Bruins stage big comeback in opener, run win streak to 5

VERSAILLES, Mo. -- The Bellevue University baseball team scored 22 runs on 23 hits to pick up a pair of victories on Friday afternoon on day one of the 2021 CMU Series.

Bellevue rallied from five runs down to win the opener 8-7 behind a walk-off three-run home run by Josh Vaughan. The bats stayed hot in game two as Bellevue pounded out 14 runs on 13 hits, including four home runs, to down Olivet Nazarene by a score of 14-5.

Bellevue improves to 8-2 with the victories while William Woods falls to 0-1 and Olivet Nazarene drops to 2-6.

Game One: BU 8, WWU 7

Josh Vaughan capped a sixth-run seventh inning with a walk-off three-run home run as the Bruins rallied from a 7-2 deficit in the final inning to pick up a win in game one of the CMU Series.

Trailing by entering the home half of the final inning, the Bruins received three-straight hits to open the frame to cut the deficit to 7-3. After a sac fly made it 7-4, a hit by pitch and fielder's choice compounded with an Owls error allowed BU to pull within two. Rigo Duarte singled through the left side to bring Vaughan to the dish tore into the first pitch he saw and launched it over the fence in left field to give the Bruins an 8-7 win.

William Woods used the long ball early with Jordan Smith leading off the game and Marcus Gonzalez connecting for solo shot third, respectively.

The Owls pushed their lead to 3-0 in the top of the fourth before Alec Lee responded with a solo shot in the bottom half to get Bellevue on the board.

After trading runs in the sixth, WWU tacked on three with a solo homer, an error, and a pair of doubles in the seventh to gain some cushion.

Alexandro Celiceo (1-0) picked up the win in relief for Bellevue while Max Storch (0-1) took the loss, recoding just two outs and allowing five runs for William Woods.

Game Two: BU 14, ONU 5

Riley Baasch hit a pair of home runs as Bruin hitters went deep four times and pounded out 13 hits to down Olivet Nazarene 14-5 in game two of the CMU series.

The Tigers struck for a pair of runs in the first but BU cut the lead in half in the second when Josh Vaughan scored on an error, on of five committed by ONU in the loss leading to five unearned Bruin runs.

Baasch put the Bruins in front with the first of his jacks, a two-run shot to center in the third to make it 3-2.

ONU answered with a two-run homer off the bat of Jacob Bulthuis to put the Tigers in front 4-3.

That lead was quickly erased as back-to-back home runs from Cody Banks and Alec Lee in the top of the fourth put Bellevue ahead for good.

The Tigers scored in the home half of the fourth before a four-run fifth stretched the Bellevue lead to 12-5.

An RBI-double from Payton Higgins in the sixth and a solo job from Baasch in the seventh accounted for the final margin.

Bailey Link (1-0) earned his first collegiate victory for BU. He allowed five runs on eight hits over four innings but was buoyed by season-highs in both hits and runs by the BU offense.

Aren Gustafson (0-1) was hit with the loss after being tagged for eight runs – seven earned – on seven hits in just 3.1 innings of work.

Up Next:

Bellevue faces Olivet Nazarene again tomorrow at 2 p.m. before wrapping up the CMU Series against host and No. 10-ranked Central Methodist at 5 p.m.