VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds took advantage of a miscue in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday to take game one of their series with the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls 4-3 at Thunderbird Park for their seventh straight conference win. Game two was of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed until Sunday due to rain.

UBC starter Sean Callegari went eight strong, handing a 2-1 lead to the bullpen in the ninth, but the Owls finally put some offense together against Matt Thorton. After he struck out the first batter he faced, the Owls rattled off three straight singles to load up the bases, and Ryan Grant's groundout to short scored the tying run. Oregon Tech then took the lead when Aaron Bocchi took home on a wild pitch.

But the 'Birds kept fighting in the bottom of the ninth, eventually capitalizing on a defensive mistake by the Owls. Tyson Popoff led off by getting hit by a pitch, and Kevin Biro hit a one-out single to put runners on first and second for Tyler Enns. He looped a single into left-centre field, which looked to be enough for Popoff to score the tying run for second anyways. But the throw from Josh Devaughn went toward second base behind Biro, who had taken a wide turn around the bag, except nobody was home at second to field the throw, and it rolled all the way past first base and into foul territory near the UBC dugout, allowing Biro to come all the way around to score the winning run.

Callegari gets the tough no-decision after eight innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits an one walk, with six strikeouts. Thornton gets the blown save but also the win, going one inning and allowing two runs on three hits, with one strikeout.

Austin Taylor went six for the Owls, allowing two runs on six hits and five walks, with four strikeouts. The damage could have been a lot worse against him, but he danced out of trouble quite a bit, stranding multiple runners on base in three different innings. Raf Bell gets the loss for the Owls, allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits in 2.1 innings of work. 

UBC opened the scoring in the second inning, when Matt Spillman tripled and was brought home by Cam Firth's RBI single. The Owls struck back in the top of the third with a triple of their own from Marty Shanks, with Devaughn cashing him in via the bunt. And then in the bottom of the third it was yet another triple, this time from Bryan Arthur, that led to a Biro sac fly to make it 2-1 UBC.

Biro continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-4 day with an RBI. Spillman and Firth both went 2-for-3 with a walk.

UBC is now 15-5 overall and 7-2 in conference play. Oregon Tech is 9-18 and 4-5. The teams will play all three remaining games of the series on Sunday in a tripleheader beginning at 11 a.m. at Thunderbird Park.