Bruins sweep season series from Northwestern

OMAHA, Neb. - The Bellevue University baseball team swept a double-header from Northwestern College in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at Westgate Field. The Bruins won the opener 6-5 after rallying from a 4-0 deficit and pulled away 4-2 in game two.

Bellevue improves to 17-4 with the sweep while Northwestern is now 7-13 after having lost three in a row at the hands of the Bruins.

Game One: Bellevue 6, Northwestern 5

Bellevue fell behind 4-0 after an inning and a half but the offense came alive in the middle innings and the Bruins rallied for a 6-5 victory in game one of their Saturday afternoon double-header.

The Red Raiders claimed the first run of the game when the second of back-to-back doubles by Mitch Peschon plated Casey Guthmiller who led off the game with a double to the base of the left field fence. Northwestern doubled their first inning advantage on a bases loaded infield single by Christian Hamett to plate Peschon.

Northwestern added another pair of runs in the top of the second with Guthmiller scoring on a passed ball and Peschon coming home on an RBI-single to right by Zach Cortese to put the Red Raiders in front 4-0. Things could have been even worse though as Northwestern left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings.

The Bellevue bats came alive in the bottom of the second. After junior Colton Nash (Bonney Lake, Wash.) coaxed a walk out of an 8-pitch at-bat junior Miles Campbell (New Cumberland, Pa.) ripped a double into the right-center gap to put runners on second and third with just one out. Senior Aaron Brasher (Vallejo, Calif.) followed that up with a ground ball to short to score Nash and advance Campbell to third, putting the Bruins on the board.

Senior Osvaldo Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) put Bellevue back into the game with a long, towering home run to left center to score a pair after senior Tyler Blood (Salt Lake City, Utah) drew a one-out walk a batter prior. The home run was the fourth of the season for Gonzalez which tied him with Nash for the team lead.

Bellevue was able to level the score at 4-4 when Brasher, who led off the inning with a base hit came in to score on a wild pitch. The Bruins took the lead on a sac fly to right by junior Ross Feeley (Tehachapi, Calif.) that scored junior Rodee Anderson (Corvallis, Mont.) who had singled earlier in the inning.

Another wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth allowed sophomore pinch-runner Elijah Dickerson (Vancouver, Wash.) to score from third to double the BU lead to 6-4.

The Red Raiders, after their hot start, were silent until the eighth when Peschon knocked a two-out single just over the infield to right to score pinch runner Mitchell Kresnick and cut the BU lead to 6-5.

Junior Braulio Torres-Perez (Auburn, Wash.) worked 5.1 innings to pick up the win. He allowed four runs on six hits while striking out eight to improve to 3-1 on the year. Junior Leland Tilley (Exeter, Calif.) worked two innings and allowed one run to pick up his third save of the year.

Game Two: Bellevue 7, Northwestern 2

Sophomore Stephan Meyer (Tucson, Ariz.) tossed a complete game four-hitter to improve to 3-2 on the season. He allowed just two runs, only one of which was earned, while striking out 10 on the afternoon.

Game two got off to a similar start with Northwestern striking in the opening half inning. Reed Smith led off the game with a base hit and came home on a triple down the right field line by Skyler Wheeler.

The Bruins tied the game in the bottom of the third, thanks in large part to the speed of Elijah Dickerson. Dickerson led off the inning by drawing a walk and was able to advance all the way to third on a failed pickoff attempt before coming in to score on a ground ball to first by Ross Feeley.

Colton Nash launched his fifth home run of the season, leading off the bottom of the fourth, to give the Bruins their first lead of the game at 2-1.

Peschon reached on a two-base, two-out error a half inning later and came around to score the game-tying run on Wheeler's second extra-base hit of the afternoon, a double to left center field.

The see-saw battle continued into the bottom of the fifth where Bellevue would reclaim the lead on a bases-loaded walk to junior Gabriel De La Rosa (Miami, Fla.) and a bases-loaded fielder's choice that Nash beat out to avoid a double play. The Bruins could have added more but left the bases loaded to take a 4-2 lead into the sixth.

The Bruins added some insurance an inning later as Gonzalez crushed a double to left center to score one run and put runners on second and third with just one out. Nash put the game away two batters later with a two-run single up the middle to put BU up 7-2.

Bellevue returns to the diamond tomorrow when they travel to Atchison, Kan. for a 1:00 p.m. game against Benedictine College.