run on five hits to keep the 'Birds within striking distance, and the offence finally came through in the fifth innning with help from some shaky defense.
After
Cam Firth and
Ryan Taylor started the inning with singles, Bartnik and
Sebastian Wong both reached base on errors to bring home the first run of the frame.
Senior then cashed Taylor in on an RBI groundout, and another error on
Andrew Firth's grounder to third base allowed Wing to score, making it 4-3 UBC.
That wasn't the end of the miscues though, as a throwing error on a pickoff attempt allowed Bartnik to score and moved Firth up to third. Finally, Hole brought Firth home on a sac fly to make it five runs on two hits and four errors in the frame.
The 'Birds tacked on three more in the ninth on an RBI triple from Senior and RBI singles from
Andrew Firth and
Austin Fruson.
UBC improves to 20-13 overall and 13-9 in the conference, while the Cavs fall to 19-22 and 11-15.
The teams wrap up their series with game four on Sunday at 11 a.m.
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