VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds fell 9-5 to the Sacramento State Hornets in Collegiate Baseball Classic semifinal action Saturday night at Tourmaline West Stadium.
A six-run fifth inning by the Hornets which included a grand slam was enough of a difference to punch Sacramento State into Sunday's championship final against Keio University while the T-Birds will battle the University of Tokyo in the consolation final.
"They hit the grand slam that kind of put the game out of reach but our guys didn't quit, I was proud of them," said UBC head coach
Chris Pritchett. "I thought they swung the bat pretty good in the second half of the game but we were just too far behind."
Sacramento State got things going early, opening scoring in the bottom of the first on a Dawsen Bacho sacrifice fly. Two batters later the Hornets doubled their lead when a Steven Moretto fly ball managed to drop in centre, plating Trevor Doyle.
UBC starter
Garrett Hawkins averted further damage with two down and two men in scoring position when he got Chris Gonzalez swinging, his second strikeout of the inning.
Both teams went to their pen early with yet another game for each coming up on Sunday. Senior Hornets righty Parker Brahms exited after two innings having allowed just one UBC hit along with one strikeout. Sacramento State put Scott Randall on the mound for the third and went three-up, three-down.
The 'Birds called on
Barry Caine to pitch the third. His first batter, Doyle, doubled and later scored on a fielding error to give the Hornets a three run advantage.
After a scoreless fourth, UBC got into trouble in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded and none out. After Caine sat down Bacho, the Hornets scored one on a wild pitch and another on a Ryan Walstad single to left to take a 5-0 lead. But the real damage came when Gonzalez hammered a grand slam over the right field wall.
"This is a division I team that went to a regional last year and we know they're good, we'd have to be completely at our best and I don't think we were," added Pritchett. "But, we did challenge them. If you're a pitcher and fall behind these guys and have to throw them something they're looking for, they'll hurt you."
The T-Birds finally got on the board in the top of the sixth when
Jaxon Valcke singled to right, scoring
Ty Penner from second.
Nolan Weger followed up with an RBI single to left, but that was all the mini-rally was able to muster.
Valcke drove in his second RBI of the night in the top of the eighth with a single to right and the 'Birds got a bit closer on a fielding error that allowed
Cameron Sanderson to score.
Jordan Dray pinch hit for
Austen Butler and the move paid off as the junior outfielder hit an RBI-single to right, getting the T-Birds to within four runs of the Hornets.
Unfortunately for UBC the hole was too deep with too little time to dig out as the Hornets punched their ticket to Sunday's championship final against Keio University who defeated the University of Tokyo 10-0 in Saturday's earlier semifinal.
Jun Setonishi cleared the bases with a two RBI double in the bottom of the second which scored a third runner on a throwing error. Keio scored another three runs in the third to take a 6-0 lead off a Yusuke Shimoyama single and later a Yoshiyuki Mizukubo two-RBI hit to left.
Keio scored their remaining four runs all in the seventh including a Kazuki Obara three-RBI double.
Kosuke Morita earned the win on the mound going seven complete innings allowing just two hits while striking out nine Tokyo batters without issuing a walk.
The T-Birds will now look for a repeat of their tournament opening performance against the University of Tokyo in the consolation final which is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. PT at Tourmaline West Stadium.
"We'll come out with a lot of incentive," said Pritchett. "We started the tournament well against Tokyo, it would mean a lot if we did that tomorrow too in front of the home fans so we'll go get some rest here and come back and hopefully play our best game."
The Championship final between Keio University and Sacramento State will follow at 3:00 p.m. PT.
