NSAA Tournament Stats
NSAA Tournament Central
VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- The No. 21-ranked Bellevue University baseball team used a three-run eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie en route to defeating fourth-seeded Presentation College 6-3 on Saturday afternoon in North Star Athletic Association Tournament action at Charlie Brown Memorial Field.
Presentation's season comes to a close with the Saints having been eliminated from the 2019 NSAA Tournament.
Records:
#21 Bellevue: 41-14
Presentation: 20-24
Recap: (1) Bellevue 6, (4) Presentation 3
JT Patterson put the Bruins on the board first with his 22nd home run of the season to center field in the top of the first.
The score remained 1-0 in favor of BU until a bases loaded balk by Stephen Knapp gave the Saints a run in the bottom of the third.
Stuart Eurich gave the Bruins the lead again in the fourth with a triple down the right field line to score Riley Baasch but PC quickly erased that deficit with a home run off the bat of Kyle Angielski in the bottom half of the frame.
The back-and-forth continued in the fifth as Kory Longaker went deep for the Bruins and Presentation starter Jesse Spangler helped his own cause with a single to tie the game at 3-3 after five innings of play.
The game stayed tied until Bellevue came up with three runs in the eighth thanks to RBI-singles of the bats of Riley Baasch, Wataru Kazama, and Travis Tanaka put the Bruins ahead 6-3.
After securing a three-run lead, Bruin coach Duane Monlux made a call to the bullpen to bring in Brandon Desjardins to close out the game. Following an uneventful eight inning, Desjardins worked around a hit batter and an error in the ninth to earn his second six-out save in as many days.
Five of the six outs recorded by Desjardins came via strikeout.
Stephen Knapp (10-2) saw his win total reach double figures with seven quality innings on the hill. He limited the Saints to three runs on eight hits and a pair of walks.
Jesse Spangler (1-2) kept Presentation competitive. He limited Bellevue to just three runs on six hits headed into the eighth inning before the Bruin bats got to him. He finished with a final line of 7.2 innings allowing six runs on eight hits and he struck out nine batters.
Up Next:
Bellevue plays the winner of the Valley City-Waldorf game tomorrow at 11 a.m., with a spot in the Championship Game on the line.
