After nine straight games away from Tourmaline West Stadium, the UBC Thunderbirds (23-10, 18-3) are on campus once again for a four-game series against the College of Idaho Yotes (17-17, 7-14).
The T-Birds certainly fared well in their recent road adventures, winning all eight of their conference matchups before dropping a nonconference tilt against NCAA Division I side Seattle Redhawks on Tuesday. They hope to continue that momentum here in Vancouver this weekend.
"For the most part we've been consistently playing at a pretty high level," remarked Thunderbirds head coach
Chris Pritchett. "We've been making one or two silly mistakes a game that will need to be cleaned up in order to win important games down the stretch, but other than that, I'm pleased with the direction we're headed."
The games are spread across three days, with the series opener beginning at 6:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, April 4th. There's then a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, April 5th, and the series finale at 11:00 a.m. (PT) on Sunday, April 6th.
Overall, these games are the first half of an eight in a row set at home, the final home games before eight more on the road to close the Cascade Collegiate Conference regular season.
Currently sitting at 18-3 in conference play, the blue and gold are in first place in the CCC standings, but it's a slim lead with Bushnell (17-4) and Lewis-Clark State (16-5) both hot on their heels. If the T-Birds are to earn homefield advantage in the first round of the playoffs, this weekend's games present a big opportunity to keep pressure on the teams chasing them.
"It's massive for us to play well at home," added Pritchett. "With finals and tough road weekends at the end of April we can't afford to let up at all here at home."
The Yotes, meanwhile, are looking to gain some ground themselves. They're coming off a series win over Corban which helped stabilize them after a slow start to conference play. The 'Birds travelled to play them in Caldwell, Idaho, at the beginning of March and took all four games.
The visitors are led at the plate by Jack Ingraham, who sports a .386 batting average with 44 hits and 17 RBIs on the season. Darren Smith leads the team in RBIs (23) but is less consistent at compiling hits with a .274 batting average. Oliver Massie is the ace on the mound, sitting third in the CCC in strikeouts (49), and he will be looking for redemption after he was shelled for nine hits and four earned runs in just 1.2 innings in his start against UBC on March 7th.
On the side of the T-Birds,
Jonny McGill currently leads the entire conference in batting average (.411), and is tied for first in runs scored. McGill,
Trent Lenihan,
Aaron Marsh and
Mitchell Middlemiss have formed a formidable foursome on the UBC offence, with all of them ranking top eight in the CCC in total bases earned.
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While the free-scoring bats have taken most of the thunder this season, the team's pitching is also levelling up as the year goes along, allowing just eight runs in four games combined last weekend against Warner Pacific.
Ryan Heppner earned a CCC Pitcher of the Week nod for his lights-out performance last Saturday, and forms a strong one-two punch with fellow starter
Will Anderson. Both of them rank top four amongst all CCC pitchers in ERA and strikeouts.
"You can't just have one aspect of your game carry a team the whole year," said Pritchett. "Pitching and defense are ramping up and that is really important in close games here at the end."
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