VANCOUVER – Just a week after the UBC Thunderbirds (13-12, 8-8) grabbed a win in one of their three Cascade Collegiate Conference games against the No. 2 ranked team in the entire NAIA, the No. 1 team comes to town in the form of the Southern Oregon Raiders (34-4, 16-2) on the Friday and Saturday of April 11th and 12th.
After this weekend the T-Birds will have completed a gauntlet over the last month or so – a run of 15 out of 16 games against teams in the national rankings, with 11 of them on the road. The lone home game so far this season was against unranked Carroll College two weeks ago, which the Thunderbirds won 5-0.
If the T-Birds are to pull the upset over the high-flying Raiders, they'll need to bring it at the plate. Their hitting has shown certainly shown its potential – including dropping 14 runs on Oregon Tech last Friday – but has also been inconsistent. Over their last eight games UBC has scored four or more runs four times (including double digits twice), but has scored just one or fewer in the other four.
The Raiders, meanwhile, have only allowed multiple runs in four of their last 10 games, although they were hit with a major upset in the form of a 9-8 loss to last-place Corban in their most recent outing. Southern Oregon ace pitcher Ayla Davies has had a dominant season to this point, leading all CCC players in ERA (0.85), strikeouts (148) and wins (19).
The Raiders also boast the top three batting averages in the conference, in the form of Sarah Kerling (.491), Kailer Fulton (.474) and Faith Moultrie (.433). This is just the second time that these two teams have faced off in B.C. since 2018, after a doubleheader at Collings Field back in March of 2023.
On the side of the T-Birds,
Shae Sever has been on an absolute tear in the batter's box, hitting .500 with nine RBI and four runs scored over the last eight games. The blue and gold have been packing some power recently, with Sever,
Kennedy Laird and
Kennedy Ainge all hitting home runs in the last two weeks.
With just three more weeks to go in the regular season, the Thunderbirds are battling to secure their spot in the six-team conference playoffs. Currently tied for fifth in the CCC standings, the T-Birds are three games ahead of Warner Pacific who are the main threat to break into the top six. The fact that they're at home for two of the final three weeks is a boost for UBC, who aim to make it three playoff berths in three years under McKellar.
The first pair of games for this weekend's series is scheduled for 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday. Saturday's doubleheader is set for 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (PT) on Collings Field at Nobel Park.
