Box Score | Tournament Website
CLAREMORE, Okla. -- The Bellevue University baseball team outhit Midland University 13-7 and scored four runs in the eighth inning to propel the Bruins to a 7-2 win in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round at the Diamond Sports Complex.
Bellevue (45-9-1) will play Lubbock Christian University (42-16) at 6 p.m. tonight in an elimination game. LCU lost to the host school Rogers State, 7-5, yesterday.
Midland ended its season with a 31-26 overall mark.
The Bruins took a quick 1-0 lead on Ryan Knutz' RBI groundout to third base that scored Bryce Kelly who led the game off with a single. The Warriors answered back in the bottom half of the inning on Dylan Steyer's triple to tie the contest at 1-1 after the first inning of play.
BU regained the lead lead in the second on Kelly's two-out two-run double to center field. Beau Dahmen and Zack Clark both scored on the play to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead.
The Warriors trimmed their deficit down to one, 3-2, on Braxton Arndt's sixth inning double.
The Bruins scored four runs on five hits to extend their lead to 7-2 in the eighth inning highlighted by RBI hits from Knutz, Brian Embery and Dahmen.
Ricky Holm improved to 9-1 on the season, giving up two runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts in the complete game win.
Tyler Brungardt (5-8) took the loss for MU, allowing seven runs on 11 hits in 7.1 innings of work.
