DICKINSON, N.D. -- A seven-run second inning was more than enough run support for Kenji Miller who fired a complete game as the #17 Bellevue University baseball team punched their ticked to the NSAA Championship Game for the seventh-straight season with an 18-2 win over No. 3-seed Dickinson State University on Saturday afternoon.
Bellevue improves to 39-13 on the year and will play in the championship round either tomorrow or on Monday, pending tomorrow's results.
Dickinson State drops to 20-28 and falls to the loser's bracket where they will play tomorrow at 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. central).
Tate Williams retired the first five hitters he faced for DSU before encountering trouble in the second inning.
Nick Gravel plated the first of seven two-out runs in the second inning with a single through the left side to score Ayden Makarus. Two batters later, Scott Hansen drove home two more with a single to left. Steven Elsner blasted his first of two home runs on the afternoon, a three-run home run to left, and Logan Grant went back-to-back with an opposite field blast for his 18th long ball of the season.
The Bruins tacked on four more in the fourth. Elsner clubbed his second home run of the game, and 22nd of the year, to center before Jake Lacey doubled home a run and later scored on what was deemed an error.
That was plenty of offense to back Kenji Miller (9-0) who carried a no-hitter into the fifth for the Bruins. He settled for a three-hit, complete game in which he struck out five.
Jadyn Roberts broke up the no-hit bid with a two-run home run to left-center. Roberts accounted for two of DSU's three hits on the afternoon.
The Bruins erupted for seven more runs in the eighth highlighted by two-runs singles from Makarus and CJ Townsend and an RBI-single off the bat of Hansen.
Williams (2-5) allowed seven runs on five hits, lasting just two innings before taking the loss.
