UBC flies south for NAIA Championship Opening Round

UBC infielder David Krahn (Langley, B.C.) is batting .362 with eight home runs in 51 games for UBC this season. Photo: UBC Communications.

May 8, 2026

By Jake McGrail

UBC Communications

LAKELAND, Fla. – The UBC Thunderbirds will be quite far from home as they fight to make it back to the NAIA World Series, as they face off against three other high-level programs in their NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round tournament in Lakeland, Florida, home to the Southeastern University Fire.

The No. 3 seed for the four-team, double-elimination tournament that runs from Monday, May 11 to Thursday, May 14, the 'Birds will have to outlast all their opponents in order to punch their ticket to the World Series. With 46 teams battling in 10 different cities across the United States, the competition will be fierce.

"This is a really tough bracket for sure, but at this point in the year everyone is good," said UBC head coach Chris Pritchett. "Our message will be simple and only focus on the controllable … when teams get in trouble in the postseason I believe it's when they try to do more and get out of their comfort zone."

The T-Birds are coming off a runner's up finish at the Cascade Collegiate Championship last weekend, and will be aiming to do what they did last year when they bounced back from second place at their conference tournament to reel off a perfect 3-0 record in the NAIA Opening Round.

First, they'll have to take down the Milligan University Buffaloes, who despite being the No. 2 seed behind hosts Southeastern, are actually the team in the Lakeland tournament that are ranked highest in the NAIA Coaches' Poll (No. 11 vs No. 14 for the Fire).

The Tennessee outfit ripped through the Appalachian Athletic Conference this year, winning the regular season title for just the second time in program history, but did stumble in the AAC Tournament where they were upset twice by in-state opponent Bryan College.

The Fire, meanwhile, have had sort of an opposite journey – ranked No. 3 in the NAIA in the preseason, they were slightly underwhelming compared to those lofty expectations for much of the year, but after finishing second in the Sun Conference in the regular season they swept through the playoffs to claim the conference championship for the fourth time in the last six years.

The final team at the tournament are the Faulkner University Eagles from Montgomery, Alabama, who finished fifth in the Southern States Athletic Conference regular season standings but earned one of the final at-large berths for the Opening Round thanks to a good showing in the SSAC Baseball Championship.

Facing three schools from the American south in some Florida heat, the Thunderbirds will be in a more unfamiliar environment as they begin play against Milligan at 11:30 a.m. (P.T.) on Monday.

"Our guys are used to being pushed every day and are very excited about this opportunity," remarked Pritchett on his team's mindset heading into these crucial games. "I don't expect this group to be impacted by the travel and weather."

The T-Birds also have some experience to lean on from last year's squad that won their Opening Round tournament and made it to the NAIA World Series for just the second time in program history.

While there was a lot of roster turnover between this season and last, the 'Birds do still have some key players with that playoff pedigree on hand for this run, a group that includes starting pitchers Will Anderson (Delta, B.C.), James Brock (Burnaby, B.C.) and Daniel Orfaly (White Rock, B.C.), as well as hitters Kyle Yip (Calgary, Alta.), Kellen Bourne (Calgary, Alta.) and David Krahn (Langley, B.C.), among others.

"Certainly some of our players that were along for the ride last year will have some experience to draw upon for this year's tournament, however, this is a very different squad with a lot of new faces on it compared to last year's group," added Pritchett. "That being said, this group is tighter already than last year's group in my opinion, and if the experienced postseason players can set the example for the new guys we just might end up in a pretty good spot."