VANCOUVER — A four-run first inning for the Sacramento State Hornets proved to be more than enough as they went on to defeat the UBC Thunderbirds 8-1 Wednesday night at Tourmaline West Stadium in the fourth game of the Collegiate Baseball Classic.
For UBC Wednesday, freshman starter Adam Maier made his first-ever college appearance and showed a good fastball and slider but fell victim to some aggressive Hornets hitters in the top of the first. The big blow was a two-run double off the bat of second baseman Keith Torres on a 3-1 count that made it 3-0 and they'd add another before the side was retired.
Maier would work a scoreless second and third inning before giving way to lefthander
Finnigan Duffield who allowed just one run in four innings of relief.
"When you throw a freshman into the deep end, really his first college game, against a (NCAA) Division I opponent, it's not an easy task," said UBC assistant coach
Sammie Starr of Maier. "I thought he handled himself incredibly well after giving up four runs in the first. He came back and battled his way through two more innings and putting up a couple zeros. I think he'll be just fine moving forward and it was nice to get his feet wet for sure."
Sacramento State added a run in the sixth off Duffield and tacked on three more in the eighth, all charged to Jacob Mahon who got into a jam with a couple of hit batters, a double and a walk.
Jack Caswell entered to a bases-loaded situation with nobody out but managed to escape allowing two inherited runners to score.
UBC spoiled the shutout in the bottom of the ninth with
Brett Corbeth doubling off the wall in left centre to score
Mike Fitzsimmons.
"The tournament's not over, so anytime we can get some momentum towards the end of the game to take into the next game is always great," said UBC junior outfielder
Jaxon Valcke. "We hit a lot of balls hard that got caught. It was just kind of the way it went tonight. There are some really good arms over there."
Sacramento State used three Canadian pitchers in the game, including starter Eli Saul who is a graduate of the UBC Thunder Premier League program and has a great deal of experience pitching at Tourmaline West Stadium. He pitched two innings and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first.
"Eli's been in our UBC family for three years now and it's always nice to see a kid like that succeed," said Starr. "He works really hard and he deserves everything that comes his way."
Saul gave way to Saskatoon native Connor Sparks for three innings who in turn handed the ball over to Kelowna product Carter Morris who worked two more. Trevor Adams finished the game for the Hornets.
UBC is now 1-1 at the Collegiate Baseball Classic while Sacramento State is 1-0-1. The Thunderbirds take on Keio University Thursday night in a 6:30 p.m. PT start while Sacramento State faces the University of Tokyo in the early game, with first pitch slated for 2:30 p.m. PT.
In earlier action Wednesday, Keio University downed the University of Tokyo 6-0, getting three runs batted in from Kento Nakamura. Keio is now 1-0-1 while Tokyo drops to 0-2 in the tournament.
Keio began the game scoring in the first inning with a sacrifice fly by Shogo Fukui. It then became a pitching duel for the next five innings as hits were far and few between, none going for extra bases. Keio got it going in the 7th with a two-RBI double by Nakamura, after UTokyo committed consecutive errors.
Tokyo threatened in the bottom of the 8th with the bases loaded but Keio's pitching continued to play well, getting out of the jam.
Keio tacked on three more runs in the top of the 9th, thanks to an RBI-single by Nakamura and a two-RBI triple by Ryoma Tanaka.
