SURREY, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds swept a doubleheader against the Northwest (Wash.) Eagles Tuesday at Softball City in Surrey, B.C., with hurler Lindsey Ogilvie (Surrey, B.C.) throwing every pitch in a pair of complete-game victories.
 
UBC (9-16, 7-9 Cascade Conference) opened with a 13-2 triumph in five innings and then posted a 4-1 win in the second game against Northwest (8-20 / 3-13).

"I don't know how much of an influence it had, but I think Big Block had a lot to do with it, the motivational stuff that was going on there," said UBC head Gord Collings of the school's 95th annual awards banquet. "They came out today, and they were really pumped after seeing themselves and the other teams on that video, so I think Big Block really motivated them to come out today and say 'Hey, let's play – we're T-Birds today.' I was pleased."
 
The Thunderbirds' offence exploded for 10 runs in the first two innings of the opener.
 
Shaelyn Ogilvie (Surrey, B.C.) got UBC on the board with a 2-RBI double down the left field line to score Lindsay Ogilvie and Shayla Kaplen (Richmond, B.C.) in the bottom of the first.
 
Then in the second, the hosts sent 13 batters to the plate, recording eight runs on five hits, a couple of walks and an error.
 
With the bases loaded, senior second baseman Quinn Dhaliwal (Delta, B.C.) made it 3-0 after coming home on a fielder's choice. Kaplen drove in shortstop Olivia Priestlay (Delta, B.C.) on the next play with a single. Lindsey Ogilvie was then hit by a pitch before Shaelyn Ogilvie single to left centre plated both Kaplen and Paige Harbord (Delta, B.C.).
 
Both Ogilvies then scored on a fielding error before right fielder Mackenzie Siddall's (Windsor, Ont.) single allowed third baseman Montana Turnovitski (Langley, B.C.) to come home and make it 10-0 for UBC.
 
The teams traded runs in the third, with Shaelyn Ogilvie getting an RBI on a sacrifice fly to left field.
 
In the fourth, Lindsey Ogilvie knocked a single up the middle to score Priestlay and catcher Hillary Strelau (Richmond, B.C.). She also earned the win as she pitched all five innings, giving up just one earned run while striking out six.
 
Shaelyn Ogilvie finished the game with five runs batted in, while Lindsey had three.
 
In Game 2, the T-Birds came out strong on offence, going up 2-0 after the first inning. Both runs were scored on errors by Northwest players.
 
In the third inning, Shaelyn Ogilvie doubled to left field to score Lindsey to make it 3-0. UBC went up by four runs in the fourth after a Harbord single plated Priestlay.
 
Northwest replied in the top of the fifth as catcher Courtney Cox led off with a solo home run to centre field. Then Danielle Bonsky reached on an error. A sacrifice bunt on the next play allowed her to move to third with just one out. The next batter, Courtney Heard, hit a fly ball into left field that looked like it would fall in for a hit but UBC's Harbord made a sliding catch along the foul line and then quickly got up and threw the ball to second to get the out on Bonsky, who was trying to get back to the base.
 
"We played very well defensively, and that's the kind of thing that we can do," said Collings. "We work so hard on that in practice, and to see them come out and do it, it lifts the team up when they can make plays like that. The thing is, they're still so young – in the infield, we have two freshmen, a sophomore, and a senior, and that's it. For them to come through like that is huge."
 
In the top of the seventh, the Eagles had runners on second and third with two out. But Lindsey Ogilvie induced a groundout to third to finish the game. She surrendered just one run and four hits in seven innings of work. With the two wins on Tuesday, she improved to 6-9 on the season.
 
"She kept Northwest off-balance, she got the outs that we were looking forward to seeing from her – the ground ball outs she gets – and she fought back a number of times," said Collings. "Whenever she got behind in the count, she fought back and took charge. She did everything that I hoped she would do, plus she hit well, too."
 
Lindsey Ogilvie led UBC with a couple of hits in Game 2, as well as a run batted in.
 
The T-Birds are a game behind Corban for the final playoff spot in the West Division of the Cascade Collegiate Conference. The two teams will face off in Salem, Ore., in a doubleheader on Friday, starting at 2 p.m. UBC will then move to Eugene, Ore., for a pair of outings at Northwest Christian on Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m.