DICKINSON, N.D. -- On a night where 10 of 22 hits went for extra bases, the No. 17-ranked Bellevue University baseball team won its fourth-straight North Star Athletic Association Tournament Championship, defeating third-seeded Dickinson State University 19-6.
The Bruins secured their 28th 40-win season - all since 1989 - in program history and 11th under head coach Duane Monlux, improving to 40-13 on the year. The loss drops Dickinson State to 21-29.
Both Bellevue and Dickinson State have secured automatic berths to the NAIA National Tournament and will learn in which Opening Round Bracket they will compete during the selections show at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7.
The conference tournament title is Bellevue's 19th all-time and seventh in nine seasons in the North Star.
Dickinson State jumped on the board first with a two-run double from Cameron Erickson in the second
Logan Grant hit the first of four BU homers in the fourth to cut the lead in half. The opposite-field blast was the 50th of his Bruin career.
Erickson singled home another run in the fourth for DSU.
Bellevue took its first lead in the fifth. Steven Elsner tied the game with a two-run home run, his 23rd of the season, and Jake Lacey singled home courtesy runner Jaylan Ruffin, who had come on after Grant's double to center.
Gavin Wuschke allowed just one earned run in 4.2 innings before departing having allowed eight hits, struck out four, and issued one walk.
Moses Dokes scored on a wild pitch in the fifth as the Blue Hawks tied the game at 4-4 but Bellevue took the lead on a two-run triple by Scott Hansen in the sixth and extended it on Elsner's RBI-double.
The Bruins put up at least three runs in the final five innings.
Anthony Lind belted his sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the eighth, and Ayden Makarus put an exclamation mark on the evening with a grand slam in the ninth for his 17thlong ball.
Jayden Vinson (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless inning in relief, in which he struck out a pair of Blue Hawk hitters.
Cooper Van Luchene (2-7) took the loss for the Blue Hawks, allowing three runs on four hits in one inning of relief work.
Nine different Bruins recorded a hit in the game, and eight of the nine starters had multiple hits. Nick Gravel led the way with a 4-for-4 effort while Grant and Makarus (3-5) and Elijah Tanner(3-6) all had three-hit nights.
