VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds lost their NAIA baseball season opener 5-4 to the Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions in San Diego on Thursday afternoon.

The host Sea Lions, an NCAA Division II squad, scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning on a wild pitch to finish off a comeback from a two-run deficit.

Ryan Garcia led off the inning by drawing a walk and after a steal he moved to third base with one out on a grounder by Marcus Heisner. Lucas DiCiccio then proceeded to strike out but as he swung at the third pitch it hit the dirt and scooted by the catcher allowing Garcia to sprint home with the eventual game-winning run.

Preston Sands and Joseph Keller each drove in two runs for the Sea Lions which erased a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning when Sands tripled in two runs and then scored on an RBI-ground out by Keller to give PLNU a 4-3 lead heading into the eighth.

UBC quickly put the pressure back on PLNU by putting their first two runners of the inning, Jerod Bartnik and Kevin Biro, on base. Left-handed pitcher Cole Chandler was brought into game. He walked Tyler Enns but gave up only a sacrifice fly to Thunderbirds catcher Brody Hawkins, which left the game tied 4-4 going into the bottom of the eighth.

PLNU opened the scoring in the third on an RBI-single by Keller before UBC took the lead in the top of the sixth. Bartnik doubled to right center to score Tyson Popoff, who had singled to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice moved Bartnik to third, he crossed home plate when Enns grounded out.

Second baseman Matt Spillman, who missed the entire 2013 season because of surgery, drove in outfielder Sebastian Wong in the top of the seventh to put UBC ahead 3-1. Wong was pinch running for Brendan Rose, who recorded his first hit as a T-Bird when he doubled down the right field line with two outs.

Biro went 2-for-3 at the plate while Popoff also got two hits on Thursday.

Sean Callegari got the start for UBC and gave up four runs in 6.1 innings of work. Reliever Alex Webb was tagged with the loss.

The Thunderbirds and Sea Lions will continue their three-game series on Friday, Feb. 14 with another single nine-inning contest. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. The series will conclude on Saturday, Feb. 15. The first pitch there is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Live statistics of the remaining two games can be found at: http://www.sidearmstats.com/pointloma/baseball/

- with files from Point Loma Nazarene Sports Information