MESA, Ariz.-- A four-run fifth, highlighted by Jeff Campbell's two-run missile over the leftfield fence, propeled third-seeded North Dakota to a 7-2 win over six-seed Northern Colorado Wednesday night in the opening round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. UND now advances through the winners' bracket to face second-seed Bakersfield Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Central.

Andrew Thome went the distance, carrying a shutout into the ninth for his 17th career complete game. He shrugged off a pair of runs in that final inning for the Bears to up his record to 5-6 on the season.  The senior now has three wins in conference tournament openers in his standout career.

He set down the first 10 batters he faced Wednesday, getting tons of ground ball outs in an effective 118-pitch victory. All told, he induced 16 groundouts on the night with his infield turning a pair of double plays behind him.

His offense gave him the lead in the fourth when three consecutive two-out hits produced a pair of runs. Brett Harrison kept his hot bat alive with the first of two doubles followed by a Dalton Leuschke triple to plate the first run. Luis Calvo continued the inning with a run-scoring single to right to stake Thome to a 2-0 lead.

UND (24-25) would pile on four more runs in the next inning, doing the damage on the UNC bullpen. North Dakota greeted new reliever Justin Mulvaney with three hard-hit balls to chase him from the ball game. The first, off the bat of Dalton Parrott was a line-drive right at left fielder Dan Reese that was scored a two-base error. Tyler Follis laced a down the right frield line for a triple then Jeff Campbell outloaded for a two-run homer over the left field fence for a 5-0 lead. Ryan Reese would double and score later in that frame for an advantage of a half-dozen.

That was plenty for Thome to work with, who had given up just six hits with four strikeouts and no walks heading into the ninth. A few seeing-eye grounders found their way into the outfield to score a pair of UNC runs, but Thome got Jake Garcia to bounce a harmless chopper back to the mound that he flipped to Campbell for the win.

Every spot in the lineup had at least one hit Wednesday with Harrison and Follis each recording two hits in the win.  

North Dakota will put its five-game winning streak-- tied for its longest in its Division I history-- on the line Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Central against second-seeded Bakersfield, who had a first-round bye in the tournament.

Notes: It was UND's first-ever win in the WAC Tournament ... Thome earned his 18th career win (tied for second at UND, one shy of top mark) ... It was his 17th complete game of his career, also one shy of the school record ... Tyler Follis (75) set a new school-record for single-season hits, breaking his own mark of 74 set back in 2012 ... Jeff Campbell's 32nd career HR put him in a tie for 4th at UND in that category ... North Dakota has won seven straight against Northern Colorado in the all-time series.