BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Science & Arts scored in its final five at-bats en route to a 15-5 victory of fourth-seeded Bellevue University in the third game of the NAIA Baseball Opening Round – Bowling Green Bracket at Bowling Green Ballpark.
P.J. Garcia went 4-for-5 at the plate with five RBIs for the Drovers (46-6). Travis Tanaka and Austin Alexander each had two hits for the Bruins (38-22).
Top-seeded Science & Arts came out swinging getting the first two hitters aboard, and Kenniel Rivera belted a deep fly ball out to right field, that first looked to be over the fence and Rivera rounded the bases, but was later ruled as a ground rule double as the ball bounced over the fence in right field.
On the ground-rule double, Miguel Lorenzo came into score and the Greg Barnette hit a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Garcia from third base. With a 2-0 lead, the Drovers could not add on to their lead and left a runner stranded on third base.
After a pair of scoreless innings, Science & Arts came back up in the fourth inning a scored three early runs to force a pitching change with a 5-0 lead. Despite the pitching change and Junior Ramirez recording two outs in his first two full at-bats, the Drovers scratched across another run after a wild throw to home plate to take a 6-0 lead after four innings.
Despite the deficit, Bellevue did not shy away with a three-run fifth inning. With back-to-back singles to start the inning, Matt Evans tripled down the right-field line to score two runs and then Kory Longaker drove in Evans from third with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3 in favor of Science & Arts heading into the home half of the fifth inning.
However, the offense kept rolling for the Drovers with two more runs in the in the bottom of the fifth inning. Garcia delivered the big hit with the bases loaded with a single out to right field and extending the lead for Science & Arts to 8-3.
The Drover's kept the pedal on the gas with another run in the sixth inning to grab a 9-3 lead, while also scoring in three-straight innings.
The Bruins did not go away as they tried to reel the game back within reach with a run in the seventh inning off a RBI double from Longaker, but Bellevue left the bases loaded with Science & Arts leading, 9-4. The offense kept rolling for the Drovers with three more runs in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead to 12-4 and extended their scoring streak four innings.
Science & Arts scored in six of their eight at-bats after three more runs were plated in the eighth inning to take the win over the Bruins, 15-5.
Francis Ventura (10-0) threw seven innings in the win allowing four runs and seven hits in his outing. Zach Thorp (7-4) suffered the loss after giving up two runs in three innings of work.
The Drovers advance into the winner's bracket final against third-seeded Reinhardt University at 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday.
Bellevue moves into the elimination bracket and face's the winner of Campbellsville University and Midland University at 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday.
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