OMAHA, Neb. - Senior Sean McManus (Palm Coast, Fla.) struck out a career-high 10 and carried a no-hitter into the sixth as the Bellevue University baseball team defeated Benedictine College 10-0 in eight innings on Thursday afternoon at Westgate Field in non-conference action. Bellevue (14-4), ranked 14th nationally, is now 10-2 in their last 12 games with the victory while the loss drops Benedictine to 3-14 on the season.
The Bruins got on the board first with a three-run second. Back-to-back doubles by juniors Gabriel De La Rosa (Miami, Fla.) and Colton Nash (Bonney Lake, Wash.) saw BU grab a 1-0 lead. After junior Aaron Brasher (Vallejo, Calif.) reached on an error that saw Nash score on the Ravens were able to get a pair of outs. Junior Kevin Rodriguez (Pico Rivera, Calif.) dropped a bloop single into right to score sophomore pinch runner Elijah Dickerson (Vancouver, Wash.) for a 3-0 BU advantage.
Junior Miles Campbell (New Cumberland, Pa.) led off the bottom of the fourth with a hustle double on a shallow fly ball that dropped in center field. The Bruins followed with some good situational hitting, a pair of ground balls to the right side by sophomore Todd Nicks (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Rodriguez, to advance Campbell to third and eventually score.
The Bruins threatened a big inning in the bottom half of the fifth but could not deliver. Senior Tyler Blood (Salt Lake City, Utah) laced a single through the left side before classmate Osvaldo Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) followed with a hot shot double down the third base line to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Benedictine starter Ross Jacobs was able to settle down and close out the inning, getting De La Rosa to pop up, Nash swinging at strike three, and Brasher to ground out to first.
McManus matched his career-high for strikeouts in a game with his sixth in the top of the fifth by getting DH Jake Franey to chase a breaking ball off the plate. One inning later he eclipsed it with his seventh getting Brenden Watamaniuk swinging to end the sixth and strand a runner at third. McManus' no-no bid was broken up by Josh Kagarise in the sixth when he lined a clean single to center.
Bellevue added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth courtesy of two-out run-scoring singles by both Blood and Gonzalez. Another two runs came in in the eight, the first as Dickerson, pinch-running for Rodriguez, scored from third on a wild pitch. Nash knocked in a run with a two-out single deep in the whole to short with two outs to put BU up 8-0. A hard-hit two-run single down the left field line by Campbell induced the 10-run rule and the victory.
In all McManus threw a career-high eight innings of one-hit ball without allowing a run to pick up his third victory of the year and improve his record to 3-0. The complete-game shutout was the second of the year for the Bruins, both by McManus, who recorded the other in an 11-0 victory over Bethel (Ind.) on March 5. McManus has not allowed a run in his last 16.0 innings of work, lowering his ERA to 0.93 on the season.
Bellevue returns to action tomorrow when they host Northwestern College at 3:00 p.m. at Westgate Field. The Bruins will also host the Red Raiders in a double-header at Westgate Field on Saturday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
