STOCKTON, Calif The South Dakota State baseball team lost four games to Pacific in its season-opening series over the weekend.
The Jackrabbits will stay in California and play a three-game series with Sacramento State. The first game between SDSU and the Hornets is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Friday
Pacific 7, SDSU 1
Pacific first baseman J.T. Waldon drove in four runs, including three on an inside-the-park home run, to lead the Tigers past South Dakota State, 7-1, in the opener of a four-game college baseball series Friday night at Klein Family Field.
Pacific improved to 3-2 overall, while the Jackrabbits were playing their season opener after having a series last week canceled due to inclement weather.
The Tigers manufactured runs throughout the evening, starting in the home half of the opening inning. After SDSU starter Ty Madison retired the first two batters, Brian McClellin reached on a walk, advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored on a Waldon double down the right-field line.
Pacific upped its lead to 5-0 with a four-run rally in the third inning that began with another free pass and was aided by an error. Kordell Brown drew a one-out walk, then stole both second and third base before on a bunt single by D.J. Scott. Another walk and an error set the table for Waldon, who drove a Madison pitch to the fence in right-center field. The ball took a long carom back toward center field, which allowed Waldon to circle the bases.
As a team, the Tigers stole eight bases in the game, including three by Brown and two each by Scott and John-Howard Bobo.
Left-handed starter Logan Drummond held SDSU in check until the sixth inning, when the Jackrabbits put their lone run of the game on the board. Bryce Ronken opened the frame with a walk and moved to second on the second of three hits in the game by Luke Luskey. After both runners moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Jess Bellows, freshman Keagen Jirschele lined a single to left field to plate Ronken.
Drummond struck out six, walked two and allowed four hits over six innings. Bryce Cruz added three strikeouts in three shutout innings of relief to earn the save.
Pacific added a run without a hit in the fourth inning and tacked on a run on an RBI single by Brown in the eighth.
Madison struck out four and walked three batters in his Jackrabbit debut, which lasted 2 1/3 innings. Freshmen Caleb Duerr and Drew McDowell each logged two-plus innings in their collegiate debuts, notching five and three strikeouts, respectively.
Waldon was 2-for-3 to lead Pacifics eight-hit attack. Luskey tallied half of the Jackrabbits six hits, going 3-for-4.
Saturday
Game 1: Pacific 4, SDSU 3
John-Howard Bobos solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning proved to be the winning run as the Tigers notched a one-run victory in the seven-inning opener.
Bobo, who collected two of Pacifics three hits in the game, connected to left field off Jackrabbit reliever Reece Arbogast with two outs after SDSU had tied the game in the top of the fourth inning.
Luke Luskey continued his hot start for the Jackrabbits with a two-run, two-out single that plated both Keagen Jirschele and Dagen Schramm.
Pacific took an early lead by scoring three runs on two hits and pair of Jackrabbit errors in the home half of the second inning.
SDSU got on the board on back-to-back doubles by Carter Sintek and Bryce Ronken to open the top of the third, but the Jackrabbits would end up stranding two runners for the third inning in a row and a total of nine runners in the game.
Carson Revay was credited with the victory for the Tigers after pitching 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Robert Orr, who started the game at shortstop, came on to record the final four outs for the save.
Jackrabbit starter Jake Goble worked two-plus innings, striking out three and walking three.
Arbogast took the loss despite allowing only the one run. The senior left-hander struck out four and did not walk a batter over four innings.
Ronken was 2-for-3 to lead SDSUs seven-hit attack.
Game 2: Pacific 8, South Dakota State 0
Three Tiger hurlers combined on a four-hit shutout and Pacific put together a pair of three-run innings to complete the doubleheader sweep.
Adan Perez was perfect the first time through the Jackrabbit order and notched seven strikeouts with three walks and four hits allowed over five innings. Ethan Shaver followed with three shutout frames and Joe Metcalf tossed a scoreless ninth.
The Tigers plated a first-inning run as Kordell Brown and D.J.Scott started the game with singles off SDSU starter Sam Schlecht. Brown would later score on a groundout off the bat of J.T. Waldon.
The Pacific lead grew to 4-0 with a three-run fourth inning that featured a bases-loaded walk to Evans and two-run single by Brown.
That came on the heels of the Jackrabbits leaving the bases loaded in the top of the inning after having a runner picked off first base for the second out of the frame. SDSU would strand two men in each of the next two innings and also hit into double plays two other times while again leaving nine men on base.
Waldon tripled in the first run of a three-run seventh for Pacific and Bobo capped the rally with a run-scoring single. Bobo was one of four Tigers with a pair of hits as Pacific held an 11-4 advantage in that department.
Schlecht was charged with the loss after allowing four runs on three hits while striking out four and walking three.
The Jackrabbits four hits were distributed evenly among four different players.
Sunday
Pacific 6, SDSU 3
Pacific catcher Andrew Sloan drove in four runs to lift the Tigers to a 6-3 victory over South Dakota State and a sweep of a four-game nonconference baseball series Sunday afternoon at Klein Family Field.
After J.T. Waldon opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, Sloan upped the Pacific lead to 4-0 with a two-run shot down the left-field line off Jackrabbit starter Arlen Peters in the home half of the fourth.
The Jackrabbits ended a streak of 17 innings without a run by scoring twice in the top of the sixth on three straight two-out hits. Nicolas Werk reached on an infield single and scored on Luke Luskeys double to the left-center gap. Keagen Jirschele followed with a single to center field that plated Luskey to cut the original deficit in half.
Pacific countered with two more runs in the seventh as Sloan delivered a two-run single that scored both Waldon and D.J. Scott. Sloan and Waldon each tallied two of the Tigers 10 hits in the contest.
Luskey pulled the Jackrabbits to within 6-3 with a solo home run to center field in the eighth and SDSU loaded the bases on walks to Nolan Grawe and Carter Sintek around a pinch-hit single by Adam Benes. However, Regan Carter, who came in to pitch after an apparent injury to reliever Robert Orr during Sinteks at-bat, got Bryce Ronken to line out to right field to end the game.
Luskey was a triple away from the cycle in going 3-for-4 on the afternoon. The rest of the Jackrabbits seven hits were spread among seven different players.
Peters took the loss after allowing four runs in four-plus innings. He allowed six hits, but did not walk a batter and struck out four.
Pacific starter Jakob Guardado struck out five and walked none over 5 2/3 innings of two-run baseball to earn the victory.
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