AZUSA, Calif. -- Junior catcher Ryan Delgado homered to straightaway center in the bottom of the ninth to keep Azusa Pacific's season alive with a 9-8 walk-off victory over Biola in an elimination game of the 2009 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.

Delgado smashed a 2-1 fastball from Biola's All-GSAC closer Billy Vopinek to the deepest part of the Cougar Baseball Complex, where it cleared the center-field fence 410 feet from home plate just as the junior catcher rounded first base. A week ago, Delgado homered twice against Biola in a GSAC Postseason Tournament elimination game, but he struck out in the top of the ninth against Vopinek with Azusa Pacific trailing by a run in the Cougars' 11-10 loss.

"We feel pretty good with him at the plate,"Cougar head coach Paul Svagdis said. "Anytime you've got a guy like him up in the bottom of the ninth in a tie ballgame, you feel pretty good. There's pressure on the pitcher at that point when you're facing someone like Delgado, because if you miss, he can hurt you. It was nice that he hit it out to the deepest part of the park. That was the best closer in the league, and this is one of the best hitters in the league, and today you've got to tip your cap to Delgado for stepping up when he did."

This time, he took a first-pitch fastball for a strike from Vopinek and then worked the count to 2-1 before squaring up another fastball over the plate for the walkoff shot, his second of the contest.

"(Vopinek) throws a hard fastball, so I wanted to sit on that pitch," Delgado said. "I took that first one just to get a little timing down, and after I took a couple of change-ups, I thought he had to come back with the fastball because that's his best pitch. He challenged me."

The Cougars scored in each of the first 6 innings to take an 8-7 lead heading into the final 3 innings that helped set up Delgado's late heroics. In the top of the seventh, Vopinek's 2-out double put pinch-runner Phil Blazek, the representative tying run, in scoring position. At that point, Svagdis called for a defensive switch, moving second baseman Virgil Chavira out to right field, where he played most of the season, and bringing freshman Sammy Soyring into the game at second base. The move paid immediate dividends when Vinnie Fayard knocked an 0-2 pitch to Chavira in right field for a single. Blazek raced around third for home, and Chavira briefly bobbled the transfer from glove to throwing hand before firing to Delgado at the plate to nail Blazek for the third out of the inning.

"It was a good sign of the focus of our team and the depth in our dugout, to be focused when they were called upon to do something different," Svagdis said. "They were ready for it. I really liked their fight and their desire to go out and try to win this game today."

With Azusa Pacific still clinging to that 8-7 lead an inning later, Taylor Loop laced a leadoff single down the right-field line. Gil Banwart's sacrifice bunt attempt bounced back to senior righthander Ben Jones who turned and fired to second base to try to get the lead runner. Jones' throw took a tricky between-hop to senior shortstop Shaun Lane, who stuck with it and picked it out of the dirt for the important force out of the lead runner at second base.

Jones got out of the inning with a subsequent flyout and groundout, but he ran into trouble again to start the ninth inning. He issued a leadoff walk to Nick Rotkowitz, then gave up a single to Brent Chavez that put runners on first and second with no outs for the Eagles' 3-time All-GSAC cleanup hitter Hawkins Gebbers, who entered the game batting .400 (8-for-20) with 2 doubles, 4 home runs and 12 RBIs in the 2009 postseason. Jones got Gebbers to ground sharply to Soyring at second base, who initiated a double-play that put the Cougars 1 out away from the win with Rotkowitz at third base.

"Gebbers has been one of the best hitters in this league for 4 years, and for us to get 2 outs that quickly, that was a big play for us," Svagdis said.

Jones' 2-0 pitch to Vopinek bounced in the dirt and got away from a Delgado for a wild pitch that allowed Rotkowitz to score the game-tying run before Delgado's heroics in the bottom half of the frame.

"After we lost yesterday to Point Loma, we knew we had to take it the hard way," Delgado said. "We have to keep approaching each game the same way we approached today's – with high intensity, trying to be a tough out, and things will hopefully fall our way."

Delgado was 2-for-2 and drew 3 walks (2 intentionally) with a pair of solo blasts, including the first of back-to-back solo shots for him and Chavira in the bottom of the third that gave Azusa Pacific a 4-2 lead. Senior third basemanRyan Dowell gave the Cougars a 2-run cushion with a 2-out, 2-run shot to left in the bottom of the fourth inning, his fourth home run of the season. Biola was led by 3-for-4 performances from Rotkowitz and Loop, while 3 other Eagles tallied 2 hits each to pace a 16-hit attack.

Vopinek, whose 18 saves this season leads all levels of 4-year college baseball, surrendered just his third earned run of the season with the walkoff blast. The only 2 earned runs surrendered by Vopinek since Feb. 25 have both come in the postseason to Azusa Pacific's Brice Cutspec and Ryan Delgado, who have hit a combined 54 home runs this season. Azusa Pacific is 1 of just 3 4-year college baseball programs this year who have at least 2 players with 20 or more home runs.

Up next for fourth-seeded Azusa Pacific is another elimination game, a 2 p.m. matchup with second-seeded British Columbia Thursday afternoon, which will be followed by the winner taking on top-seeded Point Loma Nazarene in the first of 2 possible games for the tournament championship. If Point Loma Nazarene is defeated Thursday evening, the same 2 teams would play for the NAIA World Series berth awarded to the tournament champion in an 11 a.m. contest on Friday, May 15.

With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 35-19 overall, while Biola's season ends with a 35-24 overall mark.