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OMAHA, Neb. -- Concordia University built a 9-1 lead in the fifth and thwarted a rally that saw the Bellevue University baseball team pull within a run as the Bulldogs defeated the Bruins 13-8 at John Stella Field at Brown Park in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round – Bellevue Bracket Championship Game.
Concordia, who began the day with a thrilling come-from-behind, 11-10 walk-off win over MidAmerica Nazarene in an elimination game, improves to 41-10 with the victory as they force the "If Necessary" Game.
Bellevue fell to 41-17 with the loss. The Winner-Take-All Championship Game will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. from Brown Park with the winner advancing to the 64th Annual Avista NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.
The Bulldogs tagged Bruin starter Charlie Patterson (7-2) for six runs on five hits, chasing the southpaw after just three innings of work.
Jakob Faulk capped a five-run third inning with a three-run home run to left-center before Josh Vaughan put the Bruins on the board in the fourth with a solo shot of his own to left-center.
Three more runs in the fifth off a pair of singles by Ben Berg and Teyt Johnson stretched the Bulldog lead to 9-1 in support of Nick Little who was starting on just one day of rest. Little three roughly 30 pitches in the CUNE win over MNU on Monday afternoon.
Little (8-1), who cruised through the first five innings, ran into trouble in the sixth as Bellevue started their rally. Riley Baasch delivered a bases loaded single to plate Conner Barnett ahead of Chaz Lopez who launched an opposite field grand slam to pull the Bruins to within three at 9-6.
Cody Banks made it a one-run game with a majestic two-run homer to left in the seventh. Vaughan followed up by reaching on an error to chase Little from the game.
Ryan Samuelson came out of the bullpen to strikeout seven of the nine batters he faced to record his second save of the season.
Joey Grabanski singled him a run past a drawn-in infield and Keaton Candor hit wall-scraping home run to left-center to provide CUNE some insurance in the eighth.
