LOS ANGELES – The UBC Thunderbirds won the opener of a three-game series at California State Los Angeles by a score of 8-6 in 12 innings Thursday night at Reeder Field.
UBC came back from deficits of 4-1 after three innings, and 5-3 after five, to take the win, which was aided by six Golden Eagles errors.
Mitch Robinson went 2-for-6 with four RBI and a home run for the Thunderbirds (4-4).
Lucas Soper went 3-for-5 with one run scored.
CUSLA's Jordan Peabody went 3-for-5 with one RBI, while Eli Orona was 2-for-5 with one run scored. Sean Watkins drove in a pair of runs.
Niall Windeler went six innings for the Thunderbirds and allowed nine hits and four earned runs.
Christian Botnick tossed two scoreless innings and
Braeden Allemann gave up three hits and one run over 1 2/3 innings.
Patrick van den Brink blanked the Golden Eagles on just one hit over the final 1 2/3 innings to pick up the win.
Photo by Rich Lam/UBC Thunderbirds
Joey Deceglie went the first five innings for the Golden Eagles and gave up five hits and three unearned runs. He walked three and struck out four. Nate Adams allowed two hits and two runs in the next two innings and George Alamillo allowed three hits and an unearned run in three solid innings. Kristopher Keach took a tough-luck loss, giving up a pair of runs - one earned - while not allowing a hit over the final two innings.
Watkins doubled in a pair of runs to highlight a four-run third inning for the Golden Eagles. Jorge Garcia drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly and Peabody singled in Watkins with the fourth run of the inning.
UBC made it 4-3 with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth, but Cal State LA got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Nate Alam reached on a two-out error, allowing Garcia to score.
Robinson hit his first home run of the season - a two-run shot to right center - to tie the game at 5-5 in the fifth. The score remained tied into the 10th. Robinson delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Thunderbirds a 6-5 lead in the top of the inning, but Noe Garcia singled in Grant Craddolph to tie it, but Nic Bereaud was thrown out at home as the potential winning run.
The Thunderbirds took advantage of three walks and an error to push across two runs in the 12th to win it.
Cal State LA will return to action on Friday at 6 p.m. with the second of three games against UBC.
