Sydney White didn't give up a run in four innings of work against UBC on Friday
SURREY, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds softball team dropped two games to Cascade Collegiate Conference powerhouse and 22nd-ranked Southern Oregon Raiders Friday afternoon at Softball City in Surrey.
In the first bill of the doubleheader, UBC (11-24 overall, 7-11 CCC West, 9-17 CCC overall) couldn't keep up with the explosive Raider offence and lost 16-1.
In the second game, UBC played stifling defence and utilized a masterful pitching performance by Zoe Gillis to almost pull off the upset, but came up on the short end of a 3-0 decision.
The wins allowed SOU (32-14 overall, 13-5 CCC West, 18-8 CCC overall) to stay tied atop the CCC’s West Division with Oregon Tech, which also owns a 13-5 mark in division play. The Raiders, however, hold the tiebreaker.
The West Division winner will be decided on Saturday, when SOU plays twice at Northwest (Wash.), while UBC hosts Oregon Tech for a pair of games, starting at 11 a.m.
The Raiders jumped on UBC pitching with 21 hits in the opener – their most in a single game since the program was revived in 2001 – and scored 13 runs over the first three innings, eventually shortening the game to five innings with the mercy rule in effect. The top four in the order were particularly unsolvable: Kelsey Randall went 4-for-4 with three runs and an RBI, Rebecca Velasquez was 3-for-4 with a double, four RBIs and two runs score, Kayleen Smith went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs and Alexa Gonzalez was 2-for-2 with three runs.
UBC's lone run came in the bottom of the fifth when gritty T-Bird captain Quinn Dhaliwal scored on Hillary Strelau's fielder's choice. The run signified Dhaliwal's four years as a Thunderbird, as she aggressively slid and hustled around the bases, setting the example for her younger teammates.
The second game saw Gillis pitch one of the best games of her career for the 'Blue and Gold'. She was backstopped by catcher Margarita Sison, who kept the Southern Oregon base runners in check with her arm, picking off a Raider at third base in the second inning and gunning down another trying to steal second in the third.
Despite collecting as many hits in total as Southern Oregon (six), UBC just couldn't find a way to cash their runners in and ended up on the wrong end of the 3-0 decision.
"Zoe did an amazing job of locating her pitches and changing the pace," said UBC head coach Gord Collings. "I was very impressed with her, we just couldn't get the bats going to support her."
"I felt good. I knew I had to do it for the team to keep us in the game," explained Gillis. "I tried not to think about it to much and just pitch."
Smith was the big bat for Southern Oregon in the win, driving in two runs. Strelau and Shayla Kaplen had two hits apiece for the T-Birds in the losing cause.
It doesn't get any easier for UBC, as tomorrow they will face another conference heavyweight in Oregon Tech. The first pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Softball City.
Dhaliwal, Sison, and third baseman Lauren du Toit will be honoured for their four years of service in blue and gold, as UBC softball holds its version of "Senior Day".
- with files from Josh McDermott (Southern Oregon)