The Jackrabbit baseball team remains a late riser in the Summit League after winning three of four games against North Dakota State this past weekend.
The Jacks moved into the fifth seed with the series win and now sit just one game shy of Omaha for a spot in the Summit League tournament.
“We played pretty well in every aspect,” said SDSU head coach Rob Bishop. “We’ve been trending in the right direction, but we made it show up on the scoreboard this week. It was good to see our guys get some results from what we think is a really good process.”
SDSU faces the now-bottom seed in the conference, Northern Colorado, in a three-game series this weekend. The first game will be Friday at 3 p.m., followed by 1 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday (SDSU 6, NDSU 3)
The Jacks’ offense collected 13 hits in the series opener to take Friday’s contest. Jess Bellows and Bryce Ronken each drove in two runs on a double, while Nolan Grawe and Luke Luskey each had three hits and an RBI in the win.
Dylan Driessen earned the win in 2.1 innings of relief, allowing just one run on one hit and three walks, striking out four.
Saturday (NDSU 8, SDSU 4)
A consistent NDSU offense tacked on runs in seven of nine innings to take game one of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Carter Sintek and Owen Siegert each had two hits and one home run, driving in three combined runs, while Nolan Grawe batted 2-for-5 with an RBI in the loss. Caleb Duerr took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits and four walks in six innings pitched, striking out seven.
Saturday (SDSU 8, NDSU 6)
The Jacks came back in game two of Saturday’s doubleheader, scoring six runs over the final three innings to stun the Bison.
Bryce Ronken led the Jacks’ offense, batting 4-for-5 with a double and three RBIs. Nolan Grawe added two hits, a double, a walk, and two RBIs, while Dagen Schramm tallied a 2-RBI double in the win.
Jake Goble earned the win on the mound in 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, fanning eight batters.
Sunday (SDSU 9, NDSU 6)
The Jacks closed out the series with a couple of dominant pitching performances from Ty Madison and Dylan Driessen.
Madison allowed just one hit and one walk in three innings of relief, striking out three batters to take the win, while Driessen closed the final 1.1 innings, allowing just one walk, striking out three more batters.
The offense was powered by Adam Benes’ three-run homer, while six other batters each drove in a run in the win.
Northern Colorado
SDSU gets its chance at redemption this coming weekend in its rematch with the Bears of Northern Colorado.
The Jacks dropped two of three in the last series with UNC, but it came down to a seven-run ninth inning for the Bears to come back and steal the series.
“It’s easy to make our head-to-head with them more important, but the head-to-head with everybody is important,” said Bishop. “The Summit League has continued to have a lot of parity, and I just don’t feel like there’s that much difference between the top and the bottom of the league.”
The Bears’ strongest aspect this season has been their hitting, bolstering a .281 team batting average. In conference play, UNC holds two of the top-5 leaders in batting average with Jake Bullard (.433) and Kai Wagner (.371) sitting at second and fifth, respectively.
On the flip side, the pitching has been subpar for UNC. Murphy Gienger leads all Bears with 62 innings pitched with a 5.37 ERA, while Jake Storey has an 8.52 ERA in 49.2 innings pitched.
The 3-game series between the Jacks and Bears can be watched through the Summit League Network.
