VANCOUVER – The journey to the 59th Annual Avista-NAIA World Series has taken the UBC Thunderbirds baseball team to California.
 
For the second straight year, the Thunderbirds are taking part in Santa Clarita Bracket of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round. UBC has to win the five-team double elimination tournament this week in order to advance to the World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.
 
In all, there are nine Opening Round brackets, with the winner of each joining host Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) in the World Series field.
 
Third-seeded UBC (38-17) opens on Tuesday against the second-seeded Northwestern Ohio Racers (42-13) of Lima, Ohio, with the first pitch slated for 12 noon on Reese Field at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.
 
The fourth seed Vanguard (Calif.) Lions (34-20) play the No. 5 California State-San Marcos Cougars (36-15) at 9 a.m., with the winner advancing to face the host and top-seeded Mustangs of The Master's College (42-12).
 
Each school brings outstanding credentials to the Santa Clarita Bracket. Northwestern Ohio, which earned an at-large berth out of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, won the league's Coach of the Year and Pitcher of the Year honours, and had seven members on the all-conference team.
 
The Racers have the sixth-best team batting average in the entire NAIA at .341 and own the best team earned-run average (3.17) of all the squads in the Santa Clarita Bracket. They are ranked 13th nationally in the category.
 
UBC is tied for 104th (.280) and 17th (3.20) in those categories, respectively. The Thunderbirds boast NAIA West Pitcher of the Year in Alex Webb (Surrey, B.C.), who was joined on the All-NAIA West Group team by fellow starters Conor Lillis-White (Toronto) and Jeremy Newton (Toronto), closer Curtis Taylor (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and first baseman Bruce Yari (Waterloo, Ont.).
 
Webb led UBC with a 2.22 ERA through 81 innings and posted a 9-3 record, while Yari had a team-best .362 batting average and 39 runs batted in.
 
The top-ranked batting team in the Santa Clarita Bracket is CSU San Marcos, which owns a .350 average, third in the NAIA so far this season. The Master's owns NAIA's best fielding percentage at .977 while UBC is tied for third at .972.
 
Reese Field is a familiar place for the Thunderbirds. Earlier this season on February 18, they won 3-1 at the venue against The Master's. Starter Conor Lillis-White (Toronto) gave up a run and four hits on the day. UBC has not played any of the other teams in the bracket in 2014-15.
 
Last season, fifth-seeded UBC went 3-2 on Reese Field in the Opening Round, falling 2-0 to San Diego Christian in the final.
 
This year, the Thunderbirds earned a trip back to the Opening Round by claiming the NAIA West Grouping Championship in Portland, Ore., on May 4. They defeated the host Concordia (Ore.) Cavaliers 5-2 in the deciding game of the final. It was the fifth NAIA West title for head coach Terry McKaig's crew in seven years.
 
McKaig will coach in his last Opening Round tournament this week as he will move on from his role at the end of the season to become Director of Baseball at UBC.