PORTLAND, Ore.—The Concordia baseball team saw eight innings of near-flawless play on Friday, but an eight-run seventh inning for British Columbia led the Thunderbirds to a 9-4 win over the Cavs.

All eight runs went unearned too, as two Cavalier errors extended the inning for the Thunderbirds.

Unfortunately, the seventh also capped what had been a brilliant performance from CU starter Mitch Ludtke. Ludtke faced just three more batters than the minimum through the first six innings, while striking out 11 of the first 21 batters he faced. Ludtke even struck out the side in the fourth, with all three UBC batters struck out looking.

Overall, Ludtke finished with 12 strikeouts in the game, the fourth-straight start he’s struck out 10 or more batters. Ludtke has now struck out 47 batters in his last 30 innings pitched.

Concordia had been leading before the seventh too, as the team opened the scoring with a two-run rally in the fourth. The bottom of the order started the rally for the Cavs, with Jordan Keeker and Sean Myrom getting on via a hit-by-pitch and single, respectively. That put runners on the corners with one out in the inning, before a passed ball during the next at bat plated Keeker and moved Myrom to second. UBC got the next CU batter to pop out after that, but Ryan Rodriguez came through with a two-out single up the middle that plated Myrom.

However, the seventh unavoidably put UBC up 8-2, while the Thunderbirds tacked on another run in the ninth. Sebastian Wong led off the ninth with a walk for UBC, before immediately moving to second on a sacrifice bunt. The Cavs committed another error after that too, which allowed Wong to score and Nick Senior, the batter, to advance all the way to third. The Cavs got out of the jam from there, but the run was the ninth unearned run for the team in the game.

Still, Concordia tacked on two runs in the ninth, with Keeker and Myrom starting the rally once again. Those two led off the inning with back-to-back singles for the Cavs, while Cole Shidaki brought Keeker home with the Cavs’ third-straight hit. Shidaki’s hit also moved Myrom to third, setting the stage for a sacrifice fly from Calvin Nagy, which brought Myrom home for the final run in the game.

Overall, Concordia actually outhit UBC 9-6 on Friday, as UBC scored the eight runs in the seventh on only four hits.

Without the unearned runs, Concordia would have won 3-0 on Friday.

Individually, Myrom went 3-for-4 for the Cavs with two runs scored, while Sheldon Austria went 2-for-5. On the flip side, Wong went 3-for-3 for UBC with two runs scored and an RBI.

On the mound, Ludtke received the loss after going 6.1 innings, giving up eight runs (zero earned) on five hits and three walks. Danny Britton-Foster, meanwhile, pitched a complete game for UBC, picking up the win after giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits and no walks.