VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds baseball season concluded on Wednesday with an 8-4 loss to the Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) Blue Raiders in the Lawrenceville Bracket of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round. With the game tied 4-4, Lindsey Wilson scored four times in the final couple of innings to earn the victory.

After splitting yesterday's matchups, UBC needed to win the rest of its contests in Lawrenceville to get to the Avista-NAIA World Series.
  
Wednesday's elimination game was a back-and-forth affair, with UBC going ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. LWC second baseman Brandon Munoz's wild throw allowed UBC shortstop Kyle McComb (Surrey, B.C.) to reach base and left fielder John Whaley (Oakville, Ont.) to come home to break the scoreless tie.
 
The Blue Raiders replied immediately with a run of their own in the top of third, scored on a wild pitch with two outs.
 
The T-Birds regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out Whaley RBI single that scored centre fielder Tyler Enns (East St. Paul, Man.).
 
Just like in the third, Lindsey Wilson tied the game at 2-2 on a wild pitch in the fifth. The Blue Raiders then loaded the bases with two outs but UBC starting pitcher Connor Noble (Vancouver) induced a groundout from Munoz to end the threat.
 
For the third time in the contest, UBC took the lead, going ahead 3-2 in the bottom half of the fifth. McComb led off with a double down the left field line, and eventually crossed home plate on a fielder's choice RBI by designated hitter Lucas Soper (Vancouver).
 
Lindsey Wilson earned a lead for the first time with a pair of runs on three hits in the sixth inning. Dustin Woody drove in Ryan Harper with a single through the right side. Then Ray Gonzalez scored later in the inning on a wild pitch, the third Blue Raiders run on Wednesday to come across in such fashion.
 
Whaley drove in his second run of the day in the home half of the sixth to tie the game at 4-4. His hit through the hole at shortstop plated third baseman Anthony Cusati (Burnaby, B.C.).
 
However, the Blue Raiders made a final push to take the game, taking a 5-4 advantage in the eighth on a fielder's choice play where the runner from second scored.
 
Three more runs in the ninth put the proceedings out of reach for UBC. An error and a double led to the first Lindsey Wilson run of the inning. The Blue Raiders made it 7-4 on a Victor Nazario single and 8-4 on a Harper sacrifice fly.
 
Whaley led the way for UBC with three hits and two runs batted in.
 
Noble gave up four runs is six innings of work, while Tyler Gillies (London, Ont.) threw the final three in relief and ended up taking his first loss of the season.
 
UBC finishes the 2015-16 campaign – the first with Chris Pritchett as head coach – with a record of 39-22, including a 23-12 mark in NAIA West Grouping play.
 
Starting pitcher Alex Webb (Surrey, B.C.) was named the NAIA West Pitcher of the Year for the second season in a row, and he was joined on the all-NAIA West Grouping Team by fellow pitchers Noble, Gillies and Curtis Taylor (Port Coquitlam, B.C.), and first baseman Bruce Yari (Waterloo, Ont.).
 
Yari and centre fielder Enns also picked up conference Gold Gloves for their defensive prowess.

Three players - Enns, Jeremy Newton (Toronto) and Alex Webb (Surrey, B.C.) - finshed their collegiate careers with the conclusion of UBC's season on Wednesday.

Webb is tied for first on UBC's all-time victories list with Jeff Francis and Doug Grant. With 257 strikeouts, he is also second to Francis on the career leaderboard. Newton is third in innings pitched all-time with 272.2 while Webb is fifth with 261.2. Enns is fourth in stolen bases with 31 and fifth in triples with 10.