Barnett, Bruins rally to open NSAA Tourney with 9-4 win

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VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- Conner Barnett hit a pair of home runs to lead the Bellevue University baseball team back from an early 4-0 deficit as the Bruins defeated Dakota State University 9-4 to open play at the North Star Athletic Association Tournament at Charlie Brown Memorial Field.

Bellevue improves to 35-14 on the year and will face the loser of the game between Valley City and Waldorf tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Dakota State sees their record slip to 20-24; they will meet the loser of the Mayville State-Dickinson State tomorrow at 11 a.m. in an elimination game.

Chris Kropuenske opened the scoring with a two-run double in the third to stake the Trojans to a 2-0 lead. The next batter up, Samuel Drummond, singled home Kropuenske and another run to push the lead to 4-0 through two and a half innings.

BU starter Graham Cahill settled in from there allowing his offense time to get back into the game and the Bruin hitters rewarded that patience. Cahill allowed just three hits the rest of the way en route to picking up his fifth victory of the season. He struck out seven against four walks in a complete game effort.

Bellevue responded in the home half of the fourth with four runs of their own. Back-to-back home runs from Barnett and Cody Banks to open the inning cut the Trojan lead in half before a throwing error and a sac fly allowed the Bruins to tie the game at 4-all.

The first eight runs were charged to Devin DeBoer who worked four-plus innings in taking the loss to fall to 4-5 on the season.

Barnett led off the fifth with his second solo shot of the game ahead of an RBI-double from Riley Baasch, sac fly by Chaz Lopez, and a run-scoring single off the bat of Daniel Teasley. That gave the Bruins an 8-4 advantage through five innings of play.

Josh Vaughan gave BU an insurance run with a sixth inning single that plated Barnett and Cahill made the lead stand up.