VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds wound up on the wrong side of a pitchers' duel in their first game of the NAIA West Regionals against Menlo, losing 2-1 down in Portland to send them into the losers' bracket early. They now need five straight wins to take the tournament.
BOXSCORE
David Otterman was on the hill for UBC and was tough to hit, but he struggled with control at times and that proved to be just enough for the Oaks to scratch out a win.
Walks turned into runs in the first and seventh innings, and he gave up six free passes in total in his seven innings of work.
For the Oaks, Joey Webb went the distance, allowing a single run on six hits and one walk.
Andrew Firth made things interesting with an RBI single to score
Sebastian Wong in the eighth to cut the lead in half, but Webb stuck it out, throwing 139 pitches to get the complete game.
"A real tough loss today," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "You get into a tournament like this and you know the first two games are going to be tight given most teams have two good starters. Today was exactly that. Otterman struggled with command, and offensively we had chances in the last four innings with runners on but couldn't get a big hit against Webb."
Firth and Wong had two hits each, while
Blake Carruthers and
Nick Senior accounted for the other two knocks.
The T-Birds have to regroup quickly and prepare for what they hope will be an extremely busy day.
They take on Corban University at 9 a.m. with their season on the line. A win would see them play again at 3 p.m., and a win there would put them right back in action at 6 p.m. for a spot in Thursday's NAIA West Finals.
-30-
