BELLEVUE, Neb. – The Bruins softball team ran their undefeated conference record to 12-0 with a sweep of York College on Tuesday evening at Haworth Park-Sigler Field. Bellevue surpassed a school-record and tied a NAIA national record in what Ed Lehotak called a ‘spectacular display of hitting’. Bellevue won game one 11-0 needing only five innings and went the distance recording the 6-0 shutout in the night-cap.
Bellevue improved to 26-11 overall and has won 18 of itslast 21 games. When the streak began March 21, the Bruins were 7-9 struggling to play games. In one week, they have played 10 games going 9-1 during their home stand running their current win streak to six. York College dropped to 23-20 overall and 4-4 in the conference. Bellevue’s perfect conference mark (12-0) is the first time the Bruins have done so since 1999 (11-0) and their best record since 2007 (13-1).
In game one, Bellevue needed only one home run to tie the school mark of 34 set in 2005. The team got one plus four more as they tied their own NAIA record in the first inning. Kendra Gansz, Jordann Ellis and Kate Lefler went back-to-back-to-back mirroring a record they set in 2005 against Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
Kady Revis homered in the top of the second and Lefler hit her second of the game in the fourth giving the team five for the game. The five homers is one from the school record of six they recorded against the College of Saint Catharine (2008) and will place the Bruins in the Top-15 in NAIA for single-game homeruns.
Bellevue scored three runs in the first and second inning taking a 6-0 lead in game one and put it away with five runs in the following two innings to win 11-0 in five.
Game two started a bit slower with Bellevue taking a 1-0 advantage in the bottom of the first when Amanda Martines scored on a York throwing error. The bulk of the Bellevue runs came late in the fifth with three runs adding two more in the sixth.
Kady Revis highlighted the fifth with a 2-RBI triple to right as Jenny Gawart’s single in the sixth scored two runs putting the Bruins up 6-0.
Bellevue’s 3-5 hitters were a combined 7-for-9 with 6 runs and 6 RBI’s while Sarah Ingraham and Whitney Kinman added hits in the game one victory. Kady Revis (1-for-3) hit her fifth homerun adding 3 RBI’s. Kendra Gansz went a perfect 3-for-3 as Jordann Ellis was 2-for-3 hitting her team-leading 12th homerun and 10th double of the year. Kate Lefler (2-for-3) recorded her second multi-homerun game of the season.
Believe it or not, in game two, the Bruins had two more hits compared to the first game with 12. Whitney Kinman was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with a run while Kady Revis and Amanda Martines were each 2-for-4. Five other Bruins combined to collect the remaining five hits.
Bellevue’s streak of homeruns hit in a game came to a close on Tuesday evening but not before the team had recorded a long-ball in each of their previous 14 games; a streak that began April 1 against College of Saint Mary in a 6-1 victory.
Kora Behrens picked up her tenth win of the season improving to 10-5 with the four inning outing. She scattered two hits and finished with four strikeouts. Kimber Markley had a strikeout and gave up one hit in her inning of relief. Aly Bowers pitched her tenth complete game and sixth shutout of the season. Bowers allowed six hits and recorded three strikeouts in the victory improving to 11-3.
Jessica Wilson, Rebecca Vincent and Kylee Young were the only Panthers to record hits in the first game. The hits were scattered throughout the game, Vincent’s double in the second and singles by Wilson and Young in the fourth and fifth.
York finished with six hits in game two but left runners on third in the third and sixth unable to get on the scoreboard. Jessica Wilson was 2-for-3 at the plate while four other Panthers had the remaining hits. Wilson recorded her sixth double of the year in the first inning.
Ashley Ellis (9-8) had the complete game loss allowing 11 runs on 10 hits with 3 walks. She faced 25 batters before it was called after the fifth inning. Devyn Pearl goes to 11-3 on the season following the six inning complete game set-back. Pearl allowed 12 hits and 6 runs, 5 earned, in the outing. She finished with 3 strikeouts.
Bellevue, after playing 16 games since the start of the month, will have a week off before hosting Northwestern College on Saturday (Apr. 25). The double-header will begin at 2 p.m. Bellevue will host the MCAC tournament beginning Thursday (Apr. 30) with the championship game on Friday (May 1). Game times, seeds and team will be determined later.
