The Matchup

The UBC Thunderbirds (31-14, 21-11) have home field advantage in this weekend's West Grouping Championship as they battle against two of their top rivals to earn a berth to the opening round of the NAIA playoffs.

The 'Birds will face both the second seeded College of Idaho 'Yotes (21-28, 14-18), and the third seed Oregon Tech Owls (18-27, 13-17) in round-robin action Saturday, May 6th at Thunderbird Park. The team with the worst record will be eliminated while the top two will face each other Sunday, May 7th for the West Grouping title.

The 'Birds are riding some momentum winning their last three in a row against the 'Yotes in Caldwell, Idaho last weekend while C of I will surely be looking for some revenge.



The T-Birds won the season series against the 'Yotes going 6-2 but struggled against the Owls going 3-5.

The weekend will begin at 10:00 a.m. PT Saturday with the 'Yotes facing the Owls while the 'Birds will open up play against College of Idaho at 1:00 p.m. PT. UBC will then face Oregon Tech at 4:00 p.m. PT.

If one team finishes round-robin play with a 2-0 record they will advance to the championship game Sunday against the 1-1 team. If all three teams finish the round-robin at 1-1, UBC will advance to the championship having earned the top seed while the 'Yotes and Owls will play an extra matchup to earn the second championship game berth.
 

Last Action

UBC and College of Idaho are no strangers to each other having just played the final regular season series in Caldwell last weekend. After dropping a continuation of a suspended game from March to begin the weekend, the 'Birds also lost the series opener on Friday. But UBC rebounded with a pair of wins Saturday and took the series finale by a 14-6 margin on Sunday.

Oregon Tech is coming off a bye week with their last series also against the 'Birds, two weeks ago in Vancouver. The Owls dropped the first two games on Saturday, April 22nd but earned the series split sweeping the 'Birds the following day.
 

By the Numbers

.
281 – UBC finished the regular season with a .281 team batting average. Scoring an average of 5.84 runs per game, the 'Birds had 22 across the plate in their last three games alone.



2.97 – Pitching was perhaps the 'Birds strongest, most consistent asset all season finishing with a conference leading 2.97 ERA. UBC also led the regular season in opposition batting average (.224) and walks allowed (2.64 per game).
 

Players to Watch

Mitch Robinson (#19, 3B) – The Surrey native had a tremendous season finishing with a .389 batting average to lead the entire NAIA West Grouping. Robinson led the T-Birds in slugging percentage (.570), hits (58), and RBI (39).



Vinny Martin (#40, 1B) – The veteran first baseman finished the season with a career high .315 batting average. Martin finished last weekend's series in Idaho with seven hits including his fourth home run of the season along with four RBI.
 

Coach's Take

There's no doubt the T-Birds are riding some positive momentum into the tournament, but UBC head coach Chris Pritchett says there are still things to work on and there's a big week of practice leading up to Friday.

"We'll need to clean some things up on the execution side, we'll need to be sound defensively to win this tournament and hopefully we can get some more solid pitching performances, I thought we threw the ball really well last weekend," said Pritchett who is trying to get his team to the NAIA championship opening round for a fourth straight season.

"We worked very hard to get to host this tournament. This was a goal when we started out so check that box and now we're working on trying to win it so we can get to regionals. We know it won't be easy but I think we'll be ready."



Having faced the Owls and 'Yotes in their last two series, there are no surprises when it comes to this weekend's opposition.

"We just played College of Idaho, we had very close games at home already so we know those will be tough games, they have very good starting pitching," said Pritchett.

"Oregon Tech played us tough all year and won the season series. We're happy to be the number one seed but we have very, very worthy opponents and it's going to take a big effort to be able to move on."