GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Junior right-hander Todd Nicks pitched his best baseball of the season on Tuesday evening to lead the No. 2 Bellevue University baseball team to a thrilling 1-0 victory over Clarke University in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round Grand Rapids Bracket.
The win was Bellevue's (48-9) fifth in a row and kept the Bruins unbeaten in post-season play this year. Clarke falls to 38-16 with the loss.
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, Joe Moran took off from third and Jake Browne laid down a perfectly placed suicide squeeze that Clarke never had a chance to make a play on to send the Bruins to a 1-0 walk-off victory.
Nicks' two-hit shutout kept the Bruins in the game until the offense scratched across the game's lone run in the ninth. Nicks did not allow a runner past second base in the entire game and yielded just two hits to Clarke who had beaten Saint Xavier earlier in the day by a count of 3-1 to advance to play the Bruins. He struck out 12 and didn't walk a batter.
Moran led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single. On the first pitch to Derik Bontempo – with Bontempo squared around to bunt – Moran took off and stole second before advancing to third base when the throw from the Crusader catcher sailed into center field. After Bontempo was retired on a ground out, Clarke put the next two batters on intentionally to set up force plays at all four bases with Browne at the bat. From there Browne and Moran executed perfectly to give BU the win.
Bellevue failed to score on a suicide squeeze earlier in the ballgame when Kevin Rodriguez couldn't quite make contact in the fifth inning and Connor Garrison was tagged out at the plate.
After allowing a one-out single in the first, Nicks turned on the cruise control allowing just three base-runners the rest of the way and faced just three batters over the minimum.
Trevor Jones (2-3) was the game's lone player with multiple hits. Ross Feeley, Moran, Joe Mancuso, and Browne also provided hits for BU.
Juan Munoz and Ryan Siems had the lone singles for the Crusaders.
Clarke starter Anthony Ruden was terrific as well. He allowed just one run on five singles in 8.1 innings on the hill before being lifted for reliever Evan Karre. Ruden issued six walks – although two were intentional – and struck out four batters on the game.
Bellevue meets Davenport tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time (1 p.m. CT). The Panthers rallied from a two-run deficit with a three-run eighth inning to defeat York, 4-2, in today's second game. The winner advances to the championship round on Thursday at 2 p.m. local time (1 p.m. CT).
