Lewiston, Idaho - The UBC Thunderbirds blew a four-run lead late in the game, falling to Concordia University 7-5 Saturday afternoon at the Lewis-Clark State College tournament in Lewiston, Idaho. The Cavaliers scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally from a 5-1 deficit and earn the victory. UBC falls to 1-2 on the season with the loss.
BOX SCORE
Down 1-0 in the second inning, the Thunderbirds scored a pair of runs off a Cavaliers throwing error. With two men on VIncent Ching dropped down a sacrifice bunt, which resulted in an overthrow at first and both
Kevin Biro and
Jeremy Kral scoring to give UBC a 2-1 lead through two innings.
The Thunderbirds added to their lead in the sixth inning, this time Ching doubled home
Greg Densem to extend UBC's lead to 3-1. Ching finished the day 2-for-3 with a RBI.
In the eighth inning, UBC scored two more runs off RBI singles from
Kevin Biro and
Jerod Bartnik to go ahead 5-1.
Unfortunatley, everything would come unravelled in the bottom of the inning.
Alex Graham, who started the game, got into trouble early. After giving up a lead off double, it was followed by a fielding error which resulted in a run, Graham would then give up back to back singles to load the bases. The next batter hit into a fielder's choice which scored the second run of the inning for the Cavaliers making it 5-3.
Miles Verweel came on in relief and immediately gave up a rbi single, cutting the lead to one. He then hit the next batter, before giving up a single and a walk that resulted in two more runs and Concordia taking a 6-5 lead.
Bryan Pawlina replaced Verweel and would get the last two outs, but not before throwing a wild pitch that allowed the Cavaliers to score one more run and lead 7-5 after eight innings. That would be your final score.
Despite the one tough inning, Graham was solid on the mound going 7.1 innings, allowing just seven hits, and three earned runs. He stuckout four while walking none.
Biro went 3-for-4 with a RBI, while Kral finished 2-for-2.
UBC will wrap the tournament tomorrow against the host Lewis-Clark State College at 11:00 am.
