MADISON, S.D. -- With a pair of victories over Dakota State on Friday afternoon, the No. 7-ranked Bellevue University baseball team completed a regular season in which they won every conference series they played. The Bruins downed the Trojans 5-3 in the opener before routing their hosts 15-0 in the series finale.
With the win in the opener, Bellevue (41-10/25-2 NSAA) notched its 26th 40-win season (all since 1989) all-time and ninth in 11 full seasons under current head coach Duane Monlux. Dakota State closes out the regular season at 29-17 overall and 15-10 in North Star play. The 25 wins in NSAA play represents a program for the most conference wins in a single season.
Dakota State opened the scoring in the second. Seth Altwine doubled home Jace Pribyl for an early 1-0 lead.
Bellevue tied things in the fourth when Alex Stufft doubled in Brenton Davis and took the lead on Mathieu Sirois' first home run of the game, a solo shot to right, in the fifth.
With the score 2-1 in the seventh, Sirois and Alec Ackerman gave the Bruins some addition breathing room. Sirois launched a solo homer to left and Ackerman delivered a two-run dinger to left for a 5-1 BU lead.
That looked to be plenty for starter McGrane Pledger (8-3) who cruised through most of the game. Through seven, Pledger allowed just a run on five hits while recording seven strikeouts, before running into trouble in the eighth.
Easton Brinton came on for Pledger in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and no outs, BU leading 5-3. Despite the high-leverage situation he set down the next three batters in order to keep the two-run lead.
Bellevue threatened in the ninth with runners on second and third with nobody out but could not scratch across an insurance run.
Brinton worked around a one-out error in the ninth to slam the door shut on his first save of the season.
Mistuki Shimonishi (5-3) was similarly good for the Trojans until BU's three-run seventh. He exited with a final line of five runs allowed on nine hits and five strikeouts over 6.2 innings.
Blake Crippen (10-2) fired six innings of shutout ball to cap off a series win. The southpaw limited Dakota State to just four hits while punching out seven on the afternoon. He became the 32nd Bruin pitcher to reach double-digit victories in a single season and is the first to do so since Stephen Knapp in 2019.
Josh Vaughan staked the Bruins to a 2-0 lead with a single to center in the top of the first scoring Alec Ackerman and Kanta Kobayashi.
With a run already in following a safety squeeze by Kobayashi, Bellevue busted the game open in the second when Brenton Davis smacked an opposite field grand slam for his 13th homer of the season.
Bellevue tacked on a run with a bases loaded walk in the fourth and three more in the fifth with a wild pitch and a two-run bomb by Ackerman, his team-leading 16th of the season.
A Zach Diehl sac fly stretched the Bruin lead to 12-0 in the sixth that would prove more than enough run support for Blake Crippen who was in control on the hill.
Nathan Sprenger hit a three-run, bases clearing double in the seventh to further the lead to 15-0.
Matt Johnson worked a scoreless seventh to finish off the victory.
With the regular-season in the rearview, Bellevue turns its eyes to the postseason and next week's NSAA Tournament where the Bruins are the top seed. The winner of the NSAA Tournament will secure the North Star's lone automatic bid to the 2022 NAIA National Tournament. The full tournament schedule and pairings will be announced once all eight teams complete their regular-season.