COLUMBUS, Ga. – John Roberts and Clayton Miller both had ninth inning RBI singles Sunday afternoon to lead the No. 11-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State University baseball team to a 3-1 victory over No. 30 Lander in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship game at Golden Park.

Armstrong (40-14), the top seed in the East Division which also won the tournament in 2007, earns the PBC's automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Tournament.

Lander (37-18) must now wait until tonight to see if they will receive an at-large berth into the regional. Bearcats Patrick Grady and Chris Thomas were both named to the PBC All-Tournament team.

The Bearcats, who set a single-season record for wins in a season this year, were playing in the PBC championship game for the first time since starting the program in 1998. In fact, this season was the first the team has won more than one game in the tournament.

Armstrong's Chess Malone (3-1) earned the victory on the mound with five strikeouts, one walk and three hits in four innings pitched. Starter Travis Morris struck out four, walked three and allowed one earned run on five hits in five innings pitched.

Lander's Scott Elitzky (4-2) took the loss after striking out six, walking one and allowing three runs (one earned) on one hit in 8.1 innings pitched.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead on Roberts' solo home run in the second inning.

The Bearcats knotted it at 1-1 in the bottom of the inning when Kevin Childs doubled and scored on Erik Lunde's RBI double.

After six scoreless innings, Armstrong's rally began when Casey Maloney reached on a throwing error, advanced to second on Alex Frederick's groundout then went home on Roberts single to right field. After Chris Zittrouer reached on a fielder's choice, Miller drove Drew Walker home with a single to centerfield.

For Lander, Erik Lunde batted 2-for-4.