DICKINSON, N.D. -- Nick Grade homered twice and drove in six runs to help the top-seeded and No. 5-ranked Bellevue University baseball team defeat eighth-seeded Presentation College 18-7 in the first game of the 2023 North Star Athletic Association Tournament.
Bellevue improves to 42-8 on the year while PC remains winless, falling to 0-45.
Bellevue 18, Presentation 7
Presentation struck first on an Ethan Booth single in the top half of the first to grab a 1-0 lead.
Saints starter Ryan Powers (0-5) lasted just five batters before being lifted. Four of the five reached base, all scoring as the Bruins hung seven runs in the first.
Nick Grade hit his first of two home runs in the second and Kanta Kobayashi added a two-run shot in a four-run third inning as Bellevue widened the lead to 12-1.
Bruin starter Alexandro Celiceo (9-1) departed after the fourth and the Saints scored six times against the Bruin bullpen in the fifth.
Bellevue struck for a pair of runs in the home half of the fifth thanks to an RBI-triple from Anthony Lind – his third extra-base hit of the game – and a wild pitch.
With a seven-run lead in the sixth, Grade went opposite field with a grand slam to allow BU a chance to close out the run-rule victory.
Celiceo finished with a final line of one runs allowed on three hits as he picked up his 23rd career win to move into second on BU's all-time list.
Elijah Boersen worked 2.1 innings of scoreless relief, striking out a pair, to close out the win.
Lind, Grade, and Jake Lacey all finished with three hits to lead the BU offense. Grade drove in six and Lind plated four in the victory.
Wolf'Don Thorson recorded a pair of hits for Presentation in the loss.
Up Next:
The Bruins play the winner of Mayville State-Dickinson State tomorrow at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. MT) with the winner advancing to the winner's bracket final.
Presentation faces off against the MSU-DSU loser in an elimination game tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. (9 a.m. MT).
