VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds completed their second straight series sweep with a 4-3 win over the College of Idaho 'Yotes Sunday afternoon for a ninth straight victory.
The red hot 'Birds (19-17, 13-7 NAIA West) got a terrific relief appearance by Braeden Allemann who pitched 4.1 shutout innings to pick up the come-from-behind win as UBC scored twice in the fourth and two more in the fifth capped off with a Mitch Robinson home run.
"They came out swinging it, they have a lot of pride and they didn't want to lose a fifth game in a row," said UBC head coach Chris Pritchett who once again saw his team's confidence and trust in the process come through with another come-from-behind win. "Our guys were defensively solid, we didn't give them anything, they earned it and then we just kind of chipped away."
It was a bit of a rough start for UBC pitcher Finnegan Duffield. Yotes (10-26, 3-17) third baseman Johnny Hyland hit a lead off double and advanced to third on a passed ball and then scored on another passed ball. Dominic Conigliaro doubled the Yotes' lead with a one-out solo home run over the left field wall. But Duffield retired his next two batters to get out of the inning.
Duffield settled down striking out his first two batters of the third. After putting runners on first and second, the rookie lefty got Dylan Mansanarez to ground into the inning ending fielder's choice. Duffield allowed two runs on six hits with four strikeouts through 3.2 innings of work.
With two down in the top of the fourth, the 'Birds went to the bullpen bringing in Anthony Olson for his fifth appearance on the mound this season. Olson promptly struck out Hyland to bring UBC to their half of the inning.
The T-Birds tied things up in the fourth on a Nolan Weger two RBI single on the rookie second baseman's second hit of the day.
The Yotes went back in front in the top of the fifth when Austin Van Horne scored from third on a wild pitch. With runners on the corners and two down, the 'Birds went back to the pen bringing in Braeden Allemann for his second relief appearance of the weekend and he got Jake Bowman to strike out bringing the T-Birds to the plate.
UBC took their first lead of the game on Robinson's fifth long ball of the season. After Anthony Cusati singled, Robinson launched the ball over the left-centre wall as the 'Birds scored two runs for the second straight frame.
"It was a grind all the way, you could see the physical and mental fatigue on both teams, you could just see everyone was moving at a slower speed," said Pritchett after the fifth game in less than 48 hours. "We were just one run better then they were and then we got that big two-run shot from Mitchell. Braeden (Allemann) pitched yesterday too and came in and said he was good to keep going and he ended up closing it out and pitched really well today and that picked us up big time."
Allemann pitched four and a third innings without allowing a single hit while striking out eight batters for his second win of the season.
Weger had another strong game at the plate going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Valcke and John Whaley each went 2-for-4.
The 'Birds put their nine-game win streak to the test next weekend for another home series, this time against the conference leading Lewis-Clark State Warriors starting Friday night at Thunderbird Park.
College of Idaho will play a pair of doubleheaders next weekend in Klamath Falls, Ore., against the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls.