FOREST CITY, Iowa -- Mathieu Sirois' single through the left side scored Josh Vaughan with the game-ending run in the bottom of the eighth inning as the top-seeded and No. 7-ranked Bellevue University baseball team defeated eighth-seeded Presentation College, 12-2, to open the 2022 North Star Athletic Association Baseball Tournament.
Bellevue improves to 42-10 on the season and remains in the winner's bracket. They will face the winner of Waldorf-Valley City tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Presentation slips to 5-43 on the year and will play an elimination game against the loser of Waldorf-Valley City tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Sirois finished the day 3-for-4 as he opened the scoring with a solo home run in the second and ended it with the walk-off hit. He now was has four solo home runs in his last five games.
The game was tight early with both pitchers throwing effectively. Gavin Lim allowed just two runs on five hits before being replaced after four innings of work.
BU took a 3-0 lead through five with Andrew Ishii singling home a run and Conner Barnett chasing in another with a sac fly. Ishii tallied four hits to lead the Bruin offense in their 17-hit outburst.
Bellevue starter Alexandro Celiceo (6-1) went the distance on the hill, running into his only trouble in the sixth when PC scored both their runs, to earn his sixth win of the season. Celiceo delivered a final line of eight innings pitched, two runs allowed on four hits, six strikeouts, and one walk.
After the Saints cut their lead to 3-2, Bellevue answered with a five-spot in the bottom of the sixth. In their big inning, BU scored a run each on a Zach Diehl ground out and a Barnett single before plating three on a two-run single from Brenton Davis that saw another come in on an error.
The Bruins pushed three more across in the seventh before Sirois ended things in the eighth. Kanta Kobayashi singled in Ishii before coming around to score, along with Zach Diehl, on an Alec Ackerman base hit.
