Victoria, Texas - The UBC Thunderbirds live to play another day, defeating Cal.State-San Marcos 4-3 Thursday afternoon in the double knockout Association of Independent Institutions (AII) conference tournament in Victoria, Texas. Alana Westerhof led the way for the 'Birds with a double, a triple and three RBI.
BOX SCORE
Ranked number four in the NAIA coming into this week's conference tournament, many expected Cal.State-San Marcos to cruise through the competition after a 40-8 regular season. However, they lost their opening game to LSU Alexandria and were moved to the loser side of the double knockout tournament against UBC. The Thunderbirds were coming off a 11-0 trouncing of Ashford University only hours earlier and were looking to continue their hot play.
Tied at 3-3 going into the bottom of the fifth inning the 'Birds came up with a crucial two-out rally to score what would prove to be the game winning run. Cassandra Dypchey hit a single, then Alana Westerhof hammered a RBI double to deep right centre field to give UBC their first lead of the game and Westerhof her third run batted in of the afternoon. From their Nicole Day and the defence would shut the Cougars down, clinching a 4-3 victory. After a slow start on day one, the 'Birds knew there was nothing lose on Thursday.
"We were ready to play today," said head coach Phil Thom. "In this game, our pitching, hitting and defence all came together. We knew their ranking, but we also knew we could go with them because we lost 1-0 earlier this year and two years ago we had a late lead before losing to them. I credit our great defense and timely hitting for the victory."
UBC got off to a tough start, surrendering two runs in the top of the first inning. Alex Miller hit a two run single with none out to get the Cougars on the board. Fortunately, the Thunderbirds were able to settle down and get out of the inning without anymore damage.
The Thunderbirds did respond in the bottom of the inning. Dychey followed up a Brittany Meyer single with a RBI double to cut the lead to 2-1 after one inning of play.
In the third, the Cougars would make it 3-1 taking advantage of a Nicole Day throwing error to go ahead by two, but once again UBC would have an answer in the bottom of the inning. Westerhof hit her third triple of the day (2 in the morning game, 1 in the afternoon game) scoring Meyer and Dypchey to tie the game at 3-3.
"All of sudden Cassandra and Alana have started to find their groove for us, getting clutch hits with runners in scoring position," said Thom. "We will need that again tomorrow if we hope to keep winning."
Westerhof was swinging a hot bat all day long. Combined in the two games on Thursday she finished 4-for-7 with a double, three triples, and five RBI.
After giving up two runs in the first inning, Day settled down going the distance. She gave up just five hits while striking out three hitters.
UBC will now take on LSU Alexandria in another elimination game Friday morning at 8:00 am PST. If they win they will move on to the final against the host University of Houston-Victoria. In that case, they will have to beat UHV twice, so if the Thunderbirds want to go home with the AII conference banner tomorrow they will need to win three games.
The Thunderbirds have never played LSU Alexandria.
