FOREST CITY, Iowa -- The No. 10-ranked Bellevue University baseball team pounded out 38 hits en route to scoring 31 runs in a North Star Athletic Association double-header sweep of Waldorf University on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins won the series opener in a 20-11 slugfest before blanking the Warriors 11-0 in the nightcap.
BU has now won six-straight to improve to 27-8 overall and remain perfect in NSAA play at 13-0. Waldorf slips to 7-22 overall and two games under .500 in league play at 6-8.
Bellevue scored in all nine innings, putting up crooked numbers in six frames, as Waldorf never really challenged. BU led by as many as 12 at 17-5 after the top of the seventh.
Conner Barnett led the offensive barrage, becoming the 21st Bruin to record a five-hit game, going 5-for-7 at the dish including a pair of home runs and a career-high nine RBI. The nine RBI are the second most by a BU player in a single game.
Kanta Kobayashi had another phenomenal game in the leadoff spot, going 4-for-6 with a walk, and finishing a home run shy of the cycle, while scoring five runs. He becomes just the second Bruin batter to score five runs in a game twice in the same season (or career).
Alec Ackerman and Alex Stufft each recorded three hits for Bellevue on the game as eight of nine Bruins to record an at-bat finished with multi-hit games while Brenton Davis went 1-for-3 but drew four walks.
Alexandro Celiceo (3-1) pitched well enough on the mound behind the Bruins' third 20-run game of the season to pick up the win. The right-hander allowed five runs on eight hits and struck out three in five innings.
Bailey Link recorded his second save in as many outings, tossing the final four innings.
Gavin Williams took the loss on the hill for Waldorf.
Damien Sanchez hit two of Waldorf's four home runs in the game as the long ball accounted for seven of the Warriors' 11 runs. Atticus Smith and Josh Fussy also went deep for the home side.
Elijah Johnson (8-1) scattered six hits and struck out 10 to record his third shutout victory of the season. It was the sixth time in 10 starts that he struck out at least 10 batters.
After Bellevue failed to score in the top of the first, the Bruins scored in each of the next four innings to take a 10-0 lead in the fifth. They tacked on an insurance run in the seventh to account for the final.
The Bruins received long balls from Alec Ackerman and Andrew Ishii as well as a four-RBI game by Mathieu Sirois.
Josh Vaughan went 4-for-5 batting with a double and Kanta Kobayashi finished 3-for-5 with a double and three more runs scored.
Jamie Olson was hit with the loss after allowing six runs (five earned) on nine hits in four innings on the hill.
Atticus Smith had a pair of hits in a 2-for-3 game for the Warriors while four others finished 1-for-3.
The Bruins and Warriors conclude their four-game series tomorrow with a double-header beginning at noon.
