SACRAMENTO, Calif The South Dakota State baseball team split the final two games of the series against Sacramento State over the weekend.
The Jackrabbits won their first game of the year on Sunday when they beat the Hornets 12-11 in 10 innings. SDSU fell to Sac State on Saturday, 4-1.
Sunday
SDSU 12, Sacramento State 11 (11 inn.)
In overcoming an 8-1 deficit, the Jackrabbits improved to 1-7 overall. Sacramento State dropped to 7-5. In addition to hitting five home runs in the game, five SDSU pitchers combined for a single-game school record 21 strikeouts.
Trailing by seven through four innings, the Jackrabbit comeback began with their highest-scoring frame of the season, a five-run top of the fifth in which all runs scored with two outs. Carter Sintek sparked the outburst with a two-run double that scored Keagen Jirschele and Owen Siegert. Luke Luskey then stepped to the plate and connected on a two-run home run to left, which was followed by a Bryce Ronken opposite-field blast to left that drew to within 8-6.
Siegert brought the Jackrabbits to within a single run with his first collegiate home run with two outs in the sixth. Meanwhile, Jake Goble logged three scoreless innings, striking out six while walking two and allowing one hit.
SDSU grabbed its first lead of the game with a four-run top of the eighth. Ronken led off with his second home run to tie the game at 8-all, then the Jackrabbits quickly loaded the bases before Jirschele reached on a throwing error that allowed both pinch runner Brady Brown and Jess Bellows to score on the play. Sintek delivered the final run of the inning with a single that plated Jirschele for an 11-8 advantage.
Jackrabbit reliever Alex Clemons worked a scoreless bottom of the eighth, but allowed a game-tying three-run home run to Tyler White in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings.
To start the 10th inning, freshman Dayton Franke entered the game as a pinch hitter and connected on Carson Latimers second pitch of the inning for a home run.
Clemons struck out the first two batters of the bottom of the 10th, but proceeded to load the bases with a hit batter and two walks. Jude Sundquist then came on to strike out Myles Walton to end the game.
Clemons tallied six strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings, while starter Arlen Peters struck out three and Dylan Driessen followed with five Ks.
Sacramento State sandwiched four runs in each of the second and fourth innings around an unearned run by the Jackrabbits in the top of the third for their 8-1 lead. Jakob Poturnak hit his sixth home run of the season to score two of the fourth-inning runs.
SDSU finished with a 13-8 advantage in hits as five different Jackrabbits notched two hits apiece.
The Jackrabbits ended a seven-game losing streak in the series. SDSU won an extra-innings game for the first time since a 6-3, 10-inning victory at Western Illinois on April 7, 2023. The Jackrabbits entered Saturdays game with only one home run on the season.
The previous SDSU record for strikeouts in a Division I game was 18 on three occasions: versus Oral Roberts in an 11-inning game in 2010, versus Western Illinois in an 11-inning game in 2018 and at Oral Roberts in a 14-inning game in 2022. Ronken recorded the first multi-homer game of his career. Freshman first baseman Nolan Grawe batted .500 (8-for-16) in the four-game series. Sundquists save was the first of his career
Saturday
Sacramento State 4, SDSU 1
Ryan Christiansen put the Hornets on the board with a solo home run two batters into the game, then added a run-scoring double in the second inning that extended their lead to 3-0. Tyler White drove in the first run of the second frame with a base hit to center field.
SDSU starter Sam Schlecht worked a scoreless third inning before running into more trouble in the fourth as J.P. Smith plated what would be the final Hornet run with the third of three consecutive singles for Sac State.
Meanwhile, Hornet right-hander Evan Gibbons worked out of a couple early jams en route to 5 1/3 scoreless innings. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter before giving way to Noah Lucchesi, who notched a strikeout for the lone out he recorded, and Kade Brown, the latter of whom fanned six over the final 3 1/3 innings to earn the save.
Browns first strikeout was the final out of the sixth inning after the Jackrabbits loaded the bases. SDSU stranded nine runners in the contest.
SDSU reliever Reece Arbogast kept Sacramento State at bay, pitching 4 1/3 hitless and scoreless innings. The senior left-hander faced the minimum 13 batters, erasing the only walk he issued with a double play to end the bottom of the seventh.
The Jackrabbits ended the shutout bid with an unearned run in the top of the eighth without the benefit of a hit. Nolan Grawe and Bryce Ronken each drew walks before Keagen Jirschele reached on an error that allowed Grawe to score.
Schlecht struck out two and walked one while allowing four runs on nine hits over 3 2/3 innings.
Carter Sintek collected two of the Jackrabbits four hits while Christiansen was 3-for-4 to lead Sac States nine-hit attack.
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