VANCOUVER - The Thunderbirds are in for another tough test on the road this week, as they head down to Salem, Ore. for a four-game set with the Corban University Warriors that will be crucial in deciding who ends up hosting the NAIA West Tournament.
UBC enters the week 23-9 overall and 14-6 in the conference, behind only Lewis-Clark State, who will bypass the NAIA West Tournament as hosts of the NAIA World Series. That means the 'Birds currently hold pole position in the race to host the West Tournament, but both Corban and the College of Idaho are hot on their trail at 13-7.
Only one conference series remains after this weekend, and for UBC, it's a date with the 1-35 Simpson Redhawks. Needless to say, if they can maintain their lead in the standings through this series with Corban, they will be in very good position to secure hosting rights for the tournament.
The T-Birds had their first losing series against the College of Idaho last week, dropping three of four games amid a stretch of uncharacteristically ineffective pitching. The 'Birds gave up double-digit hit totals in all four games and saw what had been the conference's leading ERA jump up over the 3.00 mark. They are now second in team ERA to none other than Corban, who held Oregon Tech to just four combined runs in their four-game set last week to whittle their ERA down to 3.07
But one bad weekend doesn't define a team, and especially not its pitching staff, considering that equates to just one outing per starter.
Conor Lillis-White still sports a microscopic 0.77 ERA, and the starting rotation is still one of the team's biggest strengths due to the impressive depth they can roll out from game one through game four. This weekend will be a great opportunity for the entire group to re-establish themselves against another very good team to get geared up for the playoff run.
Corban has two ace-calibre starters at the top of the rotation in Jacob Kopra and Austin Guzzon. Both have ERAs under 2.00 and opponent batting averages in the .170s. They are a combined 9-1 on the season, and Guzzon in particular boasts some major strikeout ability. But the situation for the other two games in a series has been a little less certain, as they have mixed and matched starters for those games, and sometimes employed a by-committee approach with their bullpen piecing together entire games. Obviously that approach has worked out quite well for them so far, but they have yet to face either of the top two hitting teams in the conference (UBC and LC State) to this point in the season, so the biggest tests are yet to come.
At the plate for UBC,
Kevin Biro continues to lead the pack as he has all season, but
Bruce Yari has been on a rampage lately too, launching his average up to .357 with a team-best .491 slugging percentage.
Sebastian Wong is also coming off an excellent weekend at the dish, and is now third on the team with a .345 average, which might earn him some more playing time going forward.
Corban is also a very solid offensive team, ranking third in team average at .285, just behind UBC. Looking at the individual numbers reveals a very interesting statistical distribution, ranging from Daniel Orr's conference-leading .401 average all the way down to one everyday starter at .200, and three semi-regular starters well below .200. Orr also leads the conference with 41 RBIs, and is second with a .611 slugging percentage and a .464 on-base percentage. The Warriors also have three other starters hitting .342 or better.
The top-heavy distribution of offensive talent shows up in the team's run production as well, as they have scored a total of 78 runs in the first two innings of games this year, which accounts for almost 40 percent of their total runs scored on the season. UBC, by comparison, has a relatively even distribution of runs per inning, and they have scored just over 20 percent of their total runs in the first two innings of games this year. So getting off to a good start in their games this weekend should go a long way for the 'Birds, but it will be much easier said than done.
