BU wraps up perfect Frontier Conference regular season with sweep
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 26 | 21 | 0 |
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 3 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 16 | 0 |
|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
BISMARCK, N.D. -- The No. 3-ranked Bellevue University baseball team closed out a perfect Frontier Conference regular season with a pair of victories over Bismarck State College on Saturday afternoon at the Aaron Haaland Memorial Baseball Field.
The Bruins downed the Mystics 26-6 in the opener before prevailing 18-0 in the nightcap to extend their win streak to 32 games, improving to 44-3 overall and finishing the regular season 24-0 in the Frontier Conference. Bismarck State falls to 20-25 overall and 7-17 in league play.
Game One: Bellevue 26, Bismarck State 6
Bellevue launched six home runs in a 13-run second inning to match their own NAIA record set back on May 21, 2004 against Jamestown. Anthony Lind and Mason Spellecy went back-to-back, Nick Gravel hit a two-run shot, and Ayden Makarus belted a three-run bomb to kick off a run of three-straight long balls with Xavier Lerma and Dylan Holmes also going deep.
BU tacked on three more in the third with an RBI-double from Makarus and a two-run shot from Lind, his second of the day.
Three more homers in a span of four batters in the fourth – Oak Held, Carter Claerhout, and Lerma – made it 20-1 in favor of BU.
Bismarck State homered twice in each of the fifth and sixth innings and Bellevue piled on with a six-run sixth to take a 26-6 lead into the seventh and would take the victory by the same margin.
Eight of nine starters went yard for the Bruins finished with 10 home runs in the game while Lind and Lerma each popped two dingers.
Brayden Andersen (10-0) earned the win with six innings of work in the start. He struck out six against two walks and allowed six runs on 10 hits. Andersen becomes the 37th pitcher in program history to record 10 wins in a single season.
Alexandre Dionne worked a perfect seventh to finish off the win.
Cole Shirley (2-3) took the loss after allowing 11 runs (10 earned) on nine hits before being lifted after just 1.1 innings of work.
Game Two: Bellevue 18, Bismarck State 0
Kody Butt (6-1) struck out a career-high 17 batters and issued just one walk in six innings of three-hit, shutout ball, getting more than enough run support early as Bellevue wrapped up a perfect regular season.
Xavier Lerma, Anthony Lind, and Mason Spellecy all homered in the top of the first to stake the Bruins to an early 6-0 lead in the regular season finale.
After the teams swapped zeroes for a couple innings, the BU bats came back to life with the Bruins accounting for four runs in the fourth, five in the fifth, and three more in the sixth.
Brody Burnette struck out the side in a perfect ninth to finish off the victory as Bellevue pitching racked up a season-best 20 strikeouts on the day.
Parker Henrich (4-2) surrendered 10 runs on 10 hits in four innings to take the loss for the Mystics.
Top Performers
Bellevue University
Kody Butt: Win (6-1), 6 IP, 17 SO, 1 BB, 3 Hits, 0 Runs
Carter Claerhout: 7-10, double, HR (23), 5 RBI, 7 runs
Anthony Lind: 4-7, 3 HR (11), 9 RBI, 4 runs
Nick Gravel: 4-8, HR (5), 3 RBI, 5 runs
Xavier Lerma: 4-6, 3 HR (16), 7 RBI, 6 runs
Bismarck State College
Pacey Phillips: 3-3, double, run
Kayden Cey: 2-2, HR (1), 2 runs
Eric Reiling: 2-5, RBI
Bryson Mohs: 2-6
Up Next
Bellevue begins postseason play next week as the top seed in the Frontier Conference Tournament, hosted by Dickinson State University. The Bruins will play their first game of the tournament at 5 p.m. Central Time (4 p.m. Mountain) on Thursday, Apr. 30 against the winner of the No. 4 vs No. 5 game.