VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (31-14, 21-11) closed out the regular season in fine fashion with eight different batters driving in runs for a 14-6 win over the College of Idaho 'Yotes (21-28, 14-18) Sunday at Wolfe Field in Caldwell, Idaho.
The 'Birds put up five runs in both the first and fourth innings while getting solid work out of another young starter in
James Bradwell who picked up his first win of the season.
"Hitting's so contagious, it's definitely something that seems to come and go and had eluded us the last couple weekends so to see some guys that had been struggling a bit to find their stroke is really encouraging going into next weekend," said UBC head coach
Chris Pritchett after a successful rebound from a tough start to the series on Friday.
The final game of the regular season started out with a bang for UBC, and disaster for the 'Yotes. College of Idaho starter Jake Eddy had control issues from the get go hitting his first two batters putting
Anthony Olson and
Vinny Martin on base. After
Braeden Allemann earned a walk to load the bases,
John Whaley was walked to bring in UBC's first run of the day.
That proved to be enough for Eddy who was retired after just a third of an inning with Drew Klassen coming in from the bullpen. Klassen got
Anthony Cusati to fly out to right centre field that allowed
Tyler Yorko to score. A
Brendan Rose single and a
Nick Spillman double allowed three more runs to score before the 'Yotes were finally able to end the inning with the 'Birds up 5-0.
UBC kept the bats going their next half inning when Olson hit a lead off double. Martin followed up with an RBI single to left field.
Olson got to the plate for the third time in the top of the third where he got his second hit of the day scoring Spillman from third to make it a 7-0 'Birds lead but UBC was far from done.
After
Zach Prisciak hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth, Martin drove home his second run of the day making it a 10-0 T-Birds lead. Yorko wanted in on the action too and promptly doubled to left centre field driving in two more runs.
The 'Yotes finally got on the board themselves in the bottom of the fourth scoring twice. C of I scored two more in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a Sam Grise two RBI single while the 'Yotes added another in the sixth.
If the 'Birds' lead was actually ever in doubt that was erased in the seventh when Rose hit a two RBI single on a full count to restore UBC's nine run margin.
C of I got one run back in the bottom of the ninth but that's all closer
Aidan Goodall allowed as the 'Birds picked up the series win and enter next weekend's conference championship tournament on a three-game win streak.
Bradwell went five innings strong allowing three earned runs on eight hits for his first win as a Thunderbird.
Brad Smith worked three innings of relief allowing just a single run on three hits. A total of eight UBC batters picked up at least a single RBI while Rose and Spillman each drove in three runs.
"We got a really solid start from
James Bradwell, he threw a lot of strikes and got out of a couple jams, a really good outing for him and solid to build off of," said Pritchett.
"We got really solid work from all our pitchers the last couple days. They took the ball, they weren't intimidated and there's a lot to build on."
The win caps off a very strong regular season for the 'Birds on both sides of the ball while UBC scored double digit runs for the fifth time.
UBC hosts the NAIA West Grouping Championship Friday, May 5th and Saturday, May 6th at Thunderbird Park as the T-Birds try to earn a spot in the NAIA Championship opening round of playoffs which begin May 16th.
