VANCOUVER – The no. 7 UBC Thunderbirds (39-11, 27-5) will make their second straight appearance in the NAIA Sectionals from May 18-21 in Fresno, California, with a trip to the 2010 Avista-NAIA World Series at stake for the winner of each of the nine sectional groups.

UBC’s group won’t make for an easy road to the series though, as the seventh-ranked T-Birds are joined by no. 11 Fresno Pacific and no. 17 Point Loma Nazarene, as well as the University of Houston-Victoria and Ohio Dominican University. Fresno Pacific beat UBC 6-2 in their second game of the season, and Point Loma Nazarene won UBC’s opening round tournament last season and ended up losing in the NAIA World Series championship game.

Fortunately, the T-Birds’ outstanding pitching and defence make them a hard team to beat no matter the level of competition they are facing, as they showed during the NAIA West regional tournament when they allowed just six runs in three games to take the title.

“We knew we would have a really good team that would be going to sectionals and possibly a World Series so we focused on the little things that we would need to do well once we got to this point,” said UBC head coach Terry McKaig.

“Particularly pitching and defence. If our four starting pitchers have their best start or even close to it, we always have a chance to win. Then always making the routine plays on defence will be very important. No matter what level you’re playing at, pitching and defence are the key things and those are our strengths.”

Calling pitching one of UBC’s strengths may be an understatement, as the team has four starters who are all capable of dominating on any given day. NAIA West all-star Sheldon McDonald led the starters with a 2.80 ERA, which earned him an 8-2 record. Brandon Kaye went 7-2 while chewing up a team-high 70.1 innings with a 3.33 ERA. Eric Brown went 7-1 with a 3.47 ERA, and Mark Hardy had a 3.82 ERA to go along with a 6-2 record and two saves.

Not to be outdone by the starters, the UBC bullpen has also been tough to solve for opposing batters this year. Dan Britton-Foster, David Otterman and Miles Verweel all have ERAs under 2.50 in relief. Britton-Foster is the primary arm out of the pen, with a 2.21 ERA in 36.2 innings. Shawn Hetherington and Taylor King split closing duties, picking up five saves each on the year.

“The experience on the mound has been the difference between this year and last year,” said McKaig. “Our four starters are all juniors or seniors who have pitched internationally, and our bullpen is also really deep. And it’s not just depth, but really high-quality depth all the way through.”

In the field, short stop Sammie Starr, second baseman Alex White, centre fielder Blake Carruthers and pitcher Mark Hardy all won NAIA West Gold Gloves. As a team, the T-Birds boast a fielding percentage of .975 which is second overall in the NAIA.

Starr was the only T-Bird to join McDonald as an all-star, as he complimented his outstanding glove work with a .357 average and 38 RBIs on the year. Nic Lendvoy led the team with a .385 average, seven homers and 51 RBIs.

While veteran T-Birds like Lendvoy and Starr were facing high expectations anyway, freshmen Keaton Briscoe, Andrew Firth and Carruthers have all had outstanding rookie seasons so far. Briscoe hit .364, usually as the leadoff man, while chipping in 33 RBIs. Firth hit .352 with 24 RBIs, and Carruthers hit .344 with 33 RBIs.

“We have been fortunate that the freshman have stepped up and played at such a high level,” said McKaig. “You don’t want to have to count on freshman too much but ours have really been great for us. For that to happen, I think the senior leadership has to be there too with guys like Mark Hardy, Sammie Starr and Alex White.”

The T-Birds hit for a solid .322 team average on the year, but more importantly, their bats have been coming to life in recent weeks just in time for their most important games of the year. They scored 23 runs in four games against a tough College of Idaho team to close out the regular season, and then put up 27 runs in just three games in the NAIA West tournament.

“People say to me that it’s been such a great season and I say yeah it was, but it’s not going to matter if we don’t do well this weekend,” said McKaig. “This is our ticket to the World Series and with the type of team we have, that’s what we have been striving for all year. This is really where it starts to count.”

UBC’s first game of the opening round is on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. against the winner of Houston-Victoria and Ohio Dominican.

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