MADISON, S.D. -- For the second consecutive week – and third time this season – the Bellevue University baseball team has swept the North Star Athletic Association's weekly awards program. Senior OF Derik Bontempo was named the NSAA Player of the Week and senior RHP Ben McKendall took home NSAA Pitcher of the Week honors.
Ben McKendall continued his strong season on the mound with another outstanding start. In Friday's series-opener against Dakota State, McKendall fired his team-leading fourth complete-game shutout. He scattered six hits over eight innings (shortened due to 10-run rule) as Bellevue blanked Dakota State by a score of 10-0.
McKendall struck out a season-high 13 batters and issued just one walk. It was the third time in his last four starts that he struck out at least 10 and issued one or less walks. McKendall improved his W-L record to 6-0 on the season while lowering his ERA to 1.55. He has now struck out 64 batters and walked just 10 in 58.0 innings of work on the year.
After earning NSAA Pitcher of the Year honors in 2016, this is the first time McKendall has been named NSAA Pitcher of the Week in his two-year BU career.
Reigning NAIA National Player of the Week Derik Bontempo had an even better week this week. The senior slugger slashed an impossibly hot .688/.700/.1.563 in leading the Bruins to a perfect 5-0 week, extending their nation-best (NAIA, NCAA I, NCAA II, NCAA III) winning streak to 26 games.
Bontempo recorded multiple hits in four of five games on the week which included a pair of three-hit efforts. He totaled six extra-base hits which featured two doubles and four home runs. He had multi-home run games to bookend with the week with a pair of long balls in a midweek matchup with Midland and in the series finale against Dakota State. On the week Bontempo finished 11-for-16 with 11 RBI and nine runs scored. He extended his hitting streak to 11 and has now reached base safely via hit or walk in 38 of Bellevue's 39 games this season.
This is the third time this season that Bontempo has been named NSAA Player of the Week and the fourth time in his two-year career as a Bruin.
Bellevue has won 26-straight games dating back to a March 6 win over Keiser. BU now stands at 33-6 on the season and are a perfect 12-0 in NSAA play, two games ahead of second place Mayville State and Jamestown. The Bruins, ranked fifth in the latest NAIA Coaches' Poll, return to the diamond tomorrow for a 3 p.m. tilt at Morningside College.
