BROOKINGS The South Dakota State baseball team won the final two games of a three-game series against Northern Colorado this weekend at Erv Huether Field in Brookings.
The Jackrabbits lost to the Bears on Friday but then won on Saturday and Sunday. The Jacks are now 14-29 overall and 10-13 in Summit League play.
SDSU will play a three-game series at Omaha this upcoming weekend with the series set to start on Friday at 6 p.m.
Friday
Northern Colorado 9, SDSU 6
Northern Colorado scored five times in the top of the eighth inning and received five shutout innings in relief from Hunter Gibson to post a 9-6 victory over South Dakota State in the opening game of a three-game Summit League baseball series Friday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.
SDSU scored in each of the first four innings in holding a 6-4 lead midway through the contest. After the Bears scored twice in the top of the first inning, the Jackrabbits quickly loaded the bases in their first at-bat on only three pitches as Carter Sintek singled, Nolan Grawe doubled to the warning track in left-center field and Bryce Ronken was hit by a pitch.
However, the Jackrabbits would only come away with one run in the first inning as Jess Bellows came through with a two-out infield single that plated Sintek.
UNC used more small ball to score an unearned run in the top of the second, but SDSU drew back to within a run when Keagen Jirschele led off the bottom of the frame with his second home run off the season. Jirschele then tied the game at 3-all an inning later with an RBI double.
An RBI single by Brett Barber put the Bears back out front at 4-3 in the fourth before SDSU struck for three runs in the home half of the inning. Bryce Ronken doubled in both Sintek and Grawe for the first two runs, with Ronken later scoring on a sacrifice fly by Adam Benes.
It remained a 6-4 game until the fateful top of the eighth, when the Bears batted around. Jake King walked and Craig Kenny reached on an infield single off SDSU reliever Tristan Augedahl to open the inning. The Jackrabbits then went to closer Dylan Driessen, who walked pinch hitter Dalton Miller to load the bases before Nick Barber plated one run with a groundout and Carter Monda followed two batters later with a two-run, go-ahead single to right field. Another groundout plated the fourth run of the inning and an RBI infield single by Kai Wagner capped the rally.
Gibson, meanwhile, allowed only three hits over his five innings of work as he struck out three batters. UNC starter Murphy Gienger allowed six runs on nine hits while striking out four and walking three in four innings.
Arlen Peters was the first of six Jackrabbit pitchers in the game and surrendered three earned runs on five hits in three-plus innings. He walked two and struck out one. Alex Clemons fanned three batters in two scoreless innings.
SDSU finished with a 12-10 advantage in hits as Sintek and Grawe each tallied three hits and Jirschele added two. Brett Barber, King and Kenny each notched two hits for the Bears.
Saturday
SDSU 11, Northern Colorado 2
Caleb Duerr and Jake Goble combined to hold Northern Colorado scoreless over the final eight innings and Owen Siegert supplied the offense with a pair of home runs to lead South Dakota State to an 11-2 victory over Northern Colorado in Summit League baseball action Saturday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.
Duerr struggled in the early going as the Bears took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. After a leadoff walk to Carter Monda and bunt single by Brett Barber, Jake King plated both runs with a two-out single up the middle.
A freshman from Melbourne, Iowa, Siegert put SDSU on the board with a home run to lead off the bottom of the second, then helped jump-start a six-run fourth inning. After Bryce Ronken singled to lead off the home half of the fourth, Siegert doubled off the fence in right field to move Ronken to third. After Jess Bellows was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Dagen Schramm and Nic Werk each drew two-out walks to force in the tying and go-ahead runs.
More two-out magic followed as Carter Sintek and Nolan Grawe hit back-to-back two-run doubles to push the Jackrabbit lead to 7-2.
Schramm added another run-scoring double in the fifth and Siegert capped the scoring with a three-run homer to right in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Duerr limited Northern Colorado to only three base runners the remainder of his five-inning start. The freshman right-hander allowed only three hits while striking out three and walking four.
Goble followed with four hitless and scoreless innings, striking out one while allowing only a walk and a hit batter en route to his first career save.
SDSU finished with a 12-3 advantage in hits as Siegert, Sintek and Ronken each tallied three hits. The Bears did not record a hit after the first inning.
UNC starter Trevor Landen struck out seven, but allowed the first six runs after surrendering four hits and walking two. Five other Bear hurlers were summoned to the mound on Saturday.
Sunday
SDSU 10, Northern Colorado 2
Dylan Richey pitched five shutout frames and South Dakota State put together its second six-run inning of the series en route to a 10-2, series-clinching victory over Northern Colorado Sunday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.
After playing from behind in each of the first two games of the series, it was SDSU that got out to an early lead on Sunday. Nolan Grawe started a two-run rally with a double to left-center field, moved to third on a base hit by Bryce Ronken and scored on a sacrifice fly by Owen Siegert. Ronken later scored on a single by Adam Benes.
The Jackrabbit lead grew to 4-0 with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Carter Sintek continued his hot hitting with a home run to lead off the bottom of the third while Jess Bellows doubled and scored on a hit by Keagen Jirschele an inning later.
Richey, who was making his first start in a Summit League game, was efficient in the longest outing of his Jackrabbit career. The right-hander needed only 57 pitches to complete five innings as he allowed only three hits and walked one.
UNC ended a streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings with a run against Jackrabbit reliever Alex Clemons in the sixth inning. Carter Monda led off with a single and moved up on two wild pitches before scoring on Jake Kings single through the right side. King, along with Ethan Mooser and Anthony Stellato, collected two of the Bears seven hits.
SDSU ended any hopes of a comeback by the Bears with a six-run bottom of the seventh. After a leadoff walk to Nicholas Werk and a single by Sintek put runners at the corners, Grawe hit a sharp one-hopper to second base that was fielded, but the ensuing throw to the shortstop to attempt to start a double play was off that mark and allowed both Werk and Sintek to score on the play. Ronken then followed with an RBI double and Siegert added a run-scoring single before Benes launched a two-run home run over the fence in left-center field.
Tristan Augedahl pitched two shutout innings before UNC scored an unearned run in the ninth.
Sintek was 3-for-5 to lead SDSUs 13-hit effort, finishing a double away from the cycle. Eight different players recorded at least one hit with Ronken, Siegert and Benes each tallying two hits.
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