FREMONT, Neb. -- Five Bruins recorded multi-hit games as the No. 5-ranked Bellevue University baseball team downed Midland University 9-6 at Moller Field in non-conference action on Monday evening.
With their third-straight win, Bellevue improved to 30-6 on the season. It marks the 12th-straight season (excluding the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign) in which the Bruins have reached the 30-win plateau.
Midland slips to 16-18 as their losing streak reaches five games.
BU 9, Midland 6
Three of Midland's first four batters reached base as the Warriors struck first, scoring on a bases loaded wild pitch in the bottom of the first. Starter Cade Sakamoto averted further damage, getting a fly ball and strike out to end the threat.
Kanta Kobayashi started a two out rally in the third with a base hit before coming in to score on Conner Barnett's double to center.
Two innings later, three-straight two-out singles from Logan Grant, Nick Grade, and Mathieu Sirois put the Bruins on top 4-1.
Midland got two runs back on a base hit and throwing error – just BU's second in their last nine games – in the bottom of the fifth to close the gap to 4-3.
A Warrior error in the sixth benefitted the Bruins as CJ Townsend scored an unearned run.
Trey Nichols halved the deficit with a solo home run in the sixth. After the next two batters reached via error and a walk, Sakamoto departed with Jared Eifler coming on in relief.
Sakamoto's (2-0) final line saw him scatter six hits over 5.2 innings that turned into four runs, of which three were earned. He struck out four and walked four.
Eifler worked 2.1, departing with a 9-4 lead after two-run homers from Tradd Richardson in the seventh and Jake Lacey in the eighth gave the command of the game.
Teron Williams came on for Bellevue in the ninth and, despite allowing a pair of runs, stranded the bases loaded to hold onto the victory.
Starter Trey Nichols worked four innings for Midland but did not factor in the decision, allowing just a run on five hits. Keegan Adams (3-4) took the loss, allowing three earned runs (four total) on five hits in two innings. Three other relievers allowed four runs over the final three innings.
Up Next:
Bellevue hosts Presentation College this weekend for a four-game NSAA series from John Stella Field at Brown Park. Game times are still being finalized with impending inclement weather in the forecast for Saturday.
