COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Forced into a winner-take-all game three at Lindsey Wilson, Bruce Bell put together the best pitching performance of his career to lead the University of Pikeville baseball team to a 9-0 win in the Mid-South Conference Championship Opening Round on Saturday.

With the win, UPIKE punches its ticket to the final site in Bowling Green where they will meet three other teams for a double-elimination tournament for the MSC title. This is the Bears' first trip to the final site since the current postseason format was adopted. Last season, UPIKE lost in three games to St. Catharine in the opening round.

So far, MSC Regular-Season Champion Campbellsville, Georgetown and UPIKE have secured spots. The series between Cumberlands and Shawnee State (Ohio) will wrap up on Sunday.

The 9-0 win is UPIKE's fourth shutout of the season and just the second time LWC has been shut out all year and Bell was on the mound for all nine innings. The sophomore from Louisville improved to 2-1 on the season after allowing eight hits and striking out seven batters against just one walk.

Lindsey Wilson (27-25) stranded 10 runners on base and couldn't provide any run support for its stable of pitchers that appeared in game three. Starter Steve Colella was stuck with the loss (4-2) after scattering four hits for two runs with four strikeouts.

Travis Haen led UPIKE (26-22) at the plate in the win with three hits to drive in a pair of runs on a single and a double. Brandon Sewell hit a home run in the seventh to push the Bears' lead to 3-0, but they weren't done there, scoring six more times the rest of the way to put the series away.

The series could have been over four hours earlier.

Up 1-0 in the series, but down 8-7 in the ninth inning of game two, Jorge Perez electrified the UPIKE fans in the stands with a 3-run home run to center to take a 10-8 lead. But Lindsey Wilson had a rally of the own waiting in the bottom half.

After a strong 1 2/3 innings of setup by Bryce Carden, A.J. Carkner (1-6) was on for the save, but the Blue Raiders messed things up with a leadoff walk, followed immediately by a Connor Anderson triple to cut the deficit to one.

A one-out single by Ray Gonzalez tied the game, and then after a sac bunt, Jayden Jackson lifted a single to right for the walk-off win.

Colella grabbed the pitching win despite allowing three runs on two hits in his only inning of work in the ninth.

UPIKE was outhit 13-8 in the loss as only Anthony Roberts had multiple hits with two. Bailey drove in two runs on a triple and Jay Vincent hit a double.

When Bailey hit his triple in the fifth inning, UPIKE grabbed a 5-1 lead when he also scored on the play after a wild throw.

But the Blue Raiders scored three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to quickly get back in the game. UPIKE was down 8-5 heading into the eighth before getting two runs back in that inning, then taking the lead on Perez's blast in the ninth.

With 26 wins after the split on Saturday, the Bears have the most wins since tallying 28 in 2001.

UPIKE's opening game in Bowling Green will be on Friday at the Bowling Green Ball Park. Opponent and time will be announced on Sunday.

-UPIKE-