The Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts left little to question about who is in control of the Summit League, departing Erv Huether Field with a three-game sweep of the Jackrabbits in Brookings.
Game One (L, 8-4)
The long ball led the way for the Golden Eagles on a windy Friday afternoon at Erv Huether Field in Brookings.
Cooper Kelly started the scoring in the top of the first for the Golden Eagles, sending Sam Schlecht’s two-out, 0-2 count offering over the right field fence for a three-run home run. Oral Roberts led 6-0 after two and a half innings with a two-RBI double from Will Edmunson and a sacrifice fly.
SDSU got on the board in the bottom of the third on a two-run single from Nate Wachter.
In the fourth, Makani Tanaka blasted a solo home run to give ORU a 7-2 advantage. Nolan Grawe extended his hit streak to 15 games in the bottom half with a two-run home run.
Tanaka gave ORU the final say in the seventh inning with his second home run of the day, a wall-scraping solo homer just over the reach of right fielder Nate Wachter.
SDSU had two-hit days from three players in Luke Luskey, Nolan Grawe and Keegan Jirschele. Sam Schlecht took the pitching loss (3-3) and Easton Teel got the victory for ORU (4-1).
Game Two (L, 18-2)
ORU had a magnificent day at the plate as they piled on 18 runs on the Jackrabbits coming away with a 18-2 run-rule victory on Saturday afternoon.
ORU got it going quickly as they scored six runs in the second inning. Cooper Combs hit a two-run home run, and Will Edmundson then left the yard blasting a three-run homerun. Wailele Kane-Yates doubled in another run to finalize the inning. During it, Oral Roberts sent 11 players to the plate.
The Golden Eagles were not done, scoring eight more runs off six hits in the third inning to make it a 14-0 game. Oral Roberts extended their lead to 16-0 in the fourth as Davis reached on a fielder’s choice and Combs brought another run home on a sacrifice fly. SDSU added on two runs in the fifth, but weren’t able to make up the deficit.
Sophomore Infielder Nolan Grawe extended his hit streak to 16 games. SDSU also had hits from Grant Sorenson, Luke Jones, Luke Everson and Nic Wirk and left 10 runners on base.
Will Yeary (1-0) gets the win on the mound for ORU and Sam Novotny (2-4) suffers the loss
Game Three (L, 10-2)
ORU once again took control early to defeat the Jacks 10-2, never trailing in a three game sweep.
In the second inning, Ethan Fender grounded out but Cooper Kelly came home to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead after the second inning.
Oral Roberts once again put up a crooked number in the third inning, Makani Tanka grounded out, but still added one run to the score. Cooper Combs finished the at bat by shooting one up the middle to score two. In the next at bat, Fender singled in Cooper Kelly. ORU added six runs in total during the third and led 7-0 by the end of it.
In the fourth, SDSU’s Nate Wachter brought in Grant Sorenson on a sacrifice fly to cut the ORU lead to 7-1 after four.
Oral Roberts added two extra runs in the seventh to take a 10-2 lead and would go on to win the game. Jack Hill (4-0) gets the win on the mound for ORU and Kaden Rylance (2-3) picks up the loss.
ORU boosted their record to 23-14 overall and a Summit League best 14-1 in conference play while SDSU fell to 12-24 overall and a 6-9 record in conference play.
South Dakota State will be in action next on Wednesday when they play host to NAIA Briar Cliff. First pitch at Erv Huether Field is set for 3 p.m before a weekend series with Northern Colorado. Saturday and Sunday tilts are both scheduled for 2 p.m.
