LA JOLLA, Calif. – PacWest Conference Pitcher of the Year Zack Noll matched his career high with 14 strikeouts in six shutout innings Thursday night at Triton Ballpark, lifting No. 24 Point Loma Nazarene University to a 10-2 victory over Montana State University Billings in the opening game of the 2019 NCAA Division II West Region Baseball Championships.
 
The Sea Lions plated five runs in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back, building a 10-0 lead and finishing the job to improve to 31-19 overall on the season. MSUB fell to 33-19, and snapped its school-record 11-game winning streak.
 
The Yellowjackets play host and No. 2 seed #10 UC San Diego on Friday at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time. MSUB must win to keep its season alive and avoid being eliminated.
 
Noll scattered just three hits over his six innings of work, while walking three batters and throwing 114 pitches. Robert Ortiz and Connor Barrett threw the final 2 1/3 innings in shutout fashion, and each of PLNU's three relievers had a strikeout to bring the staff's total in the game to 17.
 
Jarrod Molnaa battled through five full innings of work, throwing 124 pitches and giving up nine runs – six earned – on 10 hits. The senior right-hander finished with nine strikeouts, while walking three batters as he fell to 8-3 on the season. Brandon Maassen, Sam Muskat, and Hunter Roubidoux each threw a solid inning out of the bullpen to finish the game for the 'Jackets.
 
Colby Kaneshiro led PLNU with four RBIs on the night, including a game-changing home run in the first inning. Four different PLNU players had a pair of hits, as PLNU scored its 10 runs on a dozen knocks while leaving eight on base.
 
Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year Daniel Cipriano was the lone Yellowjacket with multiple hits, as he went 2-for-4 on an evening where MSUB managed just seven hits and left 12 on base. Jalen Garcia and Chris Arpan had the two RBIs for MSUB.
 
Garcia managed a one-out single in the top of the first inning, and Arpan drew a walk on eight pitches to give MSUB a pair of baserunners. Noll ended the frame with a punch out however, and PLNU got to work in the bottom of the first.
 
Travis Takata drew a leadoff walk, and Micah Pries plated the first run of the day with a double into right field. Molnaa struck out the next two hitters to give himself a good chance to limit the damage, but Kaneshiro drilled the first pitch he saw over the fence in right to make the score 4-0. Casey Dunlap then delivered an RBI-single, completing the Sea Lions' five-run first-inning rally.
 
Noll responded with a clean second inning, and retired six in-a-row until Cipriano led off the fourth with a single to center field. Matt Dillon drew a one-out walk to once again give the 'Jackets a pair of baserunners, but Knoll thwarted the threat with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
 
PLNU's sixth run came in the bottom of the second, when Takata came across on a wild pitch. Molnaa limited the damage and stranded a pair of runners in scoring position, but needed 57 pitches to get through his first two frames of work.
 
A dropped fly ball in the bottom of the fifth aided the Sea Lions in scoring three unearned runs with two outs, and pushing the game further out of reach at 9-0.
 
MSUB got on the board in the top of the seventh inning, when Garcia's bases-loaded ground ball to shortstop pushed Tyler Detloff across the plate. Arpan followed with an RBI base on balls, before Ortiz ended the inning with a lineout and the score at 10-2.
 
The Yellowjackets, who entered the day with a GNAC single-season record 82 home runs, were held without a long ball for the first time in 11 games to snap the third-longest streak in conference history.
 
THE BUZZ: Cipriano was named the St. Vincent Healthcare Player of the Game…MSUB is now 0-1 all-time against Point Loma Nazarene…MSUB tied the school record for most games played in a season with 52, a mark also reached during the 2017 and 2008…Cipriano broke the MSUB single-season record for total bases with 133, surpassing Jalen Garcia's mark of 132 (2018) and Brody Miller's total of 132 (2015)…Molnaa tied the MSUB single-season record for starts with his 14th, matching Cody Cooper's total from the 2017 campaign…it was just the third time this season that MSUB went without an extra-base hit in a game…MSUB broke the school record for put outs in a season, with 1,262 and passing the mark of 1,254 set in 2018…Arpan's three walks drawn were his season high.
 
NEXT UP: The Yellowjackets face an elimination game on Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. against UCSD. Live video will be available online here and live statistics will be available online here.