The South Dakota State baseball team dropped two out of three games in its first series of Summit League play this past weekend against Northern Colorado.

The Jacks (2-13, 1-2 Summit) will look to turn things around in their first games on the newly renovated Erv Huether field starting Tomorrow at 3 p.m. against St. Thomas.

Game one 

(UNC 8, SDSU 4)

Timely hitting proved to be the difference as the Northern Colorado Bears established an early 7-1 lead and didn’t look back as they took game one of Saturday’s doubleheader.

The Jacks struck first on an RBI single by Nolan Grawe, but the Bear’s consistent offense over the first four innings was too much for the Jacks to handle.

Northern Colorado scored on a SAC fly in the first, an RBI single and a two-RBI double in the second, back-to-back RBI singles in the third and finally a wild pitch in the fourth capped off the 7-0 run.

SDSU’s offense would get rolling again in the later innings, scoring three runs on a SAC fly in the sixth and eighth innings, but it wasn’t enough to claw back from the hefty deficit.

Arlen Peters took the loss on the mound for the Jacks, tallying 2.1 innings pitched and allowing six runs on nine hits and a walk. Bryce Ronken had the hot bat in game one batting 4-for-4 with a double, while Grawe drove in two runs in the loss.

Game two

 (SDSU 12, UNC 7)

A couple of big innings in game two powered the Jacks to a high-scoring win closing out Saturday’s doubleheader.

The Jacks struck for two runs in the top of the first followed by five runs in the second, coming on consecutive at-bats from the top part of the order. The Jacks gashed the Bears again in the fifth for another three runs, adding two more runs in the sixth and seventh innings.

Northern Colorado had a much tougher time stringing together runs despite scoring seven runs on 15 hits. The Bears scored four of those runs in the third inning alone.

Ty Madison took the win on the mound for the Jacks, allowing one run on four hits in two innings, striking out three. 

Bryce Ronken again was the difference maker in game two, driving in five runs on three hits, including a double. Carter Sintek batted 3-for-5 with two triples, a SAC fly, and two RBIs in the win.

Game three 

(UNC 11, SDSU 10)

With the game firmly in hand for the Jacks, UNC scored seven-ninth-inning runs to walk it off and take the three-game series Sunday.

“We played 26 pretty good innings this weekend,” said SDSU head coach Rob Bishop. “It was our most consistent three-game stretch as far as doing all three aspects of the game well enough, until the 27th inning and we just let it slip away.”

It was a rally that started with good hitting from the Bears and ended with inconsistent pitching from the Jacks’ staff.

The first four runs of the ninth inning came on an RBI single by UNC shortstop Anthony Stellato, a SAC fly by centerfielder Carter Monda, and finally, a two-RBI double from third baseman Kai Wagner.

From then on, it was self-inflicted damage by SDSU. Three walks, two wild pitches and one hit-by-pitch all piled up at once to score the final three runs of the game.

Jude Sundquist took the loss for the Jacks, allowing three runs on one hit, three walks and a wild pitch. Luke Luskey drove in two runs on three hits, including a double and a two-run home run in the loss. SDSU’s second baseman Keagen Jirschele and left fielder Owen Siegert each drove in two runs as well.

St. Thomas

After a rough start to the season, the Jacks still have a long way to go before the Summit League Tournament in late May, and it starts tomorrow afternoon at the newly renovated Erv Huether field in Brookings.

“We’re so thankful for the people that stepped up financially and just helped us get this done,” said Coach Bishop on the field renovations. “This is going to be a game-changer for us. It’s just a really exciting time for SDSU baseball.”

The Jacks will take on the St. Thomas Tommies, the preseason No. 2 team in the Summit League, in a three-game series starting Friday at 3 p.m.

The Tommies are a year removed from winning its first conference regular season title in any sport since moving to the Summit League and are not far behind the preseason favorite Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

“They had a young team when they entered the league and now those guys are all third and fourth-year guys, so they’re veteran kids with a lot of at-bats under their belt,” said coach Bishop on UST. “

The Tommies lineup features a member of the all-conference team last year, along with a second-team all-conference pitcher, Evan Esch.