BISMARCK, N.D. -- For the second-straight week, the Bellevue University baseball team has swept the weekly North Star Athletic Association honors for their performances last week in the Bruins' three home wins. Sophomore third baseman Nick Grade was named the NSAA Player of the Week, while junior left-handed pitcher Blake Crippen grabbed his second-consecutive NSAA Pitcher of the Week honor.
Bellevue recorded a 3-0 record on the week with an 8-0 non-conference shutout over Dakota Wesleyan and a doubleheader sweep (11-8 and 9-0) over Viterbo University to start the league portion of the 2023 campaign.
Grade hit .545 on the week with a 1.480 OPS. He had a pair of multi-hit games and 3-RBI contests. Grade played errorless defense (10 attempts) at third and started a pair of around-the-horn double plays.
Grade registered at least one hit and scored a run in all three games on the week.
Crippen needed just 72 pitches to throw a complete-game, four-hit shutout while striking out seven batters in BU's 9-0 win over Viterbo. Just one runner reached second base, and none reached third as Crippen improved to 5-1 on the season.
The 14th-ranked Bruins (15-6/2-0 NSAA) are completing their four-game conference home series with Viterbo University today before traveling to Valley City, N.D. this Friday-Saturday, March 24-25, for a four-game NSAA series at Valley City State University.
