VANCOUVER, B.C. – Despite a pair of quality starts from Oregon Tech pitchers, the Owls dropped both ends of a key doubleheader against the University of British Columbia at Tourmaline West Stadium.
The 3-2 and 3-1 losses will force OIT (30-23, 9-13 CCC) to sweep tomorrow's doubleheader with the Thunderbirds and force Corban to drop a pair of games at Eastern Oregon, to secure the No. 4 seed into the Cascade Conference Championships.
UBC (24-21, 12-9) secured a playoff bid with the victories.
"We continued to play solid baseball today," said OIT head coach
Jacob Garsez. "Things didn't go our way and we need to step up more often in RBI moments."
Both
Jacob Miller and
Patrick Arman pitched well enough to win for the Owls – Miller working into the eighth inning for a third-straight start, allowing just three runs on four hits, while Arman tossed his second complete game of the season, allowing just six hits and striking out five.
OIT took a 1-0 lead in the opener as
Brodie Marino singled in the fourth and courtesy runner
Alex Malcolm scored on an
Ian Peters single. UBC tied it the fifth on a Mike Fitzsimmons homer, but Tech regained the lead in the seventh on a RBI triple from
Kaleb Keelean – his school-record eighth of the season.
The Owls would hold the lead until the eighth, as UBC strung together three consecutive 2-out singles – the last a 2-run knock from Brett Corbath, to provide the winning margin.
Michael Tarakhchyan had three stolen bases in the loss for OIT.
UBC wasted no time in Game 2, as Noah Or lined a 2-run homer in the first to stake the T-Birds to the early lead. The Owls would cut the margin to 2-1 in the third on a
Matthew Ortiz RBI single – but Tech would not be able to cash in four opportunities over the final six innings with men in scoring position.
Three T-Bird pitchers combined on the 6-hitter, with Ortiz recording the lone multi-hit game for Tech.
"It's important when playing good teams to put ourselves in a position to have more control over the game," Garsez said.
The two teams close out the regular-season tomorrow with an 11 a.m. doubleheader.
