VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds opened the 2020 softball season with a doubleheader split at Western Washington Friday at Viking Field.
 
Pitchers Shelby Kempel and Megan Hendrickson combined to lead the T-Birds (1-1) to a 4-1 triumph in the first contest before the host Vikings (5-7) rebounded with a 4-0 win.
 
GAME 1 – UBC 4, Western Washington 1
UBC jumped out to a 3-0 advantage with a big third inning. Mia Valcke led off with a double to left field. One-out walks from Jordan Britten-Yung and Emily Chorpita loaded the bases, before Kempel delievered with a single through the right side to score Valcke.
 
Rookie Olivia Malesku then singled to left centre to bring home Chorpita and Britten-Yung.
 
Western Washington loaded the bases with two outs in the home half of the fifth. The Vikings got one run across, but rookie pitcher Hendrickson induced a groundout from Tatum Dow to end the threat.
 
The T-Birds added an insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single by first-year player Hanna Hansen that scored Amelia Trembath.
 

Valcke led UBC with a pair of hits in four plate appearances, while Malesku drove in a pair of runs.
 
Kempel started the game in the pitching circle and threw four scoreless innings for the win. Hendrickson worked the remaining three, striking out four, to earn her first save at the collegiate level. Kempel and Hendrickson limited Western Washington, an NCAA Division II program picked to finish second in their conference in a preseason coaches' poll, to just five hits.
 
GAME 2 – Western Washington 4, UBC 0
Rookie Emily Horne went 3-for-3 to account for half of the Thunderbirds hits in Game 2 against Western Washington.
 

The Vikings scored all four runs in the third inning. Both teams recorded six hits in the contest, but the Vikings had four of them in the pivotal third.
 
WWU junior starting pitcher Anna Kasner tossed a complete-game shutout, striking out nine batters. In addition to another strong performance in the circle, Kasner helped her own cause going 1-for-3 with a 2-run single.
 
Kempel pitched three shutout innings in relief of Damara Begin.
 
UBC will now head to Hawaii for a five-game trip, beginning with a Monday doubleheader at Hawaii Pacific (NCAA Div. II). The T-Birds will then face Chaminade (NCAA Div. II) on Tuesday before concluding the trip with a Wednesday contest at NCAA Div. I Hawaii.