FRESNO, Calif. - The University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars' baseball season came crashing down Thursday in a seven-run fifth inning.

Sending 11 batters to the plate, the seventh-ranked University of British Columbia Thunderbirds advanced to the NAIA Opening Round tournament championship with a 9-3 win over the Jaguars in an elimination game. The Thunderbirds (41-12) advance to play Point Loma Nazarene later Thursday, while the Jaguars end their season at 33-22.

The British Columbia-Point Loma Nazarene winner advances to the Avista-NAIA World Series. UBC must beat Point Loma twice to advance.

Four of the seven runs the Thunderbirds scored in the fifth were unearned as UBC took advantage of two UHC errors.

The first five Thunderbirds reached to start the inning on three singles and a pair of walks. Back-to-back RBI singles by Sammie Starr and Nic Lendvoy in the put the Thunderbirds up 4-2. Jaguars' starter Bobby Gomez looked like he might work his way out of the jam when Bob Foerster's sacrifice fly scored Starr, but two errors would prolong the inning and allow UBC to score four more runs.

The Jaguars struck quickly for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Ryan Gilbert ripped a one-out triple to right center and scored on a sacrifice fly by John Longoria.

Longoria would put the Jaguars up 2-0 with a two-out solo home run to left in the third, before the Thunderbirds would come back to tie the game on a two-run home run by Blake Carruthers in the fourth.

David Baker's two-out solo home run in the sixth was the final Jaguars offensive highlight, as reliever Dan Britton-Fost would come on in the top of the seventh and retire all nine batters he faced.

The Thunderbirds threatened one last time in the eighth loading the bases with one out against Jaguars reliever Rex Garner. But Garner worked out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts.