UBC splits doubleheader with Eastern Oregon

Matt Vrlak (Vancouver, B.C.). scored three runs for UBC in their doubleheader split with Eastern Oregon on Saturday. Photo: EOU Athletics

March 21, 2026

By Toby Kerr

UBC Communications

LA GRANDE, Ore. – The UBC Thunderbirds were crushing the baseball all day Saturday, but had to settle for a doubleheader split with the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers at Optimist Field.

The Mountaineers won the series opener 11-8, before the 'Birds bounced back in a big way with a mercy-rule shortened 23-5 seven-inning win in game two.

Amazingly, the T-Birds scored in every inning of game two and in all but four innings across the double dip. That includes a streak of 10 straight innings (and counting) with a run scored from the seventh inning of game one until the end of the second game.

Kansai Sugimoto, Kyle Yip (Calgary, Alta.), Braeden Scott (Vancouver, B.C.) and Kellen Bourne (Calgary, Alta.) all had multiple hits in both games, illustrating the depth of UBC's offensive dominance. Yip and Bourne drove in five runs each, Bourne also scored four. Matt VanSlyke (Whitby, Ont.) scored four runs in the second game alone on the strength of five hits.

The 'Birds had a great start to game one with Sugimoto hitting a solo home run in the top of the first. By the end of the second inning the game was tied 2-2, where it remained until the fifth.

Eastern Oregon's offence exploded in the fifth and sixth, with the Mountaineers putting up eight runs to jump out to a commanding 10-2 lead.

UBC battled back, scoring in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to make the game close. Bourne's three-run homer in the ninth made it 11-8, but the comeback bid ended there.

The T-Birds teed off on Mountaineers' starter Jace Chow from the start of game two. Oliver Clements (Vancouver, B.C.) led off the game with a home run and UBC would go on to score seven first inning runs off of Chow, who only recorded one out.

The 'Birds would score in every inning of the game, with a small rally in the second from EOU to draw the lead down to 8-4 the only time UBC seemed vaguely threatened.

By the end of the fourth it was 13-4, with the T-Birds racking up RBI single after RBI single to build the massive lead.

Through six innings, it was 18-5.

After Josh Cote (Midland, Ont.) and Scott each hit two-run home runs in the seventh, the game was 23-5 for UBC and mercifully put to an end after seven innings.

The teams will play another doubleheader on Sunday at Optimist Field, first pitch scheduled for 11:00 a.m. (P.T.).