VANCOUVER — A quartet of pitchers combined for a no-hitter as the UBC Thunderbirds defeated the University of Tokyo 8-2 in front of 3,361 fans at Nat Bailey Stadium to open up the inaugural International Collegiate Baseball Classic Tuesday night.
Starter Garrett Hawkins kept the Tokyo bats in check, striking out three over six innings of work. The only runners to reach base against the sophomore right-hander were rightfielder Mitsuki Takekuma with a fourth-inning walk and second baseman Keishu Inoue in the fifth on an error.
Thunderbirds relievers Barry Caine, Shane Laforest and Brett Corbeth each threw one inning to finish off the no-no, which was handled expertly by sophomore catcher Noah Or.
"It felt really good; the guys came out, chests pumped up and ready to throw," said Or, who also credited the boisterous crowd for creating a lively atmosphere at the stadium. "It's nice to have them behind our back, especially for a week like this. It was something special."
UBC opened the scoring in the second as Or drove in Nolan Weger who had reached base with a leadoff walk. Or was at it again in the fourth, hitting a two-out triple that drove in Austen Butler.
The Thunderbirds broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth, sending nine hitters to the plate and scoring three times. An RBI single by Jaxon Valcke chased Tokyo starter Soh Komune and Weger greeted reliever Yohei Kobayashi with a two-run single of his own.
While the no-hitter highlighted the evening, its impact was lessened by the fact it was a combined effort and that Tokyo scored twice in the seventh, courtesy of a pair of walks and a Thunderbird error.
"Garrett Hawkins was great today," said UBC head coach Chris Pritchett. "And they're such good two-strike hitters too; it's really rare that they don't put something in play and find some safe ground out there."
Pritchett was also pleased his hitters made adjustments to the diet of off-speed deliveries from the Tokyo pitchers.
"They were gonna show you a fastball and try to get you out with everything else," said Pritchett. "First time through (the order), they ate us up pretty good but I thought the guys did well, they tried to go the other way with the ball. I still think we could do a better job of it but we put up some runs and I thought we played pretty well tonight overall."
UBC scored their other runs in a three-run sixth, punctuated by a two-run double from Weger who wound up driving in four on the night.
The rest of the tournament will be played at Tourmaline West Stadium at UBC.
Next up for the 'Birds is Wednesday night's 6:30 p.m. PT start against Sacramento State University. The Hornets played to a 0-0 tie against Keio University at Tourmaline West Stadium Tuesday night. The game finished in a tie as extra innings will not be used in round-robin play at the International Collegiate Baseball Classic.