VANCOUVER - Rejuvinated by the return of top hitter
Blake Carruthers and a string of six victories in their past eight conference games, the UBC Thunderbirds will finish the regular season this weekend at Patten looking to secure a favourable seed for the regional playoffs.
The T-Birds and Lions will square off in Oakland, California for doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. and 11 a.m. respectively.
UBCThunderbirds
24-16 overall, 17-11 conference
Last week: W 5-3, W 3-1, W 5-0, L 6-4 vs Oregon Tech
Although they still have more than their share of injuries to deal with, getting
Blake Carruthers back has to be an encouraging boost for the 'Birds as they gear up for the playoffs. The centre fielder is leading the team with a .374 average and eight stolen bases, making him a big catalyst for the offence, and his gold glove-calibre defence in the outfield will become more and more important as the 'Birds start to run up against some of the heavy-hitting squads they will see in the playoffs.
Andrew Firth has been a steady contributor all season on both sides of the ball as well, hitting .331 with a team-leading 39 RBI while anchoring the hot corner with aplomb for the early part of the year. He's proved to be a valuable and versatile infielder in recent weeks especially, moving to second base when
Kevin Biro and
Matt Spillman went down with injuries.
Speaking of steady,
Sebastian Wong has quietly moved up to fourth on the team in batting average, hitting just shy of .300 for the year while filling in at centre field in Carruthers' absence as well as playing some DH.
Nick Senior seemed to regain the power stroke that had him swatting well over .400 early in the year, belting two triples and a double last weekend to pick up a few key RBIs. He has 36 on the year, and his five homers still lead the team despite not adding to that total in several weeks. He looks locked-in enough to be a serious longball threat this weekend and going forward into the playoffs though.
On the bump,
David Otterman had one of his best starts of the year last time out. He was pulled after six scoreless innings to save him for his next two starts, which will both be on short rest, but he looked under control and threw with excellent velocity to bring his ERA under three for the season.
Danny Britton-Foster also had another good start in his final home outing as a T-Bird, and continues to lead the starters with a 2.71 ERA on the year.
As for the bullpen,
Nathan Kirby had a couple great bounce-back appearances against Oregon Tech after blowing a save against NCAA Seattle University in a midweek game. He held the Owls scoreless for the five innings he was on the mound last week, and head coach
Terry McKaig said he could be a very valuable reliever come playoff time because of his ability to handle big workloads on the mound.
Patten University Lions
12-26 overall, 8-19 conference
Last Week: L 13-2, L 17-0, L 7-4, L 5-0 at Lewis-Clark State
The Lions will not be making an appearance in the regional tournament, but they still have motivation this weekend to avoid the Cascade Conference basement, as they are currently a game up on Simpson University in the standings.
They appeared to have life in the playoff race a few weeks back when they swept that Simpson team in a four-game series, but going 1-7 over their next eight games killed any chance they had of a postseason run.
Those eight games were against LC State and the College of Idaho, who have been making everyone's lives miserable this season, so it wasn't exactly a typical stretch of the schedule for the Lions. Still, being outscored by a combined 52 runs in that stretch doesn't look good, and the Lions should be hungry to end the season on a happier note.
The pitching hasn't been great, but hitting is where the Lions have really fallen apart this year. Their team average of .231 is more than 30 points below the next-worst hitting team in the Cascades, and as a result they are scoring well under four runs a game while no other team scores less than five.
Jesse Madrid leads the team with a .292 average, and David Whiteside is the main run-producer, with 18 RBI and a couple homers on the year.
Starting pitcher Isaac Duran is actually having a solid year, posting a 3.23 ERA in 75.1 innings of work. He has five complete games under his belt this season. No other Lions pitcher has a sub-4.00 ERA or more than 45 innings though, so it's been largely a one-man show on the mound for Patten.
