SDSU Baseball clinches series against Omaha
BROOKINGS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Three South Dakota State senior pitchers combined to hold Omaha in check and a trio of Jackrabbit freshmen provided the bulk of the offense in a 13-3, eight-inning victory in baseball action Saturday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.
In securing their first series win of the season, the Jackrabbits improved to 7-22 overall and 4-8 in The Summit League. Omaha dropped to 11-20 overall and 5-9 in league play.
Nolan Grawe put the Jackrabbits out front two batters into the game as he connected on a Ben Weber offering for a solo home to left-center field, marking the first collegiate round-tripper for the freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Omaha answered with a solo home run by Jackson Trout in the top of the third to tie the game at 1-all.
SDSU then scored runs in bunches in the second half of the game, scoring the next seven runs with three in the sixth and four in the seventh. Carter Sintek started the rally in the sixth with a single and later scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. With two outs, freshman Owen Siegert doubled and came around to score on a single through the left side by classmate Keagen Jirschele. After a walk to Adam Benes, Jess Bellows followed with a run-scoring single to make the score 4-1.
Siegert continued his hot hitting with an RBI single in the seventh and Jirschele added a sacrifice fly later in the frame. Luke Luskey factored in the other two runs of the inning as he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the first run and capped the outburst by scoring on a wild pitch.
Owen Bishop tossed two scoreless innings as the opener for the Jackrabbits, followed by two innings from Alex Clemons. Jake Goble tossed three shutout innings until giving up solo home runs to Trout and Tyler Bishop in the top of the eighth as the Mavericks cut the margin to 8-3.
Trout tallied each of the Mavericks’ first four hits of the game as he was a perfect 4-for-4 on the day and finished a triple short of the cycle.
The Jackrabbits ended the game an inning early with a five-run fifth. Sintek hit his first home run of the season for the first two runs of the frame and Siegert recorded his third double of the game, lining a pitch to the left-center gap for two more runs. Benes drove in Siegert with a single to center to put the 10-run rule into effect.
Siegert ended the afternoon 4-for-5 with three runs batted in, while Grawe was 3-for-4 and scored three times. Benes added two hits for the Jackrabbits, who held a 13-6 advantage in that category.
Bishop and Clemons each notched a pair of strikeouts, while Goble fanned five in his four innings of work in picking up his first win of the season.
Omaha starter Ben Weber was assessed the loss after allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one.
UP NEXT: The Jackrabbits will go for a series sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.
NOTES:
- Omaha leads the all-time series, 96-93-1
- The Jackrabbits improved to 5-2 on their home field this season and have put together their first three-game winning streak in exactly a year after winning games against North Dakota State, Northwestern (Iowa) and Omaha from April 6-12, 2024
- Siegert’s three-double performance marked the 12th by a Jackrabbit in the Division I era and the first since Drew Beazley accomplished the feat in the first game of a Feb. 25, 2022 doubleheader at Incarnate Word
- Benes is batting .474 (9-for-19) in home games this season
- Jirschele extended his hitting streak to eight games
- Clemons made his 65th career pitching appearance, tying him with Isaac Johnson (2006-09), Austin Busse (2009-12) and Talon Jumper (2012-15) for ninth place on the SDSU career charts
- SDSU has held its opponents to five runs or less in seven of the last nine games
Recap courtesy of SDSU Athletic Communications.
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