The UBC Thunderbirds may have been underdogs heading into the NAIA West baseball championship tournament which began its four-day run Friday in Portland.
Yet by the time Monday’s championship final rolled around at the double-knockout event, ‘Birds head coach Terry McKaig counted himself among the impressed as his team’s makeshift pitching staff and its oft-maligned bats banded together to produce a 5-2 win over the host and topped-seeeded Concordia Cavaliers to claim the program’s fifth banner in the past seven seasons.
“These are the important ones, these are for the championship banners and this one means a lot to be honest,” said McKaig, who is stepping down from his position following the upcoming NAIA World Series after 18 seasons as head coach. “This season we weren’t the dominant team in the conference, and coming in as the No. 2 seed, and the home team at No. 1, some thought that Concordia was the team to beat. But we’ve instilled a championship mentality here and today we found a way to win. You get judged by what you do in the playoffs, so to get this title is special.”
Jerod Bartnik’s two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning gave UBC a 4-0 lead, but McKaig saw his entire order grind out tough at-bats on the afternoon. The ‘Birds, stymied Sunday in their first crack at the title Sunday after being held to just three hits in a 3-0 loss against Concordia, pounded out 12 hits on Monday.
“It was one of those timely things,” McKaig said of the Bartnik blast. “Jerod had been struggling but I got him a pinch hit appearance yesterday and he had a good at-bat, and he kept it going today.”
On the mound, the Birds got workmanlike efforts from both Tyler Gillies and Curtis Taylor. Gillies answered McKaig’s call out of the bullpen to start Monday’s game, and left with two outs in the fourth after having not allowed a run. Alex Graham pitched one-third of an inning and was charged with both Concordia runs. Then Taylor (4-2) came on to start the sixth, pitching shutout ball the rest of the way.
“Taylor was unreal,” said McKaig of Monday’s winner. “He threw two innings in each of our first two games down here, so after I gave him yesterday off, I asked him today if he could give us two. He said ‘Yeah, at least.’ After his third, he told me he was going out for his fourth.”
The victory propels UBC to the opening round of the NAIA World Series. The ‘Birds won’t find out officially where they start until Friday, but they have normally been slotted in the Los Angeles-area bracket.
