VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds defeated the Northwest University Eagles 2-0 in the first game and 3-1 in the rematch under a shining spring sun on Collings Field at Nobel Park Wednesday afternoon.
The visitors made an early push in top of the second as they loaded the bases thanks to savy plate appearances, then T-Birds starting pitcher
Shelby Kempel locked in and got out of the jam by forcing a flyout to escape the inning without harm.
UBC's
Keona Nordquist almost broke the scoring in the bottom half of the inning, as her blast to left-field came up just short at the wall.
Jordan Dippel sliced a double down the left field line in the top of the third, to put a runner in scoring position for the Eagles. Dippel advanced to third base after a fielder's choice, but was unable to score because of some stellar play from the T-Birds infield.
The 'Birds were determined to get on the board in the bottom of the third inning, as
Gabrielle Dorval struck a single up the middle, followed by an opposite field single from
Avery Hilpert. Plate patience then earned a walk to load the bases for
Nicole Salas, who drove a sac fly deep to right field to give UBC the 1-0 lead. With the next at bat,
Hanna Hansen then drove an RBI single up the middle to extend the lead to 2-0.
Kempel's skills were on full display in game one, as she closed the game by forcing a groundout, securing the 2-0 UBC win along with her complete game shutout.
Maddie Leffle and Abby Blahut both posted two-hit games in the loss, as starting pitcher Sydney Maurer fell to 3-6 on the season.
"I was very impressed with Shelby (Kempel)," said UBC Head Coach
Gord Collings. "She started very strong and had that one inning where the bases got loaded with nobody out. The big one was the strikeout she got, you could feel the energy come back to the team. We also had some outstanding defensive plays too on some fly balls and ground balls."
Game 2
Shae Sever got the starting nod for the T-Birds in game two, where she saw early pressure from a hungry Eagles team. Sever found her rhythm after getting a few pitches under her belt and struck out the next three batters to swing momentum back to UBC.
Quality pitching kept bats at bay until a fourth inning that saw Northwest take the lead thanks to an Alyssa Maldonado's RBI single. The 'Birds pushed in the bottom half of the inning, capitalizing on an Eagles wild pitch to tie the game 1-1.
Emilie Sherritt then connected on a tricky infield hit, causing an error to score two more runs and give UBC the 3-1 lead.
Sever held the lead and managed the visitors at the plate until the top of the ninth inning, when Maurer ripped a double down the left field line with one out. With the tying run at the plate, Sever was able to force a routine fly ball to right field for the second last out of the game. With one more batter left, a hard hit drive to centre field looked dangerous until the diving effort of
Mia Valcke secured the final out of the game. The catch brought the home crowd to their feet as UBC celebrated a clean sweep over the Eagles to cap off a near perfect day at the park.
"I can't say enough about what Shelby and Shae did today," added Collings. "And for Shae, a first-year player to be able to come in and set the tone like she did was pretty amazing. She's got that rise ball, which is a good compliment to Shelby as it throws the other team off-balance."
Alyssa Maldonado finished the game with two hits and the lone RBI for Northwest University. UBC's
Olivia Malesku had the only multi-hit game for the home side, while Sever added eight strikeouts in her complete game victory.
"To win these games ahead of playing the number one ranked NAIA team is really big," explained Collings as he looks forward to the weekend series against Oregon Tech. "It's a good start to the week for us and we're excited for the weekend."
The weekend series with Oregon Tech starts on Saturday morning, game times may change so please keep up to date with our schedule.
