VANCOUVER – Saturday night in Klamath Falls, OR the UBC Thunderbirds (25-17, 17-12) dropped a pair of games to the league-leading Oregon Tech Owls (43-6, 29-1). In the opener, Kacie Schmidt picked up her 23rd win of the season as OIT set a new Cascade Conference single-season wins record with their 29th league victory at Stilwell Stadium. Keona Nordquist had the lone RBI for UBC in a 6-1 defeat. Then in the non-conference finale Mckenzie Staub tossed a 4-hit shutout and Maggie Buckholz and Nita Cook provided home runs as Oregon Tech completed a 4-game sweep by an 11-0 score.
 
Game 1:
 
The two teams remained tied at 0-0 through the first two-and-a-half innings, but in the bottom half of the third OIT got on the board when Maggie Buckholz singled home Kaila Mick with two outs. The Owls added two more in the bottom of the fourth thanks to back-to-back singles (and RBIs) from Nita Cook and Zoe Allen.
 
UBC responded with their lone run of the game in the top of the fifth when Keona Nordquist flew out to right field, but scored Avery Mossop on the sacrifice fly.


 
Puakea Milbourne responded with a two-run single in the bottom half of the fifth though to increase the Owls' lead to 5-1. Kaila Mick then added a run in the bottom of the sixth to give the Owls their final run of the opener.
 
UBC did manage eight hits in the opener, including two each from Nordquist, Kaitlyn Kim and Kaitlyn Eng, but were unable to plate any additional runs. From the circle, Lindsay Bell (6-5) and Brittain Hunsberger combined for six innings, six runs, six walks and five strikeouts surrendered. Kacie Schmidt (23-1) threw a complete game, one-run effort at the other side for OIT.
 
Game 2:
 
The Owls kicked off the rematch with a seven-run, five-hit bottom half of the first inning. The highlight occurred when Nita Cook clubbed a two-run homerun to make it a 7-0 lead for the home side.
 
Credit Taylor McRae who entered the game in the third inning for UBC and pitched two-and-two-third innings of two-hit, shutout ball for the visitors, but offensively the 'Birds were unable to turn any of their four hits into runs.

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In their bottom half of the fourth, Oregon Tech piled on four more runs on the strength of a Maggie Buckholz homerun and a two-run from Lexi Klum. The game then came to an end after the 'Birds went scoreless in their half of the fifth.
 
Shelby Kempel, Taylor McRae and Lindsay Bell combined for 11 runs on nine hits in the finale while McKenzie Staub went the distance for OIT.
 
The 'Birds are now off to Ashland, OR to wrap up their conference schedule tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. against Southern Oregon. After Sunday they'll then set their sights on the CCC playoff tournament where they currently rank as the #5 seed.