UBC Sweeps Cavs to take Season Series
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
DELTA, B.C.—After losing two of three games played against each other in the state of Oregon, the University of British Columbia won the season series with a 9-1, 3-1 sweep of Concordia University in non-conference softball action on Wednesday.
Concordia defeated UBC by a 5-3 margin to open the Northwest Cup on Feb. 15. Two days later, the Thunderbirds handed the Cavaliers its only shutout of the season with a 5-0 win. The Cavs returned with a second 5-3 victory on the second day of action at the Southern Oregon Tournament.
With Wednesday’s results, Concordia fell to 25-12 on the season and will play its final non-conference games of the season when it travels to face NCAA DII’s St. Martin’s University on Friday. UBC improved to 21-16 on the year.
Game 1 Recap
Concordia jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning as an error at shortstop allowed Tobey Varney, who led off with a single to center field, to score from second base.
The joy of the early lead would soon fade as the Thunderbirds struck for four singles to plate three runners in the second.
UBC added a single run in the third and eliminated any chances of a Concordia comeback with five additional runs in the fifth to end the game early. The loss marked the first time this season the Cavaliers were done in by the 8-run rule.
The Cavaliers managed just four base runners, one in each of the final four innings, against UBC starter Leigh Della Siega. Della Siega finished the outing with four strikeouts against five hits allowed.
Varney led the Cavs at the plate with a 2 for 3 performance. Kate Santos, Robin Gawlista and Katie Aden provided the final three hits for Concordia. Aden hit a two-out triple, her third of the season, in the second but Della Siega kept the run from scoring on an inning-ending grounder to second.
Game 2 Recap
British Columbia used back-to-back two-out singles in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead and used a complete-game by Nicole Day inside the circle en route to a 3-1 win.
Alana Westerhof drove in Neufeld with a single to center only to quickly follow her teammate around the corner as Lindsay McElroy lifted an RBI single of her own in the next at bat.
The Thunderbirds added an insurance run in the second as a one-out infield single from Tayla Westgard turned into a score four batters later as Cassandra Dypchey continued the clutch two-out hitting for UBC.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, placed a pair of runners on in the third as Tobey Varney and Katie Aden struck for two-out singles to the outfield only to be stranded as a third fly from a Day offering landed safely in play for the final out of the frame.
Concordia broke through in the fourth when Laura Luther delivered a one-out triple to right to setup a sacrifice fly by Kyndell Andrews. Luther and Andrews returned in the sixth with consecutive one-out singles before Day once again closed the door on the threat with a pair of outs in the infield.
Both teams totaled eight hits in the game and neither team committed an error.