VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (14-8, 20-18) were handed their first loss at the new Thunderbird Park as they settled for the split with the fourth-ranked Lewis-Clark State Warriors (15-2, 25-6) Friday.
UBC won their 10th straight game with a 7-6 victory in the first half of the doubleheader, just the Warriors' second conference loss all season while snapping LC's 12 game win streak. But the three-time defending NAIA champions rebounded with a convincing 14-2 win.
"We split the doubleheader and that's a good start, we got two more games and a chance to win the series and that's where we'll focus," said UBC head coach
Chris Pritchett who saw the Warriors take full advantage of some mistakes in the second game. "A couple innings we didn't make a play and the floodgates opened. We just got too far behind but we kept grinding and nobody quit, it just goes like that sometimes."
Game One
Niall Windeler took the mound for his second start of the season against the Warriors. The junior lefty found himself in trouble with runners on second and third and one out in the top of the second. Riley Way flied out to right but scored Makana Victorine from third as the Warriors took a 1-0 lead.
Windeler managed to get himself out of the inning without any further damage and in their half, the 'Birds got back to back singles from
Austen Butler and
Jaxon Valcke to get their own offence rolling.
Justin Orton then hit one up the middle and Butler got on his horse beating the tag at the plate to even the score at one.
Anthony Cusati brought in two more Thunderbird runs with a perfectly placed double down the right field line.
Jake Lanferman then drove home Valcke with a single to right.
The rout continued with a
Braeden Allemann flare to left scoring Lanferman as the 'Birds put up five runs in the inning that saw 10 batters come to the plate.
Lewis-Clark starting pitcher Kade Woods settled down after the second following up with two shutout innings and striking out three.
Windeler, meanwhile, continued to cruise holding the Warriors off the board in his next four innings of work. He allowed his first hit in three innings when Way hit a leadoff single in the seventh. After getting Raymond Pedrina to pop out, Cusati was called for catcher's interference putting Kasey Bailey on first with one out.
Cory Voss then hit an RBI single up the middle to cut into the T-Bird lead. Windeler then got Tyler McDowell looking for his fifth strikeout. But with two down, Darren Trainor singled down the left field line scoring Bailey to cut UBC's lead to two.
The 'Birds decided to bring
Patrick van den Brink in from the pen after Windeler went 6.2 strong allowing three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts. Van den Brink got the T-Birds out of the inning by striking out Victorine.
UBC got their four-run lead right back in their half of the inning when
Austen Butler hit his third home run of the season over the left field wall.
Still down by four and down to their last three outs, the Warriors got back-to-back doubles from Bailey and McDowell to come within three.
UBC went back to the bullpen bringing in Allemann to try to close out the 'Birds' 10th straight win. It looked as though the senior got LC to ground out into the game ending double play, but
Kyle McComb was charged with an error at second base as McDowell scored with everyone safe.
Joey Parente came in as a pinch hitter and got the Warriors within one thanks to an RBI single. With the bases loaded and one down, Allemann got Way to strikeout bringing Pedrina to the plate. A wild pitch pressed Mason Verge to try to steal home for the game-tying run but Cusati recovered the ball and got it to Allemann covering the plate for the game-ending tag.
Game Two
The visitors started the second half of the doubleheader in style when Voss hit a two-out, solo home run off UBC starter
Brad Smith.
The 'Birds got the run back in the bottom half when Allemann hit a double to left field scoring
Mitch Robinson all the way from first.
The game was tied at one heading to the second but from there on in it was all Warriors.
Up 4-1 after five, LC tacked on another run in the sixth when Pedrina drove the ball to left. That got UBC's bullpen active with two runners on and none out and soon Christian Botnik entered the game for the 'Birds with one down. Voss chopped the ball to short and managed to beat the throw to first while another run crossed the plate.
The LC runs kept coming with the visitors putting up a total of seven in the frame to stake out an 11-1 lead.
Valcke did give the home crowd something to cheer about in the bottom of the seventh with a solo homer to right, his third of the season.
LC's Tyler Burch picked up the win with zero earned runs on just four hits through five innings. Smith was tagged with the loss allowing seven earned runs on five hits with one strikeout through five and a third innings of work.
"Our pitchers are going to have to come out, they're going to have to work ahead of these guys, keep them off balance and we're going to have to make plays behind them, we know that," said Pritchett. "They're a good team, we know we have to play our best. We didn't play our best in the second game and they took care of us pretty good there."
UBC will be right back at it as the series continues Saturday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. PT. The series finale will go Sunday at 11:00 a.m. PT.
