Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney baseball team scored nine early runs and got a strong pitching performance from junior Yancy Birch to beat New Mexico Highlands, 12-8, in an RMAC Tournament semifinal game late Saturday night in Grand Junction, Colo.

The Lopers (35-16) will face tourney host Mesa State at 1:00 p.m. (Central) on Sunday in the championship game. UNK will need to beat the second-seeded Mavericks twice in order to win this event for the third time since 2007. The if-necessary game would start around 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Highlands (27-26) advanced to the semifinal round by eliminating Colorado State-Pueblo, 9-8 in 11 innings, in the second game played Saturday. The Loper-Highlands game didn't start until 8:35 Mountain time and lasted nearly three hours. 

Leading the entire way, UNK had leads of 9-0 and 11-2 before the Cowboys rallied to make it an 11-8 contest by the sixth inning.

The Lopers took advantage of several errors and six wild pitches from Highlands' starter Kyle Sayers (4-5) to get out to its big lead. Sayers, who lasted just 1.1 innings, also hit two Kearney batters.

Among UNK's five hits over the first three innings was a run scoring triple from senior CF Jason Trulin (Blair) and an RBI double from senior Andrew Haake (Beatrice), who made his first career start in right field.

The 'Pokes come back started with relief pitcher Antonio Huez Robles, who struck out five and gave up four earned runs in 5.2 innings. He, and two subsequent pitchers, limited UNK to one run over the final five frames.

Highlands made things interesting by scoring four times in the fifth. Thanks to four walks and a hit batter, the Cowboys were inching closer and still had the bases load when Birch, a native of Grand Junction, entered the game. He fanned right fielder Jordan Chavez to keep it an 11-6 game.

Highlands did record three hits, and two runs, off Birch in the sixth but the 6-6 right handed sent down the Cowboys in order in the seventh and eighth innings to give UNK the momentum back.

The Lopers also tacked on an insurance run in the eighth when senior 2b Jordan Mitchelhill (Melbourne, Australia) reached via error and came around to score an RBI single by senior DH Felix Segovia (3 for 5).

On the night, HU made seven errors.

Improving to 2-0 on the year, Birch struck out three, walked none and gave up five hits in 4.1 innings. Freshman starter Ethan Poulsen (Longmont, Colo.) did shut out Highlands in three of the 4.2 innings he worked.

Besides Segovia, senior 3b Luke Valerius (Lakewood, Colo.) and sophomore catcher Chandler Klute (Kearney) each went 2 for 5.