Box Score LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Sixth-seeded British Columbia jumped on second-seeded Cal State San Marcos for eight runs in its first at-bat as the Thunderbirds upset the Cougars 11-3 on Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Softball Championship at Grizzly Softball Complex on the campus of Georgia Gwinnett College.

The Cougars drop to 35-6-1 overall and will face fifth-seeded Lindenwood-Belleville (32-22-1) in an elimination game on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. PT (11:00 a.m. ET). CSUSM beat LUB 11-3 before tying 4-4 in the teams' doubleheader on Feb. 26.

If CSUSM is able to beat LUB, the Cougars advance to another elimination game on Friday at 3:30 p.m. PT (6:30 p.m. ET).

CSUSM starter Katie Wilkinson (19-4) had trouble out of the gate with her control and things were made worse by a couple of key Cougar errors. UBC chased Wilkinson in two-thirds of an inning after scoring eight runs off four hits and five walks. Ashley Dagenais would be called on to get out of the first inning and she would throw the rest of the way.

UBC (16-13) led 10-0 by the end of the third and Kelly Rumley's RBI single made it 11-0 in the fifth.

The CSUSM bats finally woke up in the sixth. Mallory Campbell brought home a run with a double to right center before Olivia Lucatuorto's grounder to the right side scored Tani Leasau. Brogan Hoenisch tagged a double hard down the left field line to bring home Campbell and make it 11-3.

The Cougars added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh. Kaitlin McGinley scored on a groundout by Bellamy before Caylyn Rodriguez came home from third thanks to a fielding error by the UBC shortstop to pull CSUSM within six.

Dagenais threw 6.1 innings, striking out six while allowing three earned runs on six hits and five walks.

Campbell was 2-for-4 and Alex Miller was 2-for-3 with a run scored.