LEWISTON, Idaho -- Alex Stufft dropped down a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to score Brenton Davis with the eventual game-winning run and Elijah Johnson came out of the bullpen to record his second save of the year as the Bellevue University baseball team eliminated MidAmerica Nazarene University 5-4 on Sunday afternoon.
The Bruins improve to 49-12 on the year and advance to face #2 Tennessee Wesleyan in another elimination game tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. Central). The BU victory also sees the program avoid going 0-2 at the World Series for the first time since 2004 – six World Series trips ago.
MidAmerica Nazarene ends their season at 39-18.
Recap: BU 5, MNU 4
Alexandro Celiceo (8-1) is making a name for himself as Bellevue's go-to elimination game starter. For the second-straight start, with BU's season on the line, Celiceo turned in a phenomenal performance to keep the Bruins alive. The right-hander fired a quality start in which he limited MNU to three runs on six hits while punching out four in 6.1 innings of work.
Kanta Kobayashi opened the game with a leadoff triple to left-center and, two batters later, came in to score on Alec Ackerman's base hit. Brenton Davis followed with a bunt single and a balk put the runners at second on third for Alex Stufft who singles to right to chase in Ackerman while courtesy runner CJ Townsend was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
MNU answered in the home half as Joshuan Sandoval singled up the middle with runners on the corners to halve the Bruin lead to 2-1. Celiceo escaped further trouble, stranding a pair of runners aboard.
Pioneer starter Alex Meyers, making just his second start of the season, lasted just 1.2 innings before being lifted following a two-out walk to Zach Diehl in the second.
Noah Castillo tied the game with a solo shot to left in the third.
The game remained deadlocked until the sixth. Ackerman led off the inning with his third single of the game ahead of an opposite field blast by Davis who moved into a tie for the team home run lead with his 18th of the year.
Sandoval answered with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-3 in favor of the Bruins.
Blake Crippen came on in relief of Celiceo with a pair of runners on base in the seventh but induced a double play off the bat of Will Morris to escape further harm.
Looking for insurance in the eighth, Davis singled to center to open the inning for his third hit of the game prompting a fourth pitching chance for MNU. Mathieu Sirois moved Davis to second on a bunt before a balk advanced him to third. On the first pitch after the balk, Stufft dropped down a bunt that reliever Nathan Torres could not come up with and Davis slid in safe for a 5-3 lead.
Joey Calamaio led off the bottom of the eighth with a pinch-hit solo home run, just his second long ball of the season, to cut the deficit to one run. A Brycen Sherwood fly out and ground out off the bat of Castillo brought Sandoval back to the plate and Bellevue again turned to the bullpen. Elijah Johnson emerged and, after working the count full, got Sandoval swinging to end the inning with the Bruins in front 5-4.
Torres retired Bellevue in order in the ninth to bring the Pioneer bats to the dish needing just a run to force extras. Randy Fernandez drew a one-out walk and Ryan Leo flared a single to shallow right to put the winning run on base but Johnson got Frank Vogel to fly out to Ackerman in shallow left to pick up his second save of the season.
Eric Navarette (5-6) took the loss despite allowing just two runs over four innings of three-hit relief.
