NEWARK, N.J. -- The pitching of Brock Johnson allowed UND to roll past the top-seeded team in the Great West Conference tournament.
UND scored five runs in the sixth inning en route to an 11-3 win over top-seed Northern Colorado on Wednesday in a winner's bracket game at the league tournament.
UND (25-20-1) advances to play either Texas-Pan American or Houston Baptist tonight in the semifinal round.
"I thought our pitching staff was really good today and the hero of the game today was Brock Johnson," UND coach Jeff Dodson said. "We had some timely hits and took advantage of a couple mistakes and anytime you are playing a team as good as Northern Colorado you have to make sure you capitalize anytime you get a chance."
UND starter Alex Twenge allowed just a pair of hits but had to get out of multiple jams in the first few innings. He left the bases loaded in the first and stranded two more in each of the next two frames as UND held an early 2-0 lead.
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North Dakota scored one more in the fourth and another in the fifth, all unearned, to grab a 4-0 lead. After Twenge saw a pair of runners reach by error in the fifth, he walked two batters before giving way to Johnson, who inherited a bases-loaded mess with two down and a 4-1 UND lead.
Johnson (2-0) mowed down the first batter he faced on three pitches to end the threat.
UND capitalized, scoring five times in the sixth as the Green and White sent 10 batters to the plate against four different UNC pitchers.
A leadoff walk by Patrick Vandoorne followed by a Tyler Follis single and an error plated the first run. Zack Trygstad drove in one with a sacrifice fly before UNC pitchers walked three straight UND batters.
The rally was capped by Patrick Riewer's two-run single up-the-middle for a 9-1 North Dakota advantage.
Johnson made the lead hold up. He retired the side in order in the sixth, then shrugged off leadoff runners in the next two innings to keep the Bears from mounting a serious charge. UNC scored in each of those frames, but each time Johnson was able to escape without major damage.
In the ninth, an error, a hit-batsman and a walk loaded the bases with one out. Reid Jungling then came on from the UND bullpen and got the final two outs to end it.
Eight of the nine UND starters scored a run and the RBIs came from seven different batters. Jeff Campbell had three more hits to lead the offense while Follis scored three runs.
