MARIETTA, Ohio — Penn State-Behrend's Thomas Zbezinski knew he needed a strong pitching performance on Friday.

Facing elimination and with intermittent rain, Zbezinski delivered in a big way as the Lions cruised to an 11-1 victory over Rochester in the fourth game of the NCAA Division III Regional at Marietta College Don & Sue Schaly Field.

"Rochester is an offensive machine and Thomas kind of got the best of them today," said PSU-Behrend coach Paul Benim.

Zbezinski was the machine. The 5-foot-9 lefthander threw 144 pitches and struck out 11 Yellowjackets for the complete-game victory. He improves to 8-1 on the season.

"I really trusted my preparation going into today. We looked at their lineup and we knew they were going to be an aggressive hitting team," he said. "I just trusted my stuff and let it fly and trusted my defense behind me."

Zbezinski gave up only three hits and walked one while improving his season earned run average to 1.68. He also came within one strikeout of reaching his season high of 12. Zbezinski relies heavily on his fastball, but he said he had great control of his changeup on Friday.

"I just really trust moving the fast ball in and out and up and down, and trusting them to swing the bat and trusting my fastball," he said. "The biggest thing for me is being able to change hitters' eyes and make them uncomfortable and not expecting where the next pitch is going to go even though it is pretty much the same pitch."

Rochester coach Joe Reina knew his Yellowjackets (24-10) needed to keep the game close to compete with Zbezinski. That goal didn't stand up for long as Behrend scored three runs in the first and two in the third inning.

"We knew going in we were going to see him. You look at the numbers and they are pretty impressive," Reina said. "In the end to only have our starter get through 2 1/3, you are asking for a lot on back-to-back days. (Zbezinski) was just great on the mound. He was mixing his fastball up and using both sides of the plate. He got ahead of about everybody and then he would throw a change up or the splitter that he had pretty decent command with."

Behrend designated hitter Justin Jones had a clutch, two-out double to drive in two runs in the first inning off Rochester starter Trevor Van Allen (3-2). Jones, who finished 4-for-5 with four RBI, pushed the Lions' lead to 3-0.

"From yesterday to today I needed to be aggressive and not take too many fastballs that they groove," Jones said. "The first inning it was a 3-1 count and I was expecting a fast ball and I got my barrel out to it. I guess I did that often today."

The only Rochester player to barrel up any pitches was sophomore left fielder Aaron Whitley, who had two hits, including a solo home run to lead off the sixth inning.

"He had great at-bats all day long," Zbezinski said. "I definitely didn't want to put him on base, especially with his speed and I didn't want them to get a spark out of that. I figured I'd just try to get one by him and he definitely got the best of it."

But that was about the only blemish on the day for Zbezinski.

"Thomas has been our guy since he got here and he's unrelenting. He's the ultimate competitor who wants to do the best he can, not only for himself but his teammates," Benim said. "He gets after it and we feed off of it a little bit because he's emotional. We have a bunch of great kids who are really smart that are really quiet. He has a little personality to him and I think at times it is infectious in a good way."

Behrend increased its lead to 5-0 when Josh Wagner led off with a double and scored on Isaac Stouffer's double. Then Jones singled home Stouffer before Rochester pulled Van Allen. The Lions added two more runs in the fifth inning with singles by Colin Harger, Jones and CJ Weller were sandwiched around a walk by Stouffer.

The Lions added another run in the sixth, two in the seventh and another one in the eighth. Behrend had six batters with multiple hits, including two each by Braden Paulinellie, Anthony Slate, Zack Bowen, Weller and Wagner.

"I think we had better at bats. It just felt like it took a little weight off our shoulders," Benim said. "We think we can be pretty good offensively. Justin Jones' performance today was outstanding and he came up really big when we needed him."