BELLEVUE, NEB. (VCSU Sports Information) – Oak Held hit three home runs in the second game leading Bellevue to a doubleheader sweep of Valley City State University Sunday. The Bruins took game one 12-2 and game two 18-9 in seven innings.
Valley City State is 14-15 overall and 1-7 in the Frontier Conference. The Bruins are 8-0 in the conference and 27-3 overall.
GAME 1: Bellevue 12, Valley City State 2
Like Saturday’s games, Bellevue used one big inning to take game one of a doubleheader with Valley City State. Bellevue scored eight runs in the bottom of the fourth in a 12-2 win.
The Bruins scored two runs in the second and third to take an early 4-0 lead. In the second, Xavier Lerma and Mason Spellecy hit back-to-back home runs to start the inning and give Bellevue a 2-0 lead after two. In the third, Carter Claerhout hit his third home run of the series to lead off the inning. Dylan Holmes hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 Bruins after three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Bruins sent twelve batters to the plate and scored eight times on only two hits. Ayden Makarus walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-0. The batter, Dylan Holmes was hit by a pitch to bring in another run to make it 6-0. Lerma walked to bring in the third run of the inning. Spellecy had a two-run single to make it 9-0. Anthony Lind capped off the inning with a three-run home run to make it 12-0 after four.
Cam Pero’s leadoff home run in the top if the fifth to make it 12-1. Three batters later, Cody Wielgosh homered to right to make it12-2.
Alexis Velasco was 2 for 3 for Valley City State. Cody Wielgosh was 1 for 2 with a solo home run. Nick Senn was 1 for 2. Brady Papineau was 1 for 3 and Cam Pero was 1 for 3 with a solo home run.
GAME 2: Bellevue 18, Valley City State 9 F/7
More home runs were hit in a high scoring second game. The Vikings hit one home run; the Bruins hit seven, in a 18-9 Bruin win.
Ayden Makarus got the scoring going with a two-out, two-run homer to left staking the Bruins to a 2-0 lead.
Xavier Lerma hit his second home run on the, a three-run shot in the bottom of the third to make it 5-0 Bellevue.
Valley City State got two of those runs back on Nick Senn’s two-run homer in the top of the fourth, making the score 5-2.
Merik Junker’s two-run single closed the gap to 5-4 in the top of the fifth inning.
Oak Held led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to center field, making the score 6-4.
In the top of the sixth, Jackson Penner had a pinch-hit single to left field to bring the Vikings back to within one at 6-5.
The Vikings would explode for four runs in the top of the seventh, all with two out, to take their first lead of the series. Brady Papineau singled in Alexis Velasco to tie the game at 6-6. Diesel Goya scored on a wild pitch to give the Vikings a 7-6 lead. Cam Pero brought in a run with a single to center to make it 8-6. A pinch-hit, RBI single by Grady Shipman made it 9-6 Vikings heading to the bottom of the seventh.
In the home half of the seventh, the Bruins flexed their muscles with three more home runs in a ten-run inning. Oak Held’s second home run of the game tied the game at 9-9. The very next pitch, Claerhout hit his fourth home run of the series to give the Bruins a 10-9 lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Anthony Lind was hit-by-a-pitch to bring a run in to make it 11-9 Bruins. Jaylin Ruffin’s sacrifice fly made it 12-9 Bellevue. Nick Gravel doubled to shallow right center field, two runs scored to make it 14-9. Held homered to right field, his third home run of the game, to make it 16-9 Bruins.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lind hit a two-out two-run home run to left-center field to make it 18-9 Bruins. That would be the final, as the Bruins swept the weekend series with the Vikings.
Evan Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with a run scored. Devin Minney was 2 for 4. Nick Senn and Brady Papineau each went 2 for 5. Senn had a home run and two RBI, Papineau scored twice and drove in one. Merik Junkker was 1 for 3 with two RBI. Cam Pero was 1 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Alexis Velasco was 1 for 5 with a run scored. Jackson Penner and Grady Shipman each had RBI, pinch-hit singles.
UP NEXT: The Vikings are scheduled to host Bismarck State in two non-conference games at Charlie Brown Field on Tuesday, March 31st. Game one is scheduled for 2pm.