Jackrabbits, Golden Eagles split weekend games

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BROOKINGS – Oral Roberts and South Dakota State split a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.

ORU won the series as the Golden Eagles won game one 12-11 on Thursday and game two 13-5 on Friday. SDSU won the final game of the series 7-3 on Saturday.

This was the final series of the regular season. The two team will play on Wednesday in the Summit League Tournament at 6 p.m. on Wednesday as ORU (35-18, 17-7) is the No. 2 seed and SDSU (23-21, 13-9) is the No. 3 seed. The other game in the tournament on Wednesday is between No. 1 NDSU (30-17, 17-5) and No. 4 Omaha (24-29, 12-12) and they will play at noon. 

The tournament is a double elimination format. The losers of the first two games will play in an elimination game on Thursday at noon, while the winners will play at 6 p.m. with the winner going advancing to the championship on Saturday. The winner of the first game on Thursday will play the loser of the second game at 4 p.m. on Friday with the winner of that advancing to the championship, but that team will have to win two games on Saturday to win the tournament.

You can watch all of the games on the Midco Sports Network Plus and you can listen to all the Jackrabbit games on AM 910 or the Jackrabbit Sports Network.

Saturday

 SDSU 7, Oral Roberts 3

A big second inning led the Jacks over the Golden Eagles in the final game of the series.

Neither team scored in the first inning. The Jacks then broke the tie in the bottom of the second with a five runs.

Derek Hackman led off the inning with a walk. Nic Nelson and Drew Beazley then followed that with back-to-back singles to load the bases. Jamie Berg would hit into a fielder’s choice and Hackman scored to make it 1-0. 

Sagedahl then hit a hard grounder to shortstop and would beat out the throw and Nelson scored. Henry George walked to load the bases once gain and Luke Ira would hit a single, scoring Berg and Sagedahl would then score on a throwing error by the third baseman. Ryan McDonald hit a single into left field and George scored, but Ira was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. SDSU led 5-0 through two.

Jake McMurray got one run back for the Golden Eagles in the top of third as he hit a solo home run to left field. 

The Jacks would extend their lead to 6-1 in the sixth. Thatcher Kozal walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Berg bunted down the third base line and Kozal advanced to third and would score on the play after a throwing error by the third baseman.

The Jacks added another run in the seventh to make it 7-1. Nic Nelson reached on a throwing error by the shortstop and then scored on a Kozal double into the right center gap.

ORU would pick up two runs in the top of the eighth, but were unable to score anymore, so the Jacks came away victorious.

Cody Carlson got the start for SDSU and picked up a win to improve to 7-5 on the season. He pitched five innings and gave up one earned run on five hits with three strikeouts and no walks.

Reece Arbogast and Brady Hawkins each pitched one scoreless inning. Arbogast gave up one hit and had two strikeouts, while Hawkins gave up no hits and had one strikeout. Brett Barnett pitched the final two innings and gave up two earned runs on three hits with four strikeouts and a walk.

Berg and Ira were each 1-for-4 with an RBI. McDonald was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Sagedahl was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Kozal was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Beazley and Nelson were each 1-for-4.

Friday

 Oral Roberts 13, SDSU 5

The Jacks held a 4-2 led through four innings, but were then outscored 11-1 the rest of the way.

SDSU got on the board in the first inning when Hackman sent George home on a sacrifice fly. The Golden Eagles would tie the game in the top of the second as J Cox hit H Breeze home with a double to left center.

ORU took the lead in the top of the fourth when J Quinn hit an RBI single. The Jacks responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Kozal hit Nelson home with a single up the middle. Kozal and Beazley each scored on a throwing error and it was 4-2 through four.

The Golden Eagles would score four runs in the top of the fifth to regain the lead. A Jones scored on a wild pitch and C Denny hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-4. J Loftin then hit a two-run homer to center and it was 6-4 through five.

ORU extended its lead to 8-4 in the sixth. Cox would hit an RBI double and would then score on a McMurray single.

The Golden Eagles put the game out of reach in the eight with a five-run inning. The inning was highlighted by a two-run single from McMurray. Hackman would hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, but it was too little too late.

Owen Bishop got the start for SDSU and was awarded the loss. He pitched four and two thirds innings and gave up six earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

Hackman was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and Kozal was 1-for-3 with an RBI. George, Nelson and Reece Anderson each went 1-for-4.