OMAHA, Neb. -- The No. 11-ranked Bellevue University baseball team scored nine runs in the eighth inning to induce a 15-5 run-rule victory over Midland University on Tuesday evening at John Stella Field at Brown Park.
The win marked the 700th of Bruin head coach Duane Monlux's coaching career, with the last 468 coming at BU.
With 12 wins in their last 13 games, Bellevue improves to 25-8 while Midland falls to 18-10 following their seventh-straight loss.
After a couple of scoreless innings, Bellevue broke through with a five-run third against Midland starter Hilton Mehrmann.
Tradd Richardson opened the scoring with a sac fly before back-to-back singles by Alec Ackerman and Mathieu Sirois made it a 3-0 BU lead. Sirois came home to score on a failed pickoff attempt and Brenton Davis would trot home on a passed ball later in the frame.
The Bruins added a run in the home half of the fifth on another sac fly by Richardson and starter McGrane Pledger exited with a 6-0 lead.
Midland rallied in the seventh with five runs off a pair of Bruin relievers – Charlie Patterson and Easton Brinton – to pull to within a run at 6-5.
Still leading 6-5, Davis kicked off a nine-run eighth with an RBI-single before Zach Diehl followed with one of his own and Andrew Ishii delivered a two-run double to left. CJ Townsend chased in two-more with a pinch hit single and Ackerman ended the game with a laser line drive into the wind to plate himself and Kanta Kobayashi.
Pledger (4-3) worked five scoreless innings, scattering six hits and striking out three. Bailey Link earned his first save with a perfect eighth inning, striking out the first two batters he faced before inducing a groundout.
Mehrmann (1-3) took the loss allowing three earned runs (five total) on six hits in three innings of work.
Ackerman finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored while Davis (2-4), Alex Stufft (2-4), Ishii (2-4), and Drew Staley (2-3) also had multi-hit games for the Bruins.
Bellevue travels to Forest City, Iowa this weekend for a four-game series at Waldorf University (7-20/6-6 NSAA). Saturday's double-header begins at 1 p.m. with Sunday's first pitch scheduled for noon.
