PORTLAND, Ore. – The UBC Thunderbirds (8-1, 14-6) extended their win streak to seven games, completing a weekend sweep over the host Warner Pacific University Knights (1-8, 6-14) with a dominant doubleheader sweep Sunday afternoon.
The T-Birds blew open what had been a tight first game with a five run ninth inning to take an 8-1 victory, then followed up with an 11-1 win in seven innings.
Outhitting the Knights by a combined 16-5 margin, the 'Birds managed yet another complete pair of games, limiting the Knights to just two runs on the day and seven over the course of the four-game series.
Working on a 3-1 lead through five innings in Sunday's first game and final conference counter of the weekend, the T-Birds relied on reliever Kaden Douglas-Pluff to keep the Knights' bats quiet. The freshman southpaw was phenomenal with 3.1 perfect innings including a career-high seven strikeouts.
Matt Vanslyke began the ninth inning onslaught with a sacrifice bunt to bring home Kellen Bourne. David Krahn earned a walk to load the bases followed by three consecutive RBI singles from Kyle Yip, Josh Cote and Braeden Scott.
Oliver Duthie retired his only three batters in the bottom half.
Game two – UBC's final game of their two-week road stint – saw the Knights get on the board early with an Eiji Sato solo home run to left in the bottom of the first. But that would be the extent of Warner Pacific's offensive threats as the 'Birds scored a pair in the top of the second and never looked back, eventually invoking the mercy rule up by 10 through seven innings.
The majority of UBC's damage came in the fifth with 11 batters appearing in the frame scoring six times to blow open an 8-1 lead.
The 'Birds added one more run in each of the sixth and seventh innings while Linden Happell limited the Knights to just one run in two innings of work.
Daniel Orfaly picked up his first win of the season in an impressive start, the senior tying a career-high with eight strikeouts, allowing just the one run on three hits through five innings.
Alone atop the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings, the red hot T-Birds are back home next weekend to face the Corban Warriors for a four-game series starting Saturday afternoon at Tourmaline West Stadium.
