REDDING, Calif. – The UBC Thunderbirds (17-13, 7-5) swept a Saturday doubleheader against the Simpson Red Hawks (10-22, 4-8) with a 2-0 win followed by a 13-5 mercy rule-shortened five inning victory. The first game on Saturday gave the T-Birds a 2-1 series win in their first ever Cascade Collegiate Conference series with newcomer Simpson, followed by the blowout victory in the non-conference series finale.
Carleen Murray was the story of the day, and the weekend, for the T-Birds. She picked up the wins in both of Saturday's games, tossing a complete game shutout in game one before 1.2 innings of scoreless relief in game two. That follows Murray starting both of Friday's game for the blue and gold, where she also picked up a complete game shutout win.
Jillian Matsubara was UBC's top hitter on Saturday, with extra base hits in both games. She was particularly potent in game two, when she drove in three runs, and scored three herself, on two hits.
Kennedy Laird and
Mattea Burrill both launched homeruns for the T-Birds.
Game one was a pitcher's duel, with Murray starting her third consecutive game and posting her second straight complete game shutout.
The senior also only allowed two hits for a second straight game, but her peripheral numbers were even better on Saturday than in Friday's finale. She racked up 10 strikeouts and did not walk a batter, need 96 pitches to complete the seven-inning game.
On the other side, Jacquelyn Lujan was also stellar, keeping the T-Birds off the board through six innings, scattering four UBC hits.
In the seventh inning, the 'Birds bats finally came alive. With one out,
Tegan Harnett beat out an infield single to shortstop. On the very next pitch,
Kennedy Laird launched a two-run homer to left, her first of the season, for the only two runs of the game.
After scoring a combined seven runs over the first three games of the series, both teams found their offence in game four, and early.
The T-Birds attacked from the top of the first.
Brielle Donoghue led off the game with a walk, before eventually coming around the score on a Matsubara single up the middle. Three batters later,
Marin Jorgenson came to the dish with the bases juiced and cashed in all three runners on a double to left field, giving the blue and gold a 4-0 lead before the Red Hawks' initial at bat.
The 'Birds built their lead in the second, as the first six UBC hitters reached base. The sixth was
Mattea Burrill, who blasted a three-run homerun, her team-leading second of the season, to make it a 9-0 T-Birds advantage.
The Red Hawks rallied in the bottom of the second, matching their total runs over the entire series so far in their half of the inning, with three. Three straight doubles chased UBC starter
Mila Anderson, but
Madison Hiebert came on to limit the damage and keep the 'Birds' edge at a comfortable 9-3.
UBC poured it on in the top of the third, taking advantage of a pair of Red Hawks errors to tack on four more runs. Matsubara smacked an RBI double to left as part of the onslaught, later coming around the score on a single from Harnett, bringing the T-Birds lead up to 13-3.
After Simpson added two more runs in the bottom of the third, Murray re-appeared for the blue and gold, tossing 1.2 scoreless innings to close out the 13-5 win in five innings due to the mercy rule. She picked up her third win of the weekend, after appearing in all four games.
UBC now returns home for its long-awaited home opener (weather-willing) next Friday, April 3
rd against the College of Idaho. First pitch of Friday's doubleheader against the Yotes is set for 2:00 p.m. (PT) followed by another doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11:00 a.m. (PT) at Collings Field at Nobel Park.
