Looking to fully establish themselves as one of the top dogs in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, the UBC Thunderbirds (12-8, 7-2) have a great chance to do just that when they face off against the Oregon Tech Owls (15-5, 6-3) in a pair of doubleheaders at Tourmaline West Stadium.
After an up-and-down nonconference schedule, the T-Birds have found their rhythm in CCC play. Winners of six in a row, the 'Birds have racked up an incredible 80 runs over that streak.
Jonny McGill earned conference Player of the Week honours as he hit .526 over last weekend's road series against College of Idaho, tallying nine runs and seven RBIs.
"The guys have just been steadily progressing," said Thunderbirds head coach
Chris Pritchett. "I thought even though we split the Lewis-Clark series that any of those games could have gone any direction, and that's a really good team…I think our guys are starting to feel like they know what they're doing now and they're starting to put their energy in the right areas."
The bats have certainly been on fire the last few weeks, as the 'Birds have gotten contributions from up and down the lineup. After bringing back nearly every hitter from last season's team, and productive first-year players like
David Krahn and
Stephen Waters now pushing for more playing time, the competition within the team has been fierce.
For Pritchett, the squad's veteran-laden lineup receiving a strong infusion of young talent might have taken a little getting used to, but should serve his team well in the long run.
"There's certainly some settling in," he remarked. "There's a lot competition, and I think part of our improvement is guys have been okay with that now. I think at first, they were unsure and putting pressure on themselves to earn that playing time, and now it's kind of settled and guys are embracing that…it's turned our attention level up and it's raised our level of play."
On the mound,
Will Anderson has been the standout performer to this point, with a 2.70 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 26.2 innings of work.
Looking at the opposition, Oregon Tech is also on a roll, as after dropping their first two conference games to Bushnell they've since won eight of their last nine, and in their four games against Warner Pacific last weekend they only allowed more than two runs a single time.
The Owls are hoping to solidify their place in the top half of the CCC standings, which so far has a stark dividing line – four of the eight teams (including both UBC and Oregon Tech) have started 6-3 or better in conference play, while the other four have started 3-6 or worse.
"They have a similar team as we do," added Pritchett. "All their position players are back. They're motivated…whenever we play them it's a really equal matchup and little things become big things. I don't expect that to be different this weekend."
Patrick Barry has been a star at the plate for the Owls so far this season, sporting a .469 batting average with 20 RBIs and nine extra-base hits in 20 games. Oregon Tech defeated UBC in three of their four regular season meetings last season, although it was the 'Birds who came out on top when they faced off in the CCC playoffs last May.
The first day of games kicks off at Tourmaline West Stadium at 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, March 15th. The second doubleheader features games at 11:00 a.m. (PT) and 2:00 p.m. (PT) on Sunday, March 16th.
