Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
MADISON, S.D. -- The No. 25 Bellevue University baseball team tallied 35 runs on 34 hits to sweep Dakota State University in a North Star Athletic Association double-header on Wednesday afternoon at Flynn Field.
Bellevue downed Dakota State 19-5 in the opener before no-hitting the Trojans in a 16-0 win in the nightcap.
Records:
#25 Bellevue: 35-14 (19-1 NSAA)
Dakota State: 3-32 (1-19 NSAA)
Game One: BU 19, DaSU 5
Bellevue pounded out 21 hits, including six long balls, as they racked up a comfortable 19-5 win over Dakota State in game one of Wednesday's double-header.
Riley Baasch (4-6, 4 RBI, 4 runs) led the offensive assault with a pair of dingers and a double as he drove in four runs on the day.
Travis Tanaka (3-6, 3 RBI, 3 runs), Kory Longaker (3-6, 2 RBI, 2 runs), Tommy Hansen (3-6, RBI, 3 runs), and Austin Alexander (2-4, 3 RBI, 2 runs) each went deep for the Bruins as well.
Dakota State jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead, courtesy of a pair of infield hits and BU errors, but that advantage was short-lived.
A pair of runs in each the second and third innings put Bellevue ahead 4-2. The Bruins pushed their lead to 7-2 on Tanaka's sixth inning home run.
The Trojans cut the deficit to two runs, 7-5, with a three-run bottom of the sixth that saw three separate DaSU hitters deliver run-scoring hits.
Baasch went deep for the first time in the seven and Bellevue added a pair of runs in the eighth to take a 10-5 lead into the ninth.
Three Bruin homers, capped by Baasch's three-run shot, highlighted a nine-run ninth inning as BU secured the win.
Graham Cahill (3-1) threw six effective innings on the mound for the Bruins. He struck out six batters and allowed four earned runs (five runs) on seven hits.
Brandon Desjardins worked the final three innings, without allowing a base-runner, to earn the BU bullpen's second save of the season. Desjardins struck out six batters to notch his first career save.
Jalen Boyd (0-1), making his first start for Dakota State, went seven innings. He surrendered eight runs on 12 hits.
Game Two: BU 16, DaSU 0
Mitch Savine (4-3) and Derek Browne combined to fire a seven-inning no-hitter to pitch BU past Dakota State 16-0 and sweep the four-game season series. For the Bruins, it was the first no-no since Mar. 11, 2016 when Braulio Torres-Perez no-hit St. Ambrose.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning when Bellevue erupted for eight runs on five hits and aided by three DaSU errors. JT Patterson reached on a walk to lead off the inning and came around to score on Tommy Hansen's RBI-double to open the scoring.
Following a scoreless fifth inning, Bellevue tacked on a pair of home runs in the sixth courtesy of Patterson's 17th home run of the season, a two-run shot, as he moved into sixth place on the national leaderboard in long balls.
Bellevue hung six more runs on the board in the seventh, highlighted by a three-run blast off the bat of Kory Longaker.
Savine yielded the rubber after six hitless innings, and seven strikeouts, to Browne who worked a 1-2-3 inning punctuated by a strikeout to finish the game.
The Bruins racked up 13 hits in the game with Longaker, Patterson, Austin Alexander, and Hunter Jury all posting two-hit efforts.
Up Next:
Bellevue wraps up the regular-season this weekend with a four-game series in Forest City, Iowa against Waldorf University who sits just one game back of the Bruins in the NSAA standings. The action begins at 1 p.m. from the Waldorf Baseball Field on Saturday while Sunday's twin bill will get started at noon.
Scenarios:
1. If Bellevue wins or splits this weekend's series, the Bruins will be the out-right NSAA Regular-Season Champions and the No. 1-seed in next weekend's NSAA Tournament.
2. If Waldorf wins the series, but does not sweep, BU and the Warriors will share the regular-season crown with Waldorf earning the top seed in the NSAA Tournament.
3. If Waldorf sweeps this weekend's series, the Warriors will be the out-right NSAA Regular-Season Champions and the No. 1-seed in next weekend's NSAA Tournament.