OMAHA, Neb. – South Dakota State softball opened Summit League play with a doubleheader sweep of Omaha Friday. The Jackrabbits won by run-rule (9-1) in the first game before an 11-7 extra-innings victory in the finale.
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OMAHA, Neb. – South Dakota State softball opened Summit League play with a doubleheader sweep of Omaha Friday. The Jackrabbits won by run-rule (9-1) in the first game before an 11-7 extra-innings victory in the finale.
SDSU is now 21-9 on the season with a 2-0 mark in league play with seven consecutive wins.
Game One: South Dakota State 9, Omaha 1 (Five innings)
Madison Hope (11-3) pitched all five innings in the win, scattering five hits and two walks with run allowed. She struck out a career-high nine batters.
Brittney Morse and Baily Janssen had multi-hit games for the Jacks, going 2-for-3 at the plate. Janssen had three RBIs with a pair of doubles and Ali Herdliska had a pair of RBIs with a home run.
Abbey Murphy was 1-for-2 with a triple and two walks, while Paige Gerdes drove in two runs in pinch-hit fashion.
State jumped out to an early lead with a run in the first, using a two-out infield single from Morse to plate Abbey Murphy, who walked to start the inning.
That score held until the fourth, when the teams traded runs to put the game at 2-1. With two gone in the top of the fourth, Megan Rushing worked a five-pitch walk before Janssen took the first pitch she saw into center field for an RBI double.
Omaha got one back in the bottom of the inning and threatened for more, but the Jacks got out of a two-baserunner jam before pulling away for good in the fifth.
Murphy started the inning with another walk, and with one gone Herdliska blasted her sixth home run of the season to clear the bases and put the Jacks ahead, 4-1. Morse restarted a rally with a single to left, and after Lyndsey Crist walked, Crist and Danielle Steffo (who pinch ran for Morse) moved up 60 feet on a wild pitch.
With both runners in scoring position, Paige Gerdes ripped a single through the left side to push two more home, and Rushing was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat. Janssen followed with her second double of the afternoon to send Rushing home for SDSU’s sixth run of the inning. With two gone in the fifth and the Jacks ahead seven, Murphy provided another Jackrabbit hit when she sent a ball into the right field corner for her third triple of the season as State went ahead, 9-1.
Looking to end the game early, Hope started the bottom of the fifth inning with a pair of strikeouts, and after Omaha put a runner on the Jackrabbit defense came up with a ground ball to close the run-rule victory.
Game Two: South Dakota State 11, Omaha 7 (Nine innings)
Madison Hope (12-3) earned her second win of the series in relief, pitching the final five frames after Olivia Douglas started. Douglas allowed ve runs with five strikeouts through four innings, and Hope added another six strikeouts to her day’s total while allowing two runs on two hits.
Julia Andersen had four hits on the day with two home runs and a trio of runs batted in, while Herdliska, Morse (home run, four RBIs) and Yanney Ponce all had two hits.
Rushing hit her third home run of the season in grand-slam fashion for four RBIs.
State fired out of the gates for the second-straight game, scoring four runs in the top of the first behind an Andersen triple and a Morse three-run home run.
Omaha, however, kept it close with three runs of its own in the first, capitalizing on a two-run home and a solo blast.
The Jacks stretched their lead back to two (5-3) in the third when Andersen went deep, but the Mavericks again responded to tie it after a two-RBI double in the bottom of the third.
Andersen provided another spark to the Jackrabbit offense with a swing of her bat in the fifth, launching her second home run of the day on the first pitch of the inning.
Up one (6-5), SDSU carried a lead into the bottom of the seventh but saw Omaha extend the game with a two-out home run.
Still tied in the ninth, Ponce started the inning with a single and Andersen followed with a one-out hit of her own. A wild pitch during Herdliska’s at-bat allowed both runners to move into scoring position before the Solon, Iowa loaded the bases with a walk.
Ponce came home during the next at-bat as Morse reached on an error, and Rushing followed with the Jackrabbits’ first grand slam of the season, launching a 1-2 pitch to put SDSU ahead 11-6.
Down to its last chance once again, Omaha homered to start the ninth but would come no closer as State completed the sweep behind three straight strikeouts from Hope.
Up Next: The Jackrabbits and Mavericks conclude the series Saturday with an 1 p.m. start. The original start time was pushed back two hours due to weather.
Photo from www.gojacks.com.
