Vancouver, BC - The UBC Thunderbirds (2-0) opened their Cascade Collegiate Conference season with back-to-back shutout victories on Saturday as they welcomed the Bushnell Beacons (0-2) for a doubleheader at Collings Field. Both contests saw little room for error and dominant pitching from the home team, eventually leading to a 2-0 UBC win in game one, and a 3-0 victory in game two.
"Battling weather all week, we weren't sure what it would look like today, but we got great weather," said UBC head coach Jenn McKellar, in reference to the one-day delay to the start of the series. "The girls really bought into having a long day and doing the field work and came ready to play. Bushnell is a good opponent, we're a little banged up but it was great to get 14 innings out of Carleen [Murray], so that was huge, as well as some timely hits".
Game One
Pitching was on full display for both teams in the series opener. Following a three up three down top of the first inning, the bottom half is where the Thunderbirds got on the board early courtesy of
Kaitlyn Kim who connected on a solo homerun to deep right-centre.
"[Kim is] such an energy driver", added Head Coach McKellar, "they all invest in her when she's up [to bat], and she's good for the long ball."
The scoring continued for the 'Birds in the second, where
Kennedy Ainge doubled to the gap in right field. This sent the runner on second to charge home where, originally, it appeared to be a throw out at the plate, however the umpire took little time to call obstruction on the play, deeming the Beacons third baseman interfered with the runner, resulting in UBC going up 2-0.
A quiet offensive game for Bushnell showed hope for noise in the fifth when Violet Richardson hit a hopper off the wall for a double with zero outs. However, T-Birds hurler
Carleen Murray held her own, as she was able to close out the inning maintaining the shutout.
The game would hold steady for the remaining innings as Murray completed the stellar, seven inning, four strikeout performance for the T-Birds.
Game Two
UBC would turn to Murray to take the mound for the second game of the double header, and the second-year pitcher picked up right where she left off, enjoying command of the strike zone. Both the Beacons and the T-Birds were making contact but very little was getting through the defence to start the contest.
After UBC outfielder
Kaitlyn Eng reached on error to start the third inning, a Madison MacGillivrav single would move Eng over to third, while MacGillivrav would later steal second. Kim was next up to the plate and, with only one out, made contact, sending the ball to deep left for the sacrifice fly to bring home Eng to open the scoring,
The top of the fifth saw some stout defence from the Thunderbirds as
Gabrielle Dorval laid out at third base to make the impressive stop and throw across the diamond for the out, ending the frame. The impressive snag sent energy to the offence as, in the bottom half, timely hitting moved the T-Birds around the bases before
Shae Sever was sent to the box to pinch hit. With runners on first and third, Sever battled at the plate, pushing many into foul territory before ultimately making solid contact and sending a line drive into left field to score both runners, giving the 'Birds the 3-0 lead.
Murray continued to do what she had done all day, holding down the fort, as she closed out yet another complete game shutout for her squad. She finished the entire day totalling nearly 200 pitches through 14.0 innings while giving up eight hits, two walks and striking out six.
"Knowing our pitching staff's a little banged up with a couple of injuries, it takes [a big] stress off of us and she's just a gamer", concluded McKellar, upon reflection of Murray's standout performances. "If she gets the ball, she'll go, so it was really good to see her be able to push 14 for us."
Both teams will meet again Sunday for more doubleheader action with game one scheduled for 11:00 a.m. PT. followed by game two at 1:00 p.m. PT. at Collings Field at Noble Park.
