VANCOUVER – Strong pitching and some timely offence led the UBC Thunderbirds to a doubleheader sweep over the Oregon Tech Owls at Tourmaline West Stadium Saturday.
"We had 15 hits in the opening game, so our issues today weren't a swing thing, it's mainly just an approach issue that we will always talk about, making sure that we adjust to what the pitcher is doing," said UBC head coach
Chris Pritchett of his team's approach following home opening day for the T-Birds.
In game one on Saturday the Thunderbirds put up a five run first inning, sending 10 batters to dish. They followed it up by scoring three in the second. Oregon Tech pitcher Trask Telesmanich was able to keep the 'Birds off the board until the sixth where UBC tacked on two more.
The Thunderbirds dominated the Owls, out-hitting them 15-7. The 'Birds were led by freshman
Cameron Sanderson who had three hits in the game with four other T-Bird players recording multiple hits.
Oregon Tech was able to tack on one run in the fourth and two more in the sixth off UBC pitcher
Garrett Hawkins who went six strong innings, yielding just the three runs.
UBC pitchers
Shane Laforest,
Brendan Logan, and
Jack Caswell pitched scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth innings as UBC took game one 10-3.
Game two was more of a pitcher's duel as UBC's
Jared Spearing faced off against Oregon Tech's Zach Scherman.
The Owls struck first in the opening inning getting one run across as Josh Overstreet lifted a fly ball to left that was deep enough to score Alex Malcolm who walked to lead off the game.
UBC was able to tie the game up in the bottom of the second thanks to a
Jordan Dray single with
Adam Maier coming around to score.
Oregon Tech took the lead in the eighth thanks to another sacrifice fly, this time off the bat of Emmett Covello, scoring Micah Jio. UBC was not to be outdone, however, as a
Ty Penner single scored
Jaxon Valcke to tie the game up in the bottom of the eighth.
Spearing ended up going five and two thirds innings, yielding just the lone run.
James Bradwell came in for Spearing in the sixth and went a strong three and a third innings giving up just one run of his own.
As for Scherman, he was the tough-luck loser, as he turned in a complete game and then some, going nine and two thirds innings, giving up three runs.
In their first extra innings affair of the NAIA West season, the 'Birds wasted little time getting the job done as
Ryan Beitel hit a two-out RBI single to bring home Maier for the walk-off victory.
"I think their second pitcher did a really good job throwing his off-speed pitches where he wanted to and we were slow to adjust," Pritchett said of the second game.
The two teams are back in action on Sunday for another doubleheader with game one getting underway at 11 a.m. PT. at Tourmaline West Stadium.
