Defense, timely hitting put Bellevue in Championship Game

BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Despite not having his best stuff on the mound Bellevue University junior Stephan Meyer limited No. 5 Tabor College to just one run on five hits as the No. 14 Bruins picked up a 3-1 victory to advance to the Championship Game of the 2015 NAIA Opening Round Bellevue Bracket.

With the loss Tabor (50-10) drops into the loser's bracket final where they will meet the winner of Game 6 between Mayville State University and William Woods University tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Bellevue (46-13) secures their second straight championship game appearance where they will meet the winner of tomorrow's Game 7 at 5:00 p.m. Whomever the Bruins play will have to win twice in order to advance to the Avista NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.

Gabriel De La Rosa put Bellevue on the board first with a towering home run off Dustin Hurlbutt. Sitting dead-red De La Rosa crushed the first fastball he saw over the storage buildings in right field. A walk to Aaron Brasher, a sac bunt by Todd Nicks, and a passed ball put Brasher on third with just one out. That allowed today's defensive whiz Tyler Blood to drive in the eventual game-winning run with a single that hugged the left field line.

Tabor got a run back in the bottom of the third as three straight batters reached base to open the inning. Tanner Bell led off with a single up the middle and scored on an RBI-double to center by Michael Baca. After Gadiel Baez was hit by a pitch to put a pair of runners on it looked like the Bruins were in danger of surrendering the lead. Meyer got some help from his defense and a great pickoff move to escape the jam. He picked off Bell attempting to steal third before walking Jerrik Sigg. Alex couch singled to left and De La Rosa came up firing and hummed a perfect strike to Osvaldo Gonzalez to gun down Baez at the plate. A groundout by DeLeon ended the Tabor threat and BU never looked back.

The Bruins added an insurance run in the fifth. Trevor Jones drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a hit-and-run play by Ross Feeley. That brought Gonzalez, the team's RBI-leader, to the plate and he delivered a soft single into left field to plate Jones for a 3-1 Bruin advantage.

De La Rosa and Blood each made diving catches on line drives to take hits away from Tabor while Blood recorded a career-high five putouts to go along with four assists on the afternoon.

In a complete game effort Meyer struck out five and walked four to improve to 11-2 for BU. Hurlbutt went the distance for Tabor striking out 10 and limiting Bellevue to just three runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks but fell to 10-2 on the year.