LAKE MYRTLE, Fla. – The No. 14-ranked Bellevue University baseball team used a seven-run fifth inning to overcome a one-run deficit and pull away for a 15-3 win over Northwestern College on Friday morning at Lake Myrtle Sports Park.
Bellevue improves to 11-4 on the strength of their fourth-straight victory while Northwestern, losers of four-straight, falls to 3-11.
Northwestern jumped on the board with a pair of runs in the first. Mo Watson hit a solo home run and Sam Stanford singled home an unearned run later in the frame.
Alexandro Celiceo (4-1), after those minor struggles early, allowed the bats to get going as he settled in to provide Bellevue a complete game on the hill.
BU answered with a pair of their own in the second thanks to a Anthony Lind double and Nick Grade single, each of which plated a run.
Bryce Click tagged Celiceo for a solo shot in the fourth to put the Red Raiders ahead 3-2.
Brady Roberts (1-3), who threw well early, ran into trouble in the fifth as Jake Lacey tied the game with an RBI-single and Anthony Lind's bases-clearing double later in the frame gave the Bruins their first lead of the day at 6-3. Tradd Richardson doubled home a run, Kanta Kobayashi drove in another with a sac fly, and a Conner Barnett hit by pitch the bases loaded capped the scoring and the Bruins owned a 9-3 lead.
Celiceo allowed just one base-runner the rest of the way, a one-out double in the sixth, while Bellevue tacked on a run in the sixth and five more in the seventh headlined by a three-run dinger from Grade.
Lind and Grade each finished with three hits and four RBI. Richardson also had three hits while driving in a pair and Lacey was the final Bruin with a multi-hit game.
Celiceo finished scattered three runs (two earned) on four hits and struck out four. Roberts, his counterpart, turned in a final line of nine runs allowed on 10 hits across 4.1 innings. He walked four and struck out five.
The Bruins wrap up their spring trip tomorrow at No. 1-ranked Southeastern University (25-0) with an 11 a.m. first pitch from Ted A. Broer
