KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The UBC Thunderbirds (13-12, 8-8) nearly came away with an overall series split against the Oregon Tech Owls (28-6, 15-4), but suffered a walk-off loss in the final game of their weekend series.

The Owls came out hot in the first game of the day, scoring eight runs in the first inning en route to a comfortable 9-1 victory. The T-Birds certainly made them sweat in the second, tying up the score in the top of the seventh inning, but the nationally-ranked hosts pulled it out in the end.

For the second time in as many days, the Thunderbirds got to watch one of their hitter notch their first career home run, this time off the bat of pinch-hitter Kennedy Ainge. Brielle Donoghue and Keona Nordquist both had multi-hit performances in one of the two games.


GAME ONE

The Owls dealt their damage early in the first half of the doubleheader, with a relentless barrage of six RBI singles in the opening inning. All combined that totalled eight runs, and the home team tacked on one more off a double from Nita Cook in the third.

UBC did manage to get one run on the board in the fourth when Marin Jorgenson brought home Kaitlyn Kim home with a single, but they were unable to mount a comeback from there. Kacie Schmidt recorded her second win of the weekend and 14th of the year on the mound for Oregon Tech.


GAME TWO

The second game was a different story, as it was the T-Birds who got on the board right away off a sacrifice fly from Shae Sever in the top of the first. That brought home Nordquist, and the pair linked up again in the third when Nordquist scored on a Sever single.

Unfortunately for the T-Birds, those two positive plays sandwiched a two-run second inning from the Owls, who then scored two more in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead. That score held until the seventh inning, in a do-or-die frame for the Thunderbirds.

Two batters after pinch-hitter Catrina Hedin drew a leadoff walk, Ainge came to the plate and blasted a homer to centre-field, a milestone moment for her that evened up the score. 

A Nordquist double put the go-ahead run in scoring position, but the T-Birds were unable to bring her home and they were made to pay in the bottom half of the inning. After a groundout to begin their batting run, the Owls rattled off three hits in a row capped by a walk-off single from Jayce Seavert.

The Thunderbirds can certainly take plenty of positives away from this weekend, where they earned a big win and had two close losses against the No. 2 ranked team in the NAIA. The tests don't get any easier, as next up is a home series against the No. 1 ranked team, the Southern Oregon Raiders.