LEWISTON, Ida. – The UBC Thunderbirds (33-15, 28-8) suffered a setback on Saturday afternoon, as they were defeated 15-7 by the Lewis-Clark State Warriors (32-13, 28-8) in a high-scoring affair.

Russell Young went yard on both of his first two at-bats, as the veteran catcher made it three home runs through the first three games of this weekend's series after just two home runs the entire season before this week. Jonny McGill also had a strong offensive performance with three RBI and a run scored, but the T-Birds were unable to keep the hungry Warriors off the scoreboard.



LC State entered the game knowing that it was do-or-die for them if they were to have a chance of taking the top seed in the conference standings, and they chose the "do" option with 11 runs between the third and fifth innings after Young's bat made it 2-0 UBC early.

The T-Birds did their best to fight their way back into things, with a Kyle Yip RBI single and McGill two-RBI double cutting into the deficit. From there, however, the Warriors pushed the lead out to 10, not wanting to give the visitors any momentum. Despite trying to get a late rally going in the ninth with two more runs, the Thunderbirds were forced to concede defeat on the day.

The result sets up a winner-take-all battle on the final day of the regular season on Sunday. For the fourth time this weekend UBC and Lewis-Clark State will take the field, and the victor of that final outing will claim the No. 1 seed and host the Cascade Conference Championship next weekend.

The stakes could not be higher for that last regular season matchup, which begins at 11:00 a.m. (PT) in Idaho.