Point Loma's Chad Blauer threw blanks and centerfielder Allen Boyer blasted a three-run homer to lift the Sea Lions to a NAIA World Series berth with a 9-3 National Championship Opening Round title game win over British Columbia at the FPU Diamond.

PLNU went through the tournament unblemished and will be one of 10 teams battling for the national championship at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho, May 28-June 4. The Sea Lions advanced all the way to the title game last season.

“Chad picked a great time to pitch his best game of the season,” said PLNU head coach Joe Schaefer. “He had all of his pitches working tonight.”

Blauer, a senior righthander, fanned a career-high 16 batters and improved to 11-2 on the season. He gave up only six hits as his squad improved to 38-18. British Columbia's season ends at 40-13.

The Sea Lions had enough offense under the lights, scoring two runs in the third, three in the fourth, one in the sixth, two in the eighth and one in the ninth.

They tallied their first score with an assist from the Thunderbirds. Tyler Kuehl got the rally started with a two-out double. After an intentional walk to Jeff Fox and a wild pitch, Rashad Taylor's warning track fly ball in right field was dropped allowing Kuehl and Fox to score to make it 2-0.

Boyer then hit his blast in the fourth inning, greeting reliever Andrew Ledger with a three-run launch over the right field fence, his 18th home run of the year. Steven Winnick had led off the inning with a double.

Meanwhile, Blauer was throwing blanks at his opponents. Through five innings, he gave up only three hits and fanned nine. UBC's Sammie Starr accounted for Blauer's first blemish with a two-out solo shot in the sixth, but the senior righty battled back by strikeout the next batter, his 11th of the game.

The Sea Lions would get that run back in the bottom half of the inning when Drew Bernhard led off the sixth with a double off the right field fence, and two batters later courtesy runner Ronnie Chester scored on Alex Cameron's sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Blauer survived some shaky PLNU defense in the seventh inning when a pair of errors and a walk loaded the bases for the Thunderbirds. But a ground ball out ended UBC's best opportunity of the night.  The Sea Lions would add another pair of insurance runs in the eighth courtesy of Cameron's two-run double to make the count 8-1. Blauer would then run out of gas in the ninth after fanning two more batters, allowing a pair of runs. Robbie Ross came on to get the final out.

“It feels good to put together a good series of games against three very good teams,” Schaefer added. “But we still have work to do. This group wants to go back to Lewiston and finished what we started a year ago.”

Notes….Univ. of British Columbia has over 44,000 students…Colorado Rockies ace Jeff Francis played for the Thunderbirds…UBC defeated Division I Washington State earlier this season…They have been ranked as high as third in the NAIA this year…PLNU topped the Thunderbirds 7-2 in last year's Opening Round and is 3-2 all-time against the team from Victoria, BC …PLNU is ranked #17 in the NAIA national poll. They were listed #2 to begin the year…This is Point Loma's sixth appearance in NAIA post-season play. They are now 16-8 all-time….Head coach Joe Schaefer led the Sea Lions to the NAIA title game in his first year as head coach in 2009.

-Russ Blunck