KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Facing a tall task in the form of the No. 2 ranked team in the entire NAIA, the Thunderbirds (14-12, 5-4) endured their only sweep of the season to this point at the hands of the Oregon Tech Owls (27-3, 11-1).
The T-Birds kept both games on Sunday very close early, and in fact led for the first half of the second outing, but were undone late on both occasions.
Ava Bromley was UBC's top batter against some top-tier Oregon Tech pitching, and was the only Thunderbird to have a hit in both games.
GAME ONE
The first three innings of the doubleheader were scoreless, with both teams leaving runners on base during that timeframe. It was the Owls who got the scoring going in the fourth, on a Leah Huffman RBI single.
After two more runs in the fifth, the Owls exploded for six in the sixth, including a two-run homer from Addison Kachnik. While
Jessica Heutink did get the Thunderbirds on the board with a double in UBC's half of the sixth that scored Bromley, that was all they got in the first game of the day.
GAME TWO
The final game of the weekend series started much brighter, as after Heutink got on base through a fielder's choice and
Jillian Matsubara drew a walk, Zoe Willington brought both of them home with a great hit that looped over the centre fielder's head for a double.
The T-Birds held that lead until the fourth, at which point the Owls took a 3-2 lead thanks to a Jazmine Macias two-RBI single that came an inning after Nita Cook had launched a solo home run. The T-Birds were unable to get more runs on the board from there, and the Owls added some insurance tallies in the final couple of innings.
After consecutive weekends in Oregon, the Thunderbirds will next head to California to take on Cascade Conference newcomers Simpson University (9-20, 3-6) in a four-game set on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28.
The two teams – whose campuses are 1,200 kilometres apart – have not played each other since 2015. Despite that, Simpson does have some significance as an opponent in UBC program history, as it was the Red Hawks who the T-Birds faced in their first-ever game as a varsity team back on February 4, 2010.
