VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds have won eight of their last nine games, and they have a great opportunity to keep rolling on the road this week against the struggling Simpson University Red Hawks in Redding, Calif.

GAME TIMES
Saturday, March 30
12 p.m. - UBC at Simpson (doubleheader)

Sunday, March 31
1 p.m. - UBC at Simpson (doubleheader)
 
UBC Thunderbirds (15-9 overall, 9-3 conference)
Last Week: L 3-0, W 9-0, W 8-2, W 8-2 vs College of Idaho
 
The T-Birds have been on a tear at the plate recently, scoring at least eight runs in seven of their last nine games, and hitting .312 as a team. And nobody has been hotter than senior third baseman Andrew Firth, who now has a share of the team RBI lead with 21 to go with his .429 average, which is good for third in the conference.
 
Kevin Biro shot up the team stat leaderboards after a big weekend returning from injury. He was 6-12 in the series, putting him third on the squad behind Firth and Tyson Popoff with a .361 average. He also added his second homer of the season in the series finale last week.
 
The pitching hasn't been quite as solid, but it's also trending upward after strong outings from freshmen Jeremy Newton and Brian Pawlina. Newton brought his ERA down to 2.93 after allowing no runs and only one hit in seven innings against Idaho. For Pawlina, it was his first start after making nine appearances out of the bullpen this season, but he looked just as comfortable as ever, allowing no earned runs and lowering his ERA to 1.50.
 
Pawlina, like many of UBC's pitchers, has walk numbers that skew a little higher than coach Terry McKaig would like. So far that hasn't come back to bite him very often, which probably has a lot to do with his impressive .134 opponent batting average, but limiting those free passes is priority one for him and much of the staff going forward.
 
Simpson University Red Hawks (1-24 overall, 0-12 conference)
Last Week: L 12-3, L 7-1, L 5-2, L 2-0 at Concordia
 
The Red Hawks have not been very competitive offensively this year, hitting a conference-low .223 as a team, but the bigger problem has been their completely ineffective pitching. The team ERA of 9.81 is more than five runs higher than any other Cascade Conference squad, and opponents are hitting for a .375 average against the Hawks.
 
No Red Hawks starter has an ERA under six,and while relievers Alex Lee and Nickolas Mikkelsen have managed to put up respectable numbers in about 31 combined innings, they don't end up meaning much because they don't get many leads to protect with the offence averaging less than three runs per game.
 
Jonathan Ruiz leads the offence with a .304 average and the team's only home run. But patience isn't a virtue he or any other Red Hawks hitter seems to have. Ruiz, Richard Asdourian and Jordan Eads are the top three hitters on the team, and they have one walk between the three of them in a combined 156 at bats this year.