SIOUX CENTER, Iowa -- The 24th-ranked Northwestern (Iowa) College baseball team posted an 8-5 win over No. 19 Bellevue University in nonconference action Tuesday night at Open Space Park.
Northwestern won its seventh-straight game and improved to 25-7 while Bellevue fell to 22-13-2.
Kyle Kinman went 3-for-5 with two RBIs while Bryce Kelly and Nate Mullins both collected two hits to lead the offense.
Erik Widener's RBI single gave the Red Raiders an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
NWC added four runs in the bottom of the third on a three-run double by Davis Bloemendaal and an RBI single by Gavin Okada, pushing the Red Raider advantage to 5-0.
A solo home run by Kelly in the top of the fourth sliced the NWC lead to 5-1.
The Red Raiders scored three runs on four hits and took advantage of two BU wild pitches to take a seven-run advantage, 8-1, in the bottom of the sixth.
Mullins hit his sixth home run of the season in the eighth for BU's second run of the game.
Kelly scored on a passed ball and Kinman hit a two-run single to cut BU's deficit down to three, but the final two batters struck out and the Bruins fell to NWC, 8-5.
Chase Davis earned his first win of the season and recorded three strikeouts in five innings.
Rory Young took the loss and fell to 1-2. He gave up five runs on four hits with three strikeouts in three innings of work.
The Bruins will open a 10-game homestand when they host the University of Winnipeg in a four-game series on Friday-Saturday, April 11-12. The doubleheaders begin each day at 1 p.m. at Westgate Field.
