LA JOLLA, Calif. -- PacWest Pitcher of the Zack Noll had one of his best performances of the year on the mound on Thursday night as he led Point Loma to a 10-2 victory over Montana State Billings in the opening game of the NCAA West Regional on the campus of UC San Diego.

Noll struck out an incredible 14 batters in just six innings for an average of more than two strikeouts per inning for his tenth win of the season. He is now just the sixth player in PacWest history to earn 10 wins in a single season. The left-handed pitcher allowed just three hits and no runs in his six innings of work to send the Sea Lions to the next round in the winner's bracket.

As the Sea Lions improve to 31-19 on the season, they advance to play No. 2 seed UC San Diego at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Point Loma has already guaranteed that its season will continue to Saturday, but a win on Friday would make the Sea Lions just one win away from advancing to the NCAA West Region Championship Series.

Noll got plenty of run support out of the gates as Point Loma scored five runs in the first inning and added a sixth run in the second inning. With two outs in the first inning, Colby Kaneshiro hit a three-run home run to make the score 4-0 after Micah Pries had hits an RBI double. Kaneshiro finished the game with four RBIs and a run scored.

John Balliet also drove in a pair of runs for the Sea Lions on a single as part of a 3-run fifth inning. That pushed the lead to 9-0 before scoring again in the sixth inning to make it a double-digit lead. The bullpen took care of business the rest of the way, including Robert Ortiz III recording four outs with no runs allowed. The Sea Lions have three starting pitchers still available for the rest of the tournament with Stirling Strong, Jerry Quemada and Nathan Garkow each waiting to make their 2019 postseason debuts.