Bruins finish second at Warner Invitational

Lawrence Tech Box Score
Warner Box Score

LAKE WALES, Fla. -- The Bellevue University baseball team split a pair of games Saturday, finishing as the runner-up at the Warner University Invitational. BU shut out Lawrence Tech, 17-0, to reach the championship game, before falling to host Warner, 6-2, in the title matchup.

Bellevue is now 7-11 overall on the season.  

The Bruins host Midland University in their home opener on Tuesday, March 13 at 4 p.m. at Brown Park in Omaha. 

Bellevue 17, Lawrence Tech 0

The Bruins erupted for seven runs on four homers in the fifth inning to pull away for the 17-0 win over LTU in the first game of the day. Bellevue pounded out a season-high 21 hits, including six home runs and rode the solid pitching of Reid Feeley to secure BU's first shutout victory of the season. Eight Bruins collected multiple hits in the win. 

BU capitalized on an LTU fielding error to take an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first and extended the advantage to 3-0 in the third, scoring on an RBI double by Jonah Yang and a ground-out RBI by Austin Alexander. 

Bellevue scored on a pair of wild pitches to lengthen the cushion to five runs at 5-0 in the top of the fourth frame.   

Back-to-back homers by Stuart Eurich and Diego Iribarren gave the Bruins an 8-0 edge in the top of the fifth and consecutive homers by Matt Evans and Kory Longaker later in the same inning extended the margin to 12 runs. Iribarren and Longaker connected on solo shots, while Eurich's was a two-run blast and Evans drove in three runs with his rocket over the center-field fence. 

A two-run homer by Alexander and an RBI single to center field by Evans made it 15-0 in the top of the sixth.   

Eurich's two-run round-tripper extended the BU lead to 17-0 in the top of the seventh. 

Feeley improved to 1-1 on the season, scattering seven hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in seven complete innings of work. 

Championship Game: Warner 6, Bellevue 2

Warner never trailed in the championship game, scoring runs in the first, second and fifth innings, en route to the 6-2 victory and the tournament title. 

A bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly to right field by Mick Tinny gave the Royals an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and a sacrifice fly to left-center field by Cole Parks extended the WU advantage to 3-0 in the second frame. 

Two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases with no outs for the Royals in the bottom of the fifth, chasing starter Junior Ramirez. A two-run double down the left-field line by Junior Fermin and an RBI single through the right side by Tinny increased the Royal lead to 6-0.

The Bruins avoided the shutout, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single up the middle by Longaker and an RBI single through the left side by Brandon Sparks, to cut the lead to 6-2. After a walk to Eurich loaded the bases, Anthony Torres struck out Gary Dixon to end the game, earning his fifth save of the season.  

Ramirez (0-1) suffered the loss, giving up six runs on three hits with five walks and two strikeouts in four innings on the mound.