*This article was originally published on the UBC Thunderbirds site on August 18, 2019. You can read the original article here.

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds reached nine in the hits column Sunday afternoon against the University of Tokyo but couldn't get a big hit at the right time and fell by a 3-2 score to wind up fourth in the four-team Collegiate Baseball Classic at Tourmaline West Stadium.

Hiromasa Kobayashi went the distance for Tokyo, scattering 10 hits over his nine innings of work. The visitors scored all their runs in the top of the third off 'Birds starter Brendan Logan as Shuhei Ohto and Tomohiro Yamashita singled and were driven in on a triple by Chihaya Niibori. Toshiki Oka followed with a sacrifice fly to score Niibori.

UBC's best chance to do real damage came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jaxon Valcke led off with a double. A Nolan Weger fly out to centre followed and after Brett Corbeth drove in Valcke with another double, UBC produced a ground out, a hit batter and another fly ball out to centre to conclude the inning with just a run.

"We strung a couple hits together but could never quite get that big one to pull us ahead," said Thunderbirds assistant coach Sammie Starr. "But I thought the guys played a good clean game and we were always looking for that two-out hit or to take advantage of a couple of the errors they provided for us but we never could deliver that punch."

Sophomore lefty Finnigan Duffield kept UBC in the game, providing four innings of no-hit relief, facing the minimum 12 hitters and striking out six. UBC scored again in the eighth when Cameron Sanderson led off with a single and Corbeth produced a two-out base hit to score him.

Kobayashi would strike out the side in the ninth, working around a throwing error by shortstop Kengo Kasahara that put the tying run on base with two out.

Sanderson and Valcke each had two hits and a run scored for UBC and the other bright spot was freshman Adam Maier who pitched the eighth and ninth innings, both scoreless, striking out three in the process.

"Whenever you have an event like this with teams from different countries and different conferences, it's always a good opportunity to showcase what the program has and what it can potentially grow into," said Starr. "Obviously it's disappointing to come in fourth out of the four teams but I think it's an opportunity for us to grow in the future."

It was a sellout crowd of 576 at Tourmaline West Baseball Stadium for the championship final. Keio University took home the trophy for the inaugural Collegiate Baseball Classic, winning 1-0 over Sacramento State.

It was a pitching duel throughout, with Keio's only run of the game coming in the second inning on an error. Keio's pitching was phenomenal with starter Hiroki Sato throwing five innings with 7 strikeouts.

Hornets' center fielder Trevor Doyle led Sacramento, going 3-for-4 at the plate.