South Dakota State baseball split their last four games, losing to Creighton University and one game to the University of Northern Colorado before going on a scoring spree to win the last two games of the series on Saturday and Sunday.
Creighton Bluejays
The Bluejays opened the scoring in the second inning with seven runs. While SDSU put up five runs in the fourth inning to close the gap, Creighton would pull away with another four runs in the next three innings, taking a decisive 11-5 victory over the Jacks.
Jacob Sjuts started on the mound, pitching one and one-third innings before six Jackrabbit pitchers took over the rest of the game. Logan Campbell and Matthew Werk accounted for the team’s only pair of strikeouts.
Northern Colorado Bears
Game one of the series on Friday ended with another loss for the Jacks. While they scored three runs in the second inning, the Bears responded with seven unanswered runs in the third and fourth innings. The Jacks could only score one more run in the seventh, losing 9-6. Starting pitcher Sam Schlecht struck out four Northern Colorado batters before Ty Madison relieved him, only allowing one run and striking out two additional batters.
Games two and three saw the Jacks rebound and dominate, scoring a combined 42 runs. In game two, the Jacks would score six runs in the first seven innings. With the Bears ahead by four, SDSU scored 12 runs in the eighth, starting with a 2 RBI triple from Mason Lang. The Jacks, with the bases loaded, were able to draw two walks and after a 2 RBI double, SDSU would take the lead and never look back, winning 21-10.
In game three, SDSU continued the momentum, opening the game with three runs scored, followed by another eight runs in the next three innings. Northern Colorado scored two runs in the fifth inning, but it would be their only runs scored. After 10 runs were scored in the seventh, mercy rule was applied, ending in a 21-2 win for SDSU.
In the seventh inning, three runs were scored on wild pitches, and one was scored on a hit by pitch.
“I’ve done this for quite a while, and I’ve never seen that many runs that they were all earned,” head coach Rob Bishop said. “Once we got into their bullpen on day two, I thought we got some momentum and the momentum just kind of carried through to the third game.”
SDSU moves to 9-19 on the season and they improve to 4-5 in Summit League games.
Omaha Mavericks
SDSU returns to action on Saturday, hosting the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The Mavericks are 10-15 overall with a 6-3 conference record. They are coming off a series win over the University of St. Thomas, winning games one and three of the series.
Jackson Trout leads Omaha in batting average with a .390, scoring 19 runs off 39 hits and 22 runs batted in. Trout’s on base plus slugging percentage also ranks first among all Maverick batters at 1.021. Henry Zipay is the only other batter to hit above .300, reaching .323 on the season. Cardel Dick leads the team in home runs with three.
On the mound, Sam Beck and Tanner Foertsch have seen the most playing time, starting and appearing in seven games each. Beck has an earned run average of 3.45, giving up just 12 earned runs on 116 at-bats with 31 and one-third innings pitched.
Two games, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, have been postponed due to inclement weather. The rescheduled dates will be announced soon on GoJacks.com. Game three of the series on Saturday will be played as scheduled.