MADISON, S.D. -- Juniors Todd Nicks and Derik Bontempo helped the Bellevue University baseball team sweep the final installment of North Star Athletic Association Weekly Awards in an announcement made by the conference office. Nicks was honored as the NSAA Pitcher of the Week while Bontempo grabbed NSAA Player of the Week accolades.
Bontempo homered in all four games of the conference tournament, fueling Bellevue to its first-ever NSAA Tournament title. He finished the conference tournament with five home runs and drove in 14 total runs. He was 10-of-18 at the plate with nine runs scored and a double. Bontempo posted a slugging percentage of 1.444 as the Bruins outscored their opponents 55-13 in the tournament.
Nicks was one of the just two pitchers, and the only starter , who did not allow an earned run in the NSAA Conference Tournament. He posted a tournament-best 14 strikeouts from the pitching mound as the Bruins shut down Waldorf (Iowa) 11-0 in the Bruins' second game of the tournament. Nicks tossed eight innings and limited the Warriors to five hits in the game.
Bellevue (Neb.) claimed the first NSAA automatic bid to the NAIA Baseball National Tournament after winning the regular-season title with a 20-3 conference record. Since the Bruins also won the conference tournament, the tournament's runner-up Mayville State (N.D.) received the league's second automatic bid to the national tournament. Jamestown (N.D.) will most likely will receive an at-large bid and will host the national tournament's opening round at Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown.
Pairings for the NAIA Baseball Opening Round will be announced on Friday, May 13. The Opening Round tournaments will be held May 17-20 at nine sites throughout the country. The champions of the Opening Round tournaments advance to the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series in Lewiston, Idaho on May 27-June 3.
