LAKE WALES, Fla. -- Bruin batters racked up 14 hits as the No. 15 Bellevue University baseball team downed Warner University 14-4 on Monday evening at Royals Field.
Bellevue moved back to the .500-mark, improving to 6-6 with their fourth-consecutive win. The loss dropped Warner to 7-10.
Elijah Tanner staked the Bruins to a 2-0 first inning lead with a two-run single to center field with two outs in the second to score Anthony Lind and Scott Hansen.
Warner scored all their runs in a four-run third inning. Gavin Wuschke should have been out of the inning after just four batters but a pair of BU errors aided the Royals'.
The Bruins got two runs back in the fourth. Lind tripled with one out ahead of a Hansen single. Later in the frame, Hansen stole second and took third on a throwing error before coming home on a passed ball.
Bellevue's first three batters reached in the fifth with Logan Grant pushing the Bruins back in front and putting runners on second and third with a double to center field. Two throwing errors on a ground ball from Lind allowed three more Bruins to score, Elsner from third and Grant from second in addition to Lind who raced around to third before the ball went out of play. The Bruins quickly loaded the bases again, prompting a pitching change for Warner. Austin Vakiener hit the first batter he faced but got a strikeout to escape further harm as BU took a 9-4 lead through four and a half.
Run-scoring singles from Hansen, Balas Buckmaster, and CJ Townsend along with a sac fly by Jake Lacey in the sixth saw the Bruins lead grow to 13-4.
A passed ball in the seventh allowed Ayden Makarus to come home for the Bruins' 14th run of the game and a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning gave BU the run-rule victory
Gavin Wuschke (1-1) struck out a season-high seven in a 79-pitch performance. Just two of the four runs he allowed were earned as he scattered six hits across five innings.
Jayden Vinson worked a pair of scoreless innings of relief to nail down the victory.
Trenton Chenard (0-3) was charged with nine runs, though just three were earned, on seven hits across 4.2 innings. He struck out five and walked one but was hindered by five Warner errors behind him.
Lind finished with a game-high three hits in a 3-for-4 effort. Hansen, Tanner, and Grant also posted multi-hit games in the win. Grant's double and Lind's triple represented both of BU's extra-base hits on the night.
Jorge Pereira and Luis Cedeno were each 2-for-3 in the loss for the Royals.
Bellevue and Warner face off again tomorrow at 5 p.m. Central (6 p.m. Easter) from Royals Field.
