VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds and Corban Warriors split another well-pitched doubleheader on Sunday, with the Warriors taking game one 1-0 behind a complete game from Caleb Virtue, and the 'Birds getting even with a 9-0 win in game two at Thunderbird Park.
GAME 1 BOX SCORE /
GAME 2 BOX SCORE
The teams also split Saturday's twin bill, with UBC's
Alex Graham and Corban's Jacob Kopra each getting a complete game victory. The T-Bird offence went quiet against Kopra in game two, and that carried over to game three of the series on Sunday, when a combination of Virtue's command and Thunderbird Park's dimensions collaborated to hold them off the scoreboard entirely.
Virtue struck out three and allowed four hits and two walks to get the complete game, spoiling a 6.2 inning effort from UBC's
Jeremy Newton, in which he allowed no earned runs but still took the loss.
“We're starting to become a little inconsistent with the bats,” said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. “In the games where we're off, we're just not making adjustments through the game. The longer a guy is out there, you'd think you would have better at-bats against him later in the game and we just didn't do that in game one today.”
But the 'Birds didn't catch a lot of breaks offensively either. Every hard-hit ball seemed to be right at a fielder, and their best chances to score were a couple deep drives off the bat of
Jeremy Kral which probably would have cleared most fences, but ended up as long, loud outs at Thunderbird Park. His closest effort was a sixth-inning shot to right field with a man on base that forced Warriors right fielder Greg Romero to make a leaping catch at the top of the wall.
“In a normal park, both those balls that Kral hit are home runs, but those get caught because we're playing in a big park. And they also had some different defensive positioning that worked out really well for them,” said McKaig. “We had five or six one-or-two-hop ground balls that were really well hit but just right to those guys who were normally not positioned like that. So it was a disappointing game offensively, but could have looked a lot different if a few things went our way.”
The Warriors got their lone run in the first off a Jordan Johansen RBI single after a UBC error had extended the inning. That was all the offence they could muster against Newton or
Alex Webb, who worked the last 2.1 innings in relief.
The T-Birds ended up holding Corban scoreless for the last 17 innings of play in the series, as
Bryan Pawlina threw six shutout innings to get the win in game two, with
Conor Lillis-White and
Tavis Bruce combining to close the door.
The win moves Pawlina to 7-0 in his impressive freshman season, and drops his ERA under two.
“He's been such a pleasant surprise for us,” McKaig said of the 6'3” Courtenay, B.C. native. “We honestly didn't expect a ton out of Bryan this season when we recruited him. We liked him, but those types of kids usually take a couple years to find their way and figure things out. But we started him in the bullpen and he did a great job for us. With
Matt Thornton going down it opened up another starting spot and he's jumped in and taken advantage of it. We couldn't be happier with him and his performance this year.”
The 'Birds wasted little time turning the offence around in game two, scoring four runs in the second off a bases-loaded hit batter, a wild pitch, and a two-run single from
Sebastian Wong.
UBC tacked one more on in the third off an error, and posted another four-spot in the seventh inning, with three of the runs scoring on doubles from
Kevin Biro and
Austin Fruson.
Biro, Fruson, Wong, Popoff and Stewart all had two hits on the day to lead the UBC offence. Derek Legg led the Warriors with a three-hit day.
The T-Birds are now 20-13 overall and 14-6 in the NAIA West standings. That has them in line for the top seed at the NAIA West tournament, running May 1-3 at Concordia University in Portland.
At 25-19 overall and 10-14 in the conference, the Warriors put themselves in a good spot to secure one of the final playoff spots too. They are currently in the fifth and final spot with 7-13 Oregon Tech in pursuit, holding an extra four games in-hand.
Oregon Tech will be UBC's next stop after a non-conference tilt with Thompson Rivers on Tuesday. The 'Birds will play doubleheaders at Oregon Tech on April 20 and 21, needing only one win to officially lock up a playoff spot.
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