SURREY, B.C. — The UBC Thunderbirds (8-13, 12-19) suffered a tripleheader sweep at the hands of the No. 12 Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls (18-3, 32-11) Friday afternoon at Softball City.
The Owls had a relatively easy time with 11-5 and 14-3 wins, respectively, to start the rare triple bill, but the T-Birds put up a tremendous fight in the series finale. The game was tied 5-5 heading to the seventh where the Owls ended up plating the game winning run to complete their fourth straight conference series sweep.
Freshman pitcher
Shelby Kempel was solid on the mound for UBC, pitching a total of 14 innings for a total of 239 pitches. The 'Birds also saw two home runs, one from veteran
Claire Eccles to begin a big UBC comeback in the series finale, and a grand slam from junior
Cassa Courtney who finished the day with four hits, four runs, and five RBI.
"I am very proud, they're sending me away happy tonight because of the effort they put in and that's all you can ask for is the effort," said UBC head coach
Gord Collings after the intensely fought final game of the day. "They did it at the plate and in the field and Shelby was amazing. She kept them off-balance and did a real good job and we had some solid defence in the last game."
Game 1
The T-Birds got roughed up in the first inning to open the afternoon with the Owls scoring four runs on two hits.
In their half of the inning, UBC served notice that they wouldn't be deterred by the tough defensive half as Eccles hammered the ball to the right field fence for a leadoff triple. A
Taylore Jones bunt single and a
Mia Valcke walk loaded the bases with none out for Courtney who hit a first pitch grand slam, tying the game with one swing of the bat.
After the Owls went back in front by a single run in the top of the second, the 'Birds tied the game again in the bottom of the third when rookie
Nicole Salas hit an RBI single to centre, scoring
Emily Chorpita from second.
Oregon Tech went ahead once again with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth and added four more in the fifth to go up 11-5 while getting eight of their nine batters to the plate in the inning.
Down to their final out, the 'Birds managed to get runners on the corners with two down, but Oregon Tech's Ali Graham got
Sierra Sherritt to ground out.
Graham picked up her 12th win of the season allowing five earned runs on 11 UBC hits while Kempel was tagged with six earned runs on 13 OIT hits in the losing cause.
Game 2
Kaia Gyorfi got the call on the mound for the 'Birds for game two. After a two-run first by the Owls who scored another run to go up 3-0 in the top of the second, the freshman pitcher intentionally walked Graham to load the bases with one down. OIT scored another on an Andrea Sotelo sacrifice fly, then added two more runs on a fielding error and a Baylee Wyscaver RBI single.
The Owls loaded the bases again on a walk which scored a fourth run in the inning before a substitution error mercifully ended the frame with the visitors leading 6-0.
After holding the Owls scoreless the next two innings, the 'Birds got themselves on the board in the bottom of the fourth when catcher
Jordan Britten-Yung hit a sacrifice fly to bring Courtney across.
OIT restored their six-run lead in their half of the sixth and things got worse for the T-Birds in the seventh with seven Owls runs coming in.
UBC got two runs back in the final inning with
Logan Bailey hitting an RBI single down the right field line. Eccles then hit into a fielder's choice allowing another across but that's all the T-Birds managed.
Sarah Abramson earned the win for the Owls, going the complete game with two earned runs on six UBC hits with four strikeouts.
Game 3
Kempel took the mound for the second time of the day to start the final game of the tripleheader for UBC and went three-up, three-down in the first to set the tone for the 'Birds who aimed to salvage a win out of the long day at Softball City.
But for the third straight game, the Owls opened scoring, this time in the top of the second where some small ball helped get runners into position allowing Shayna Ige to score on a McKenna Armantrout RBI single. That was the start of what turned into a four run inning for the visitors.
In their half of the second, the 'Birds got two runners into scoring position after a Chorpita double to the right field fence. Two batters later,
Shaelyn Ogilvie grounded out to second allowing Courtney to score from third. Salas followed up with an RBI single as UBC cut their deficit in half.
Eccles hit the T-Birds' second home run of the day in the bottom of the third, a leadoff solo shot to right, to bring UBC within a run. The 'Birds' solid offensive play in the series finale kept rolling with a Courtney triple off the top of the left-centre fence, scoring Jones from second. Courtney was also able to score on an errant throw to third as the T-Birds took their first lead of the game, 5-4.
A Kiahna Brown single to left in the fourth allowed Armantrout to cross the plate, tying the game at five apiece.
With neither team able to break the tie through the next two innings, the game remained deadlocked heading into the seventh. In the top half, Oregon Tech had runners on second and third with one down when catcher Jacey Conklin brought in the go-ahead run with an infield single.
Facing the weekend sweep, the 'Birds battled in their half getting a pair of runners on base, but the Owls shut them down with Abramson striking out Courtney to end the game.
"When you know you can compete against the top teams you come out with an attitude that we can play and compete," Collings said following the gutsy T-Birds comeback in the final game against one of the top NAIA teams. "It's a huge thing for this time of the year and to carry that over into next year."
The T-Birds have now suffered seven straight losses while the Owls have now won 12 straight conference games.
Oregon Tech is back home to host the College of Idaho 'Yotes next weekend while the T-Birds visit the Carroll College Fighting Saints for a pair of doubleheaders next Friday and Saturday.
