FOREST CITY, Iowa -- McGrane Pledger and JD Kirchner tussled in one of the best pitching matchups in North Star Athletic Association Tournament history with the former leading the top-seeded and No. 7-ranked Bellevue University baseball team to a 1-0 victory over Dakota State University on Tuesday afternoon.
Bellevue improves to 45-10 overall as they win their fourth NSAA Tournament Championship (2016, 2018, 2019).
Dakota State – who had to win four-straight elimination games just to reach the championship game – conclude their seasons at 33-18.
The victory secures Bellevue the NSAA's lone automatic bid to the 2022 NAIA National Tournament. The Bruins will host one of 10 Opening Round Sites Monday-Thursday, May 16-19 at Don Roddy Field on the campus of Bellevue East High School.
After five scoreless half innings, Bellevue manufactured the game's first run. Kanta Kobayashi was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom fo the third, advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches, and came in to score on Alec Ackerman's sac fly to right field.
McGrane Pledger was perfect through three before issuing a leadoff walk to Ryan McDaniel and a hit to Noah Angstadt to open the fourth inning. He escaped any damage by getting a fly ball and 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Kobayashi led off the fifth with an infield single – becoming just the seventh Bruin to record 100 base hits in a single-season – and took third on a hit-and-run single by Conner Barnett with one out but BU was unable to plate another run.
JD Kirchner (5-4), making his second start of the tournament, did a great job of keeping the Trojans in the game. After two innings of work on Friday, Kirchner held a potent BU lineup to just a run on seven hits over eight innings of work.
Unfortunately, for Kirchner and the Trojans, Pledger (9-3) was just a little bit better. The Bruin right-hander turned in arguably his best outing of the season, allowing just three hits and striking out six in a complete game shutout.
Dakota State had the top of their order in the ninth but Pledger induced a pair of groundouts before striking out Kameron Bryant to secure the title.
Bellevue pitching was dominant as all four starters went the distance on the hill and allowed just two runs across 32 innings at the conference tournament; Bruin pitchers did not allow a run over their final 25.1 innings pitched.
