Region I Baseball Tournament Game 3

Albertson 12, British Columbia 3

CALDWELL, Idaho - Jason Roach threw a complete game seven-hitter, striking out 11 British Columbia batters, as the Albertson College baseball team opened up the NAIA Region I Tournament with a 12-3 victory over the T-Birds at Simplot Stadium.

With the win, the Coyotes (30-15) move into tomorrow's winner's bracket semifinal, meeting top-ranked Lewis-Clark State at 12:30 p.m., while UBC will play a loser-out game against Concordia at 9 a.m.  L-C defeated Concordia earlier today, 4-3.

ACI gave Roach all the support he would need in the first two innings against starter, Brendan Rolfe.  Pat Burke hit a two-out, two-run homer in the first, then saw Luke Howarth lace and RBI double and Casey Oliver follow with a two-run single in the second, as the Yotes jumped out to a 5-0 lead.

UBC (21-19) cut the margin to 5-3 on a two-run Brett Murray home run in the fifth, but the Coyotes put the game away with a single run in the fifth and a six-run eighth inning, keyed by a pair of T-Bird errors.

The senior from Sacramento, Calif., notched his tenth win of the season and upped his strikeout total to 102 - becoming just the fourth Coyote to go over the century mark in K's.  It is also the first time an ACI pitcher has fanned 100 batters in a season since James Atwood did in 1999.

Oliver went 3-for-3 and Dane McGrady went 3-for-4 in the win for the Yotes.  Murray and Sammie Starr each had two hits for the T-Birds.

Short Box

Albertson 12, British Columbia 3 (05/10/07 at Caldwell, ID)
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British Columbia.... 000 120 000 - 3 7 2 (21-19)
Albertson........... 230 010 06X - 12 10 1 (30-15)
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Pitchers: British Columbia - ROLFE; WEBSTER(3); SCHUMACHER(6); CHONG(8). Albertson - ROACH, J.
Win-ROACH, J(10-4) Loss-ROLFE(6-1) T-2:23 A-300
HR UBC - MURRAY (4).
HR ACI - BURKE (3).
Game notes:
Sunny, 85-degrees, Wind out to LF 5-15 mph