UBC Thunderbird Baseball Fan Page

First game (nine innings): Brandon Kaye pitched a complete-game shutout, held the Cavaliers to three hits. He struck out five, and walked three.

This game was close all the way, although the Thunderbirds out-hit the Cavaliers 10-3. The Thunderbirds left the bases loaded in the third inning, although they scored the first run of the game on an RBI single by CF Blake Carruthers. SS Sammie Starr was left at third base after hitting a double in the fifth inning, and RF Sean Pisarski was left at third after a single in the sixth inning. In the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Andrew Firth was robbed of a base hit by 2B Curt Cosby, who turned it into an inning-ending double play instead.

The Birds finally picked up a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, after helping out Kaye with an Starr-White-Foerster double play in the top of the inning. Mike Elias, pinch-hitting for 1B Bob Foerster, hit a single with one out, and was followed with another single by C Greg Densem.  Elias went to third on a fielder's choice by Kevin Nickel, pinch-hitting for LF Nick Senior. Senior immediately re-entered at first base, and Elias and Senior scored on a triple by 3B Keaton Briscoe.

Kaye was also helped by a big defensive play by Starr in the fourth inning. With runners at first and second due to two walks, C Tommy Whalen hit a line drive that was knocked down by Starr. The runner at second held because he thought the ball might be caught, and Starr picked the ball from the ground and threw to third to get the force out.

DH Nic Lendvoy was 2-3 for the game, Starr was 2-4, and Briscoe was 2-5. Starter Tyson Kisselburg got the loss for the Cavaliers, and 1B Andrew Reid got two of the three Cavalier hits.

Box score and play-by-play

Second game (seven innings): Mark Hardy faced only three batters beyond the minimum 21, and there weren't even very many close calls. He struck out six.

Hardy's achievement was the fourth no-hitter for the Thunderbirds, and the first since 2005.

The Thunderbirds' runs came on an RBI single by CF Blake Carruthers in the first inning, and an RBI single by 3B Keaton Briscoe in the fifth. Briscoe opened the game with a base on balls and scored on the hit by Carruthers. The second run was scored by Christian Jolley, the courtesy runner for C Bob Foerster, who reached on a single.

Cavaliers starter Dylan Smith went the distance, and allowed only five hits. Carruthers went 2-2. The other Thunderbird hit came from Nic Lendvoy.

Box score and play-by-play

Kaye is now 5-0, 2.24 ERA for the season, and leads the team with 52 1/3 innings pitched. Hardy is 4-2, 3.59 ERA. Briscoe leads the team in hitting with a .395 average.

Story from UBC Athletics site: Hardy's no-hitter, Kaye's shutout power T-Birds to sweep

2010 Photo Gallery

T-Birds Baseball 2010: Numbers and Young Talent Create Depth

"The more the merrier" was the mantra for the T-Birds this fall, as a total of 46 players reported to the 2009 fall training camp. With so many players at their disposal this season, the coaching staff has all their bases covered.

"Depth should not be an issue for us," said Assistant Coach Cav Whitely. "At the end of the day, no matter what, we'll always have a guy who can step in for us without much of a talent drop on the field."

This will be vital for the T-Birds, who suffered through injuries to various key players over the course of last season and lost an unusual number to academic ineligibility as well. To help counter the latter problem this season, the coaching staff has hired an academic specialist. While there isn't much that can be done to prevent the bad luck of injuries, the depth of 46 players will help to mitigate the consequences.

"The beauty of having this many guys is that we can go on when someone gets hurt," said Whitely. "They can spend proper time in physio; they won't have to play through it, and they can get healthy before they get back on the field."

"Extra Bases" article by Bob Broughton on Canadian Baseball Network: UBC Thunderbirds soar

Excerpt: "The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds baseball team is now two-thirds of the way through their season. They have a record of 28-8, and are ranked No. 10 nationally in the NAIA. This is arguably the best season in the ten-year history of baseball as a varsity sport at UBC."

CF Jon Syrnyk had one of the best days in the history of the UBC program for a position player; 4-4 with three doubles, a triple, two runs scored, four RBI, a stolen base, a base on balle, and a sacrifice fly which batted in the winning run in the top of the ninth.

Mark Hardy started for the Thunderbirds. He pitched four scoreless innings, then got tagged for five runs in the fifh. He allowed six hits, struck out four. Jeff Hall pitched a scoreless sixth inning. Josh Brink gave up a run on three hits in the seventh. Ashton Florko had a rough eighth inning; three runs on three walks. Shawn Hetherington, in his first appearance as a Thunderbird, replaced Florko with only one out in the eighth, allowed only one hit the rest of the way, struck out two, and got his first win.

SS Sammie Starr was 3-5 with a double and an RBI. DH Scott Webster batted in the two insurance runs in the ninth.

Line score (no box score available):

UBC     2 1 2  2 0 1  1 0 3 - 12  11  0
CMS     0 0 0  0 5 0  1 3 0 -  9  10  4 

Article by Lyndon Little in the Vancouver Sun: A field of their own: New practice facility means UBC T-Birds are no longer homeless.

Quote from UBC Athletic Director Bob Philip: "We didn't get the final green light for the baseball facility until last March, but the ball park has come in on time and even a bit under budget. A lot of people stepped up to the plate to make this happen."

The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds should be competing in Division I of the NCAA. The size of the undergraduate student body is consistent with Division I, and with the current athletic budget, the Thunderbirds would be able to field competitive teams in every sport except football. UBC is also capable of providing the NCAA with a new TV market.

Unfortunately, this option isn't on the table. Division I has a freeze on new memberships until 2011, and the decision by the NCAA to allow Canadian schools to join applies only to Division II.

So, if you would like to see UBC's athletes competing against Gonzaga, Washington, Seattle U. et al, it says here that moving to Division II is the best way to get there.

What does this mean for UBC Athletics in the medium term? UBC Student Services has put out an NCAA Division II Consultation document, which contains a lot of useful information.

What I'm going to do here is address how Division II membership would affect individual sports.

Football

The two possible conference memberships addressed in the consultation document are the Pacific West Conference and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). This choice doesn't exist for football, because the Pac West doesn't have a football competition.

My father, Henry W. Broughton, died in his sleep on September 28, 2008. I took him to the emergency room on September 21. An hour earlier, we were watching the final baseball game in Yankee Stadium on TV.

Henry took me to a game at Yankee Stadium in 1964. We were in New York for the World's Fair. The game was remarkable because Mickey Mantle hit a home run, and it was one of the longest balls ever hit in Yankee Stadium.

An earlier baseball memory is from 1961, the year that Mantle and Roger Maris were chasing Babe Ruth's record. We were watching a Yankees game on TV. This was long before ESPN, and televised sports were far less common. The game was tied going into the ninth inning. Henry observed that an extra-inning game would be a bonus to Mantle and Maris, because it would give them additional turns at bat. As it turned out, Yogi Berra hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, and the scenario Henry envisioned didn't happen.

A year later, Henry loaded the family into the station wagon, and we went to RFK Stadium (called DC Stadium at the time) in Washington to see a double-header between the Senators and the Yankees. We encounted a huge traffic jam. When we finally got to the stadium, it was standing room only. Henry hadn't bothered to purchase advance tickets, which was understandable, given the size of the crowds that the Senators usually played in front of. This was the first-ever major league game for me and my younger brother Bill, and the scene was a zoo. Every time the Yankees took the field, several people would jump from the stands and run into the outfield attempting to get autographs from Mickey or Roger. They would be escorted off by police. Then there would be announcements over the P.A. that if the fans continued to go on the field, the game would be cancelled and the Senators would forfeit it. Since most of the crowd were attending their first Senators game, the possibility of the Senators forfeiting the game had no impact whatsoever.

Henry and I made some more trips to RFK Stadium over the years to see the Senators of Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, and Jimmy Piersall. (There were also some trips to see the Redskins of Sonny Jurgensen, Bobby Mitchell, Charley Taylor, and Jerry Smith; Henry had a friend who had season tickets.) I remember the last game, in 1969, which was a couple of years before the Senators became the Texas Rangers, the abomination which was owned by George W. Bush and offered Alex Rodriguez an obscene amount of money to leave the Mariners. The Senators still had Howard and Epstein, but of more importance, their manager was Ted Williams. The Yankees didn't have much of a team that year; their star player was Joe Pepitone.

Henry and my mother, Elizabeth, moved from Virginia to Bremerton, WA in 1987, in order to be closer to their granddaughter. He was making occasional trips to Safeco Field until a couple of years ago, and he had some definite opinions on how to solve the Mariners' difficulties with pitching and hitting.

As a teenager, he played for what he said was a pretty good team in Norge, VA.

A memorial service took place at Silverdale Lutheran Church in Bremerton, WA on October 4. Pastor Bill Crabtree played outfield for Cal Lutheran in the early 1980's.

P.S. Henry's older sister, Ruth Auping, was a Cleveland Indians fan for most of her adult life. After she died, in January 2007, her daughters put a memorial brick for her in Progressive Field.

First game:1B Scott Webster's two-run home run was the winning run. Corban got all their runs in the first inning off starter Mark Hardy. Hardy held the Warriors scoreless for the next five innings, and Andrew LaFleur pitched a scoreless seventh.

The Thunderbirds' other runs came on an RBI single by CF Jon Syrnyk, DH Fletcher Vynne scoring when 3B Bob Foerster hit into a double play, and an RBI double by Ben Torrie. Vynne was 3-3 with a double and two stolen bases. SS Daniel Flores was 2-3 with two RBI for the Warriors. Jordan Emery got a complete-game loss.

Second game:Fletcher Vynne batted in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the tenth.

Vynne's dramatic hit ended a game that was close all the way. The Thunderbirds took the early lead on a sacrifice fly by 3B Jordan Pandoff in the second inning. Thunderbirds starter Josh Brink was excellent in the early going, retiring 11 straight batters at one point. However, the Warriors manufactured runs on two consecutive squeeze plays in the fifth inning; 1B Kyle Taylor and CF Jamie McGraw got the RBI, but the one by Taylor was a fluke; a really bad bunt attempt went over Brink's head, and landed in front of the shortstop.

The Thunderbirds tied it at 2 in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double by SS Sean Everest. They took a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth when RF Mike Styrna and Everest bunted in runs, and CF Jon Syrnyk hit an RBI single.

The Warriors made it a one-run ball game with two runs in the seventh on an error by 3B Jordan Pandoff. The Thunderbirds got what appeared to be, at the time, an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by LF Matt Chester.

The Warriors weren't finished, however. They tied it in the top of the ninth with a two-RBI single by 2B Craig Spicer, giving Kurtis Schumacher a blown save. They then loaded the bases on Ashton Florko in the tenth, but Andrew LaFleur came in to get McGraw to fly out and end the inning.

In the bottom of the tenth, C Ben Torrie reached on a single with one out. He was replaced by courtesy runner Mike Elias, and he moved to second when Chester grounded out. He was batted in by Vynne.

By retiring the only batter he faced, LaFleur got the win. Daniel Flores, who moved from shortstop to the mound in the ninth inning, got the loss. Chester was 3-6 with a double for the Birds. Kyle Taylor was 2-3 for the Warriors.

First game: The Thunderbirds got a career-best performance from Eric Brown, who went eight innings, allowed six hits, struck our four, walked one, and hit one batter.

The Thunderbirds took an early 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI double by 1B Ryan Pilgrim and a sacrifice fly by RF Mike Styrna. The Coyotes tied it in the third with an RBI single by C Dane McGrady; the run was unearned. The Thunderbirds took the lead for good in the fourth with six runs, starting with an RBI single by C Ben Torrie. Coyote reliever Justin Marsh-Quinlan then walked in two runs. Marsh-Quinlan was replaced by Tim Bourner, who was greeted with a two-RBI single by DH Jordan Pandoff and an RBI single by LF Mike Elias.

Torrie went 3-5 for the game. Kurtis Schumacher came in in the ninth inning after Brown gave up a hit and a walk, and Schumacher retired all three batters that he faced. Starter Joey Zubizaretta got the loss for the Coyotes.

Second game: 1B Fletcher Vynne hit the first home run at Nat Bailey Stadium in his Thunderbird career. It went over the left field fence, there were two on base, and it got things going in an eight-run second inning for the Thunderbirds.

Another offensive highlight was was Mitch Grossell hitting a double in his first at-bat this season. Mike Elias was 2-3, and both of his hits came in that second inning. Craig Leebosh was 3-4.

Ashton Florko got his first win as a Thunderbird. He pitched the first two innings, allowed one hit, and struck out three of the nine batters he faced.

If the story of the Western Oregon game was stolen bases, the story of this one was double plays; the Thunderbirds got five of them, and they played a major role in keeping the Birds in this one all the way.

The Birds got the early lead this time, on a home run in the third inning by 1B Scott Webster. This held up for 1 1/2 innings. The Warriors evened it in the fourth with an RBI double by Kyle Greene, and scored the rest of their runs in the fifth. The first of those two runs was set up by a particularly bad error. With a runner on first, LF Nic Benton put down a very good bunt. Benton had beaten it to first base, but 2B Alex White threw to first anyway, and the throw went over the head of Webster. The result was a run scored, and Benton on third base. He scored on a sacrifice fly by SS Brent Wyatt.

The Birds managed only five hits against the Warriors. L-C State used four pitchers, and the last one, Mike Guerrero, was especially effective. He put the lights out for the last three innings, allowing one hit, and striking out six of the 11 batters he faced. He struck out the side when he came on in the seventh, and struck out two in the ninth.

The Thunderbirds' best chance to score came in the second, when they had runners on second and third with two outs. LF Nic Lendvoy opened the sixth inning with a double, but he was thrown out when the next batter flied out to right field, and Lendvoy didn't get back in time.

Starter Mark Hardy went six innings, allowed ten hits. (The box score says two earned runs, but it probably should have been one.) Former Warrior Ashton Florko went the rest of the way, and was sharp; one hit and two strikeouts in two innings of work. Hardy got the loss, and reliever Brian Hibbs got the win. Lendvoy got three of the Thunderbirds' five hits. DH Zach Adam was 3-4 for the Warriors, but the Thunderbirds shut down CF Paul Martin, who terrorized opposing pitchers in the two games the Warriors played the previous day.

The Thunderbirds went 0-4 in the Guardian Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Tournament.

Box score and play-by-play