With the “strongest pitching staff he’s ever seen,” head coach Terry McKaig is confident that the T-Birds will succeed during league play, and once again compete in the NAIA World Series Championships in May.

“There is no doubt that [the championships] is our goal this season,” said McKaig. “It is our goal every season, but we’ve definitely been building towards this for the last few years, and we think the team we’ve assembled has a definite chance,” he added.

With no other fully-funded university baseball program in Canada, the T-Birds annually compete in a series of exhibition and league games against smaller colleges in north-western USA. The T-Birds started their season  with a 14–1 record, including a perfect 8–0 in conference play.

Last year, as the defending Western Crown Champions, the T-Birds were strong all year, ending league play with a 26–6 record, winning the conference championships at home and securing a spot in the NAIA Championships in Southern California.

Yet it was at the league championships that their season fell apart, after an injury left them without top pitcher Mark Hardy, who is expected to be chosen this summer in the MLB draft. The T-Birds went on to suffer a “tragic” 15-12 loss against Azusa Pacific and were eliminated in the opening round of the semi-finals.

The loss wasn’t in vain, however, as it was Hardy’s injury and the team’s elimination that sparked many key changes to the roster this year. One of these changes was the recruitment of additional pitching staff.

These recruits include Sheldon McDonald of the Northeastern Huskies who, in 2008, had 72 strikeouts for the team, and Brandon Kaye, who played for the Douglas College Royals and was a 45th round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2009.

“I would say depth is our biggest improvement,“ said McKaig. “We realized in Southern California, after Mark Hardy’s injury, that we had sort of hit the wall and ran out of arms. Now let’s say one of our top arms goes down, it would hurt, no question, but I don’t think it would mean that we still couldn’t beat a good team at the end of the year,” he said.

The team has lost a few big hitters this season. Foremost among them is Jon Syrnyk, who led the T-Birds with seven home runs, 24 steals and a .333 batting average. Despite this, McKaig is optimistic that the team’s overall abilities will fill in any offensive gaps.

Already, numerous players have stepped in to provide offence for the team, such as rookies Blake Carruthers and Keaton Briscoe, who has demonstrated his skills early on with three home runs, 17 RBI’s and a .420 batting average.

“We might not have the one or two hitters that are going to carry us all year, but I think we have seven or eight overall that are better than the seven or eight we had last year,” said McKaig.

This year’s team may have versatility and strength, but if they want to have a chance at the final championship round they will also have to maintain the momentum they’ve built up through the rest of the season.

“It is great that we’ve got off to a good start and we have a really good record, but at the same time what we did in February isn’t going to matter if we don’t do it in May.”

2008/2009 Recap

Final Record:  26–6.

Playoffs: 5–3.

Standings: No. 1 seed in the unaffiliated conference, lost in NAIA semifinals round.

Interesting fact: Before Thunderbird Park was built, UBC played its home games at Nat Bailey Stadium, home of the Vancouver Canadians.

2009/2010 preview

Star slugger: 
Through 15 games, Nic Lendvoy leads the team in home runs (5), runs batted in (20), total bases (39), and has had six multiple RBI games.

Defensive wizard: 
Shortstop Sammie Starr, in his final season with the Thunderbirds, has a team-leading 45 assists this year to go with an outstanding .915 fielding percentage—and his .345 batting average isn’t too shabby, either.

Ace pitcher: 
Brandon Kaye, half-brother of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Scott Richmond, has given up 1.50 per nine innings (better known as earned-run average, or “ERA”) and is second on the team with 12 strikeouts.

Schedule:

Mar. 27 @ Lewis-Clark State (DH), 1pm
Mar. 28 @ Lewis-Clark State, 12pm
Mar. 29 @ Washington State University, 3pm
Apr. 2 vs Corgan College (DH), 12pm
Apr. 3 vs Corgan College (DH), 11am
Apr. 6 @ Seattle University, 6pm
Apr. 10 vs Concordia (DH), 12pm
Apr. 11 vs Concordia (DH), 11am
Apr. 16 vs Lewis-Clark State, 4pm
Apr. 17 vs Lewis-Clark State, 1pm
Apr. 18 vs Lewis-Clark State, 2pm
Apr. 24 vs Oregon Tech (DH), 12pm
Apr. 25 vs Oregon Tech (DH), 11am
May 1 @ College of Idaho (DH), 1pm
May 2 @ College of Idaho (DH), 11am
May 6–8: West Grouping Tournament
May 18–21: Sectional Tournament
May 28–June 4: NAIA World Series

— DH indicates doubleheader. All
game times local.
Home games
available on CiTR

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...