VANCOUVER, B.C.– Without any opportunity to move up or down in the standings during their final regular-season games, the Bushnell baseball team took advantage with a deep pool of players taking the field in a pair of Cascade Collegiate Conference losses to the University of British Columbia.
The Beacons were unable to play spoiler, as UBC took both games of the double-header, 8-3 and 9-8 to seal a share of their second consecutive Cascade Collegiate Conference regular season championship. Their fellow co-champion, Lewis-Clark State College, won their final game on Sunday morning and clinched hosting duties for the upcoming conference tournament.
GAME THREE: British Columbia 8, Bushnell 3
The Beacons used five pitchers in Saturday's first game with
Tyler Biddinger (0-2) getting the start. The Senior struck out three batters and gave up for runs on two hits in 3.1 innings of work.
Micah English had the best outing for the squad, throwing the final two innings of scoreless ball without allowing a hit.
UBC struck first with two runs in the first inning, only to have the Beacons counter with two of their own in the third.
Eli Pupo scored on a single by
Dylan Carson and
Danny Womack followed with a sacrifice bunt that allowed
Caleb Richter to score.
The T-Birds continued to score with two in the fourth and four in the sixth to put the game out of reach before
Nigel Fahland added an RBI single in the seventh.
GAME FOUR: British Columbia 9, Bushnell 8
The Thunderbirds were able to walk off their title-clinching victory with a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth, but not before Bushnell made things interesting. Trailing 8-5 heading into the top of the ninth, the Beacons scored thrice, tying the contest on a two-run bases-loaded single by Fahland.
In fact, despite an unusual deep-roster starting lineup, the Beacons did everything they could to play spoiler throughout the contest. Starting catcher
Hoko Gaspar started things off with an RBI single in the third, followed yet another Fahland RBI in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead. The visitors then made it 4-2 in the sixth as
Eli Crist brought home his first two RBI of the season on a single, and
Mana Heffernan made it 5-2 in the seventh with an RBI single.
The Thunderbirds, however, answered with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead.
Loreto Siniscalchi, playing his final collegiate game in his homeland, started for the Beacons and played well, striking out two batters and allowing just four hits in four innings of work.
Hunter Schwenk (1-2) took the loss pitching the final inning.
Davis Grawey led the way for the Beacon offense, going 3-for-5 while Fahland finished batting 2-for-4 with three RBI and Heffernan was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Gaspar (pictured) also had two hits for the Beacons in his first start of the season.
UP NEXT: The Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament is on the horizon for both Bushnell (25-25, 17-20 CCC) and British Columbia (36-13, 30-7). As the No. 4 seed for the tournament, the Beacons will open the event on Friday morning at 11:00 am against the No. 5 seed Oregon Tech. No. 2-seed UBC will play immediately following that game against third-seed College of Idaho, while top-seed LC State awaits the winner of the Bushnell-Oregon Tech game on Friday evening.
