Klamath Falls, Ore. - The Thunderbirds weren't expecting things to be easy in Klamath Falls. The UBC baseball team (37-18, 23-12 NAIA W) needed three wins over the four game series versus Oregon Tech (17-38, 8-27 NAIA W) to finish second in the NAIA West and clinch a home playoff date.  After dominating the double header Saturday, UBC squeaked out a split of the two games Sunday to get the job done.
 
Tyler Gillies (London, Ont.) pitched the final three innings in the second game to preserve the 5-4 victory, earning the biggest save of his young career.  It was a pressure packed situation for the right-handed closer, after UBC dropped the opener on the day to the Hustlin' Owls 4-3.
 
Gillies gave up two singles in the bottom of the ninth, but then struck out two batters and got Oregon Tech's final hitter to ground out to second. He had taken over for UBC starter Curtis Taylor (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), who gave up four runs over six innings and ended up with his ninth, and most important victory so far this season.


 
UBC's offense did all its damage in the third and fourth innings.  In the third both Lucas Soper (Vancouver) and Vinny Martin (Pender Island, B.C.) clutched up with RBI singles. In the fourth inning Mike Orosz (Vancouver) and Kyle McComb  (Surrey, B.C.) scored on wild pitches by Oregon Tech starter Tyler Bennett.


 
With the win UBC was awarded hosting duties for the NAIA West Grouping Championship. All games will be played at Thunderbird Park starting Friday, May 6^th at 10am.
 
The TBirds will be the second seed in the tournament and face the number three seed College of Idaho Friday at 1pm. Lewis-Clark State is the number one seed after winning the NAIA West. They deferred hosting duties, as they are the defending NAIA World Series Champions.