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VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- The top-seeded Bellevue University baseball team pounded out 17 hits and used a nine-run sixth inning en route to a 16-6 run-rule win over No. 8-seed Valley City State University in the Bruins' opening game of the North Star Athletic Association Tournament Friday afternoon at Charlie Brown Stadium.
Bellevue (44-9) will play No. 5-seed Waldorf University at 2 p.m. on Saturday in a winner's bracket contest. VCSU will battle Dickinson State in a loser's bracket game at 11 a.m.
Derik Bontempo, Joe Mancuso, Colton Nash and Trevor Jones drove in 14 of the Bruins' 16 runs in the contest.
Bontempo went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and a home run to pace the BU offense.
A bases-clearing double to deep center by Nash gave the Bruins an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The Vikings battled back in the top of the second, tying the game with three runs on four hits, highlighted by an RBI double down the left field line by Brady Smith and a run-scoring single down the right field line by Xavier Padilla.
The Bruins regained the lead in the bottom of the third on a two-run single by Bontempo that drove in Ross Feeley and Joe Moran.
Bontempo's two-run homer in the fifth extended the BU lead to 7-3.
The Bruins exploded for nine runs in the sixth, highlighted by a three-run homer by Mancuso and a three-run triple to deep left-center field by Jones, pushing the margin to 16-3.
The Vikings got three runs back in the top of the seventh sparked by an RBI single to shallow right field by Brady Anderson. VCSU scored a pair of runs on a BU fielding error to cut the lead to 16-6.
Braulio Torres-Perez earned the complete-game win, improving to 9-1 on the season. He gave up four earned runs and struck out nine, while walking two in seven innings on the mound.
Jordon Roos suffered the loss, falling to 2-5 on the season. The Vikings used six pitchers in the contest.
