OMAHA, Neb. -- The No. 5-ranked Bellevue University baseball team broke out the bats in a big way to sweep Waldorf University on Saturday afternoon at John Stella Field at Brown Park to win three out of four in a North Star Athletic Association series.
Winners of 22 of 24 overall, Bellevue improves to 29-6 on the year and 15-1 in NSAA play. Waldorf slips to 13-20 on the season as their conference record dips to .500 at 8-8.
Game One: BU 20, Waldorf 4 (7 innings)
Five different Bruins homered in Saturday's opener as Bellevue routed Waldorf 20-4 in a run-rule shortened contest.
After ceding a 2-0 advantage to the Warriors in the second, Bellevue answered by sending _ batters to the plate and scoring 10 runs in the home half of the frame.
BU followed that up by adding six more in the third and four in the fourth while Waldorf managed single runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings.
Jake Lacey (7), Logan Grant (5), Mathieu Sirois (8), Tradd Richardson (5), and CJ Townsend (3) all left the park in the victory.
Easton Brinton (5-1) did his job on the mound, earning the victory with five innings of work. He allowed four runs on six hits and struck out five.
Jared Eifler and Zane Leyden each worked a scoreless inning of relief to close out the victory.
Skyler Yarbrough (1-3) suffered the loss for Waldorf allowing 10 runs – seven earned – on six hits and three walks in just 1.2 innings of work.
In total, all nine starters recorded at least one hit and six players logged multiple hit games.
Game Two: BU 6, Waldorf 0
Dustin Schorie (4-0) fired a three-hit shutout and struck out 10 batters as Bellevue posted a six-run sixth inning to secure the series victory.
After exploding for 18 hits in game one, the Bruins were limited to just four hits through the first five innings by Zach Meyer but after racking up a pitch count of 100 was lifted for a reliever.
Kanta Kobayashi led off the first with a gap double for the Bruins who were unable to capitalize, leaving the bases loaded for the first of two times on the day.
A base hit from Mathieu Sirois along with walks to Tradd Richardson and CJ Townsend again loaded the bases in the fourth for Kobayashi who ripped a drive to deep left center by Juan Jorge made a diving catch in center field to keep the game scoreless.
Gunnar Huffman came on in relief and, after striking out the first batter he faced, allowed five-straight Bruins to reach with Kobayashi breaking the scoreless tie with a bloop single. Conner Barnett followed suit with a two-run single to center to push the lead to 3-0. Another strikeout and a walk saw BU again load the bases as Nick Grade dumped a double in front of the left fielder that allowed three runs to score and chase Huffman.
Buoyed by the offensive support, Schorie trotted back out for the seventh and retired the side in order with bookend strikeouts of Ryan Webster and Ryan Miller.
Kobayashi finished 3-for-4 while six other Bruins each recorded a base hit.
Up Next:
The Bruins head to Fremont, Neb. on Monday, Apr. 10 for a non-conference affair against Midland University at 5 p.m. from Moller Field.
