Bellevue completes second-straight NSAA series sweep

OMAHA, Neb. -- The No. 8 Bellevue University baseball team pounded out 23 hits, including 10 which went for extra bases, on their way to complete a four-game North Star Athletic Association sweep of Presentation College on Sunday afternoon at Westgate Field. After winning a pair of games yesterday the Bruins clinched the series victory with an 8-6 win in today's opener before earning the sweep with a 6-0 victory in the nightcap.

Bellevue remains unbeaten in NSAA play at 8-0 while improving to 28-6 overall and running their win streak to 21 games. Presentation heads home with an overall record of 8-24 and still in search of their first North Star victory following an 0-8 start to conference play.

Bellevue's 21-game win streak is the second-longest regular-season win streak in program history. They'll try to match the record on Wednesday at 4 p.m. against Midland University at Westgate Field.

Game One: Bellevue 8, Presentation 6

Bellevue built a lead early but had to hold on later in earning an 8-6 victory to clinch a series victory in game one of Sunday's double-header.

The Bruins cashed in the game's first run in the bottom of the second. Joe Moran started the rally with the first of his three doubles in the game with one out.  Two batters later Diego Iribarren singled home Moran to put BU up 1-0 in the early going.

An inning later the Bruins pushed their lead to 3-0 courtesy of an RBI-groundout by Matt Evans and a line drive home run off the bat of Derik Bontempo.

Moran led off the Bellevue fourth with his second double and advanced to third on a groundout before coming in to score on a balk to for a 4-0 BU advantage.

Presentation would cut that lead in half with runs in each the fifth and sixth innings. Dryden Kaczmar scored on a wild pitch in the fifth and Josh Tabor singled home Anthony Guzman in the sixth to make the score 4-2 in favor of the hosts.

Alec Chaney singled home Moran following his third double of the game in the bottom of the sixth and later came in to score himself on a double-steal attempt. Miles Campbell avoided the tag on a close play at second and Chaney took home on the delayed steal while the infielders voiced their opposition to the call.

Leading 6-2 in the eighth inning Riley Baasch provided what ended up being the game-winning RBI with his fourth home run, a solo shot to left field. Moran scored later in the inning when Campbell grounded into a double play.

Lane Hovde and Tabor both had two-RBI hits in the ninth inning to make things interesting after Bellevue had maintained a comfortable lead throughout the game's first eight innings. Max Dwyer (Save, 7) came on in relief of Anthony Contonio to pitch with the tying run at the plate and two out in the ninth but induced Zane Hunt to ground out to first to put out the fire.

Todd Nicks (W, 6-2) picked up the win on the hill after working seven quality innings. He limited Presentation to two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out 10 batters, the third time this season he's reached double digits in Ks.

Moran finished 4-for-4 on the game. Bontempo recorded a three-hit game and Baasch joined their multi-hit efforts with a two-hit game of his own.

Jake Bunjovac (L, 1-4) took the loss for the Saints. He lasted six innings and was charged with allowing six earned runs on 10 hits. He struck out four and walked one.

Game Two: Bellevue 6, Presentation 0

Bellevue got out to an early lead and never looked back on their way to picking up their fourth-straight win over Presentation.

The Bruins got on the board with a four-run second inning. Todd Nicks led off the inning with a single to center field and scored the game's first run, coming in to score on a throwing error after Alec Chaney reach on a fielder's choice. Diego Iribarren followed up Chaney's at-bat with a run-scoring triple to right-center and came in to score a batter later when Miles Campbell got into a pitch and drove it over the fence in left-center.

Derik Bontempo scored on a wild pitch in the third to stretch the Bruin lead to 5-0 and doubled in Matt Evans in the fifth to account for the final margin.

Colten Barnes (W, 4-2) spent the game carving up the PC lineup. In firing his first complete game shutout Barnes struck out seven Presentation batters and didn't allow a walk while scattering four hits over seven innings of work.

Bontempo, Nicks, and Campbell all had multi-hit games for the Bruins in the win.

Cameron Guevara, Josh Youngchild, Lane Hovde, and Ryan Barker were the only Saints to pick up a hit against Barnes.

Joey Wollman (L, 1-2) was tagged with the loss for PC after surrendering five runs on six hits in two innings on the hill.