VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- After seemingly scoring at will over the course of the North Star Athletic Association's first two rounds the No. 2 Bellevue University baseball team was held in check on Sunday afternoon, falling 6-1 to the University of Jamestown in the first Bracket A Championship Game.
With the Jamestown victory the Bruins and Jimmies will meet against tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the winner advancing to the 2017 NSAA Championship Game at 5 p.m. There, they will face the winner of the Mayville State-Valley City State game which is scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Bellevue falls to 49-8 on the season as their 15-game win streak came to a close while Jamestown improved their overall record to 39-18.
Jamestown got off to a fast start with runs in two of the game's first three innings, eager to erase Saturday's 17-4 defeat from Sunday's playbook.
Quinn Irey delivered the game's first run with a squeeze bunt to give Jamestown the lead. Tyler Ludlow led off the inning with a single through the right side, advanced to second on Vince Sablan's sacrifice, took third on a wild pitch, and came in on Irey's bunt.
After stranding a pair of BU runners the Jimmies doubled their advantage in the third. Scooter Turin led off the inning with a base hit to center and was advanced to second on a sac bunt. A wild pitch moved Turin up 90 feet to third and he came in when Kory Wolden set down a bunt that was mishandled allowing UJ to go up 2-0.
Bellevue got a run back in the fourth inning with Diego Iribarren's RBI-single. Miles Campbell reached on a fielder's choice and stolen second with two outs before Iribarren delivered a base knock to center to put the Bruins on the board.
The score remained 2-1 into the seventh when the Jimmies pushed their lead to 4-1. Taichi Sasaki scored on a wild pitch and Matt Noll scored on Christian Shouman's sac fly to give UJ a little breathing room.
A Mark Kane sac fly and a Quinn Irey RBI-single saw Jamestown add two more runs to their lead – making it 6-1 – in the eighth inning off reliever Dylan Thorp.
Joe Moran led off the bottom of the ninth with a single as Bellevue tried mounting a rally but it wasn't to be as the next three hitters went down in order and Jamestown secured the 6-1 victory.
Bruin pitcher Todd Nicks (L, 9-3) kept BU in the game with seven innings of work. He allowed four earned runs on five hits while punching out five.
UJ's Brad Bennett (W, 5-3) went the distance to earn the victory. He allowed just one earned run and struck out eight while scattering seven hits over nine innings on the hill.
