TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts scored three runs in both the first and second inning and didn’t look back as the Golden Eagles beat South Dakota State 9-4 in the Summit League Tournament on Thursday night.

Second-seeded ORU had eight hits in the first two innings and chased SDSU starter Nic McCay off the mound after one and a third of an inning.

Jake McMurray got things started with a solo home run to left field. Caleb Denny and Jackson Loftin then hit back-to-back singles. Loftin was thrown out stealing, but Denny scored on a Justin Quinn single down the left field line to make it 2-0. Quinn would later score on wild pitch and it was 3-0 Golden Eagles after one.

McMurray would double with one out in the second and Mac McCroskey followed with a walk to put runners on first and second. Denny then came to the plate and hit McMurray home with a single. Loftin followed Denny’s single with a double down the right field line to make it 6-0.  

Neither team scored in the third. The Jacks then got on the board in the top of the fourth with a three-run blast from Nic Nelson with two outs. Luke Ira singled to open the inning and the next two batters were sent down on strikes. Dawson Parry then hit a single before Nelson cut the lead in half. With the home run from Nelson, the Jacks have now hit a home run in 25 of their past 27 games.

SDSU was unable to score any more runs, but shut down the Golden Eagles in the bottom of the inning. However, ORU would extend its lead in the bottom of the fifth.

Quinn reached on an error with one out and he later scored on a balk. Holden Breeze doubled down the left field line and scored on a sacrifice fly from Joshua Cox and the Golden Eagles led 8-3 through five innings. 

SDSU was able to get one back in the sixth. Hackman singled to lead off the inning and made his way around the bases after Jordan Sagedahl was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That was only run the Jacks were able to score in the sixth.

ORU got that run back in the seventh when Loftin stole third and then scored on a throwing error to make it 9-4.

The Jacks got one runner on in the eighth, but could not do any more damage and then went down one-two-three in the ninth to end the game.

Isaac Coffey got the start for ORU and pitched seven innings with 126 pitches. He gave up four runs, three earned on four hits with nine strikeouts and three walks. Brooks Fowler pitched the final two innings for the Golden Eagles and gave up just one hit with six strikeouts.

Nelson was 2-for-3 with three runs batted in for SDSU. McDonald, Hackman and Parry were all 1-for-4.

Third-seeded SDSU will now play No. 1 North Dakota State today at 12:05 p.m. in an elimination game. The Jacks and the Bison only played one game this year as two games were canceled due to weather. NDSU won that game 8-3.