VANCOUVER - After losing another wild front end of a doubleheader 12-11, the UBC Thunderbirds bounced back for a 13-3 win in the nightcap on Sunday against the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls to take three of the four games in the series in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
GAME 1 BOX SCORE /
GAME 2 BOX SCORE
The Owls went up 3-1 after a three-run homer from Dylan Rogers in the first inning, but UBC starter Jeremy Netwon managed to settle in and hold them scoreless over the next four innings while his team built a lead.
The 'Birds tied it up in the third on sac flies from
Kevin Biro and
Andrew Firth, and
Jeremy Kral popped the Owls with his own three-run bomb in the fifth to put UBC up 6-3. RBI singles from
Tyson Popoff and
Jerod Bartnik in the sixth made it 8-3.
But the Owls got their offence going again in the sixth, when Tyler Conklin's two-run single ended Newton's scoreless run to make it 8-5 and chase him from the game.
They tagged reliever
Connor Smith with another two runs in the seventh, and after a four-run rally in the eighth off Miles Verwheel capped off by another Rogers homer, the Owls led 11-9.
It looked like the 'Birds were going to steal another wild one at the last minute, as
Aaron Horanski came up with a clutch two-out, two-run single in the ninth to tie the game at 11. But Dustin Norman left off the ninth with a double, moved over to ninth on a groundout, and scored the walk-off run on a wild pitch.
Jeremy Kral's three-hit, four-RBI performance was spoiled, but it didn't seem to dampen his spirits, as he started game two with another three-run shot in the first inning to get the UBC offence out of the gate quickly.
This time, the 'Birds made sure to pile on heavily with the offence. They added another five runs in the second inning and one in the third to lead 9-0 behind
Bryan Pawlina on the mound, who's attempt to improve to 8-0 on the season seemed like a foregone conclusion after that outburst. He got the job done, going seven innings and allowing two runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts.
Mike Hole had four hits in game two to finish 6-10 on the day.
Brody Hawkins was 4-5 in game two with his first home run of the season. Popoff had three hits in each game to go 6-10. Firth was 5-10 with five RBIs and Kral was 4-6 with eight RBIs.
UBC is now 23-14 overall and 17-7 in the conference. They are guaranteed at least a top-two seed for the NAIA West Tournament in two weeks. Next week they wrap up the regular season with a four-game set on the road against Lewis-Clark State.
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