LAKELAND, Fla. – An incredible post-season run by the No. 24 UBC Thunderbirds (40-17) has come to an end, falling 7-2 to the No. 14 Southeastern (Fla.) Fire (43-16) in the final game of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round in Lakeland.
Having pushed the bracket to the distance with a 12-3 victory over the T-Birds Wednesday, the host Fire managed back-to-back must-win performances to earn the final berth at the upcoming NAIA World Series.
Trailing 7-0 in the fifth, the T-Birds got one back thanks to a Josh Cote solo home run, but the tournament hosts limited UBC to just three total base runners in the ensuing three and a third innings.
Still down six runs with just three outs remaining, UBC did their level best to mount a late comeback, loading the bases with two down in the bottom of the ninth. A wild pitch allowed Braeden Scott to score from third but with the bases still juiced, reliever Hayden Givens-Craig struck out Kyle Yip to end the threat as Southeastern has advanced to the World Series for an eighth straight season.
It was a dream start for the Heat, leading off the top of the first with back-to-back solo home runs from Armani Cozza and Jace Essig. Loading the bases with one down, a T-Birds fielding error allowed another two to cross the plate for a 4-0 lead.
With the bases loaded in the top of the third, Southeastern tacked on another run off a Brock McMullen RBI single.
The Fire extended their lead to 7-0 on a fifth inning Cort Pryor double. Owen McConnell then retired his next three batters to end the threat, adding a pair of strikeouts in the sixth.
Mason Chien pitched two shutout innings to keep the Fire off the board, as did Lucas Huynh in the ninth, but the T-Bird bats just weren't able to overcome the sizeable deficit against one of the NAIA's most lethal pitching staffs.
There's no doubt UBC's loss will sting for some time, but there's also plenty of room for optimism about this group moving forward, the vast majority of which is eligible to return for another run at the program's first NAIA World Series title in 2027.
