ST. PAUL, Minn. – The South Dakota State baseball team dropped two of three games against St. Thomas over the weekend.

The Jackrabbits fell to the Tommies in the first game of the series on Friday but then bounced back later in the day with a victory. SDSU then dropped the final game of the series on Saturday.

SDSU is now 8-26 overall and 5-11 in Summit League play. The Jacks will host Northwestern (Iowa) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. They’ll then take on Creighton in Sioux Falls on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Friday
Game One
St. Thomas 14, SDSU 6
Summit League-leading St. Thomas scored in six consecutive innings, completing a 14-6 victory over South Dakota State to open a three-game baseball series at Koch Diamond.

The game began Thursday before being suspended due to inclement weather and was completed Friday afternoon.

The two squads traded leads until UST gained the advantage for good with a four-run bottom of the sixth inning, breaking a 6-all tie. The first two runs of the frame scored without the benefit of a hit after two walks, an error, a wild pitch and a run-scoring groundout. The final two runs came via the long ball as Joe Roder hit his second home run of the game and Matthew Maulik followed with a homer of his own against Jackrabbit reliever Alex Clemons.

The Tommies again took advantage of free passes issued by the SDSU pitching staff to score two more times in the seventh inning and tack on another run in the eighth. In all, seven Jackrabbit hurlers combined to walk 14 batters in the game.

SDSU held the lead on two different occasions, including scoring the first run of the game. Carter Sintek led off the contest with a double to right-center, moved to third on a groundout by Nolan Grawe, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Luskey.

Roder’s first home run of the game gave St. Thomas a momentary 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third, but the Jackrabbits responded with a three-run top of the fourth that included a two-run double by Sintek that plated both Keagen Jirschele and Dagen Schramm. Nicholas Werk later scored the third run of the inning on another groundout by Grawe.

St. Thomas countered with a run in the bottom of the fourth and gained a 6-4 lead on a two-run double by Roder and RBI groundout by Brigs Richartz in the fifth. Roder ended the game 4-for-4 with six RBIs and three runs scored to lead a Tommie offense that notched a total of 12 hits.

The Jackrabbits knotted the game for the final time in the top of the sixth with another rally started by the bottom third of the order.

Jirschele was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game and Schramm walked before Sintek lined a single to left field for his fourth hit of the game. Both Jirschele and Schramm scored on the play after the ball was misplayed in the outfield.

Sintek ended the day 4-for-5 with three RBIs for a Jackrabbit squad that mustered six hits on the day. Adam Benes and Schramm recorded SDSU’s other hits.

Play was suspended due to rain and lightning in the bottom of the eighth with St. Thomas leading 13-6 after Joe Vos walked with the bases. When play resumed Friday, the first batter of the day, Max Moris, drew a bases-loaded walk for the final run of the game.
Zak Endres picked up the win in relief for St. Thomas after striking out five over 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

Jackrabbit starter Arlen Peters worked the first four innings, striking out two and walking four.

Marcus Kruzan, who entered the game with a 6-0 record, pitched the first 5 1/3 innings for UST and wound up with a no-decision after allowing six runs on six hits while striking out four and walking three.

Game Two
SDSU 3, St. Thomas 0
Caleb Duerr and Dylan Driessen combined to pitch a shutout and Luke Luskey supplied the offense as South Dakota State evened its Summit League baseball series with a 3-0 victory over St. Thomas Friday afternoon at Koch Diamond.

Luskey gave the Jackrabbits the early lead by lining a two-run home run to left field in the top of the first inning. Carter Sintek also scored on Luskey’s league-leading 11th round-tripper after leading off the game by reaching on an error.

The Jackrabbits added what would turn out to be the final run of the game in the third inning. Nicholas Werk opened the inning with an infield single and advanced to third base two batters later on a single to center field by Nolan Grawe. That set the table for Luskey, who lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that was deep enough to score Werk.

A freshman from West Fargo, North Dakota, Duerr allowed at least one base runner in every inning as he worked into the seventh inning, but made the pitches when he most needed to in posting his third win of the season. The right-hander struck out three, walked one and hit one batter before exiting with runners at the corners and two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Driessen entered and induced a groundout to third base to end the St. Thomas threat in the seventh, then tossed two more hitless innings to lock down his third save of the season. He struck out three and allowed one hit.

Tanner Recchio and Brigs Richartz each tallied two of St. Thomas’ seven hits. The Jackrabbits finished with only four hits in the contest.

Saturday
St. Thomas 5, SDSU 1
St. Thomas pitchers Riane Ritter and Max Skilbeck combined for 10 strikeouts and limited South Dakota State to two hits as the league-leading Tommies claimed the decisive game of a three-game Summit League baseball series with a 5-1 victory Saturday afternoon at Koch Diamond.

The Tommies got all the offense they would need in the first two innings. UST got on the board with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning as Ben Vujovich singled and stole both second and third base, scoring on an errant throw on his steal of third.

UST loaded the bases the next inning on a hit, walk and hit batter to set up Max Moris, who notched a two-out single to center field to score both Tanner Recchio and Vujovich.

Riane Ritter carried a shutout into the sixth inning, when SDSU tallied its lone run on a home run to left by Luke Luskey. It was Luskey’s second home run of the series and league-leading 12th round-tripper of the season.

The Jackrabbits’ burst of momentum was short-lived, however, as St. Thomas responded with single runs in both the home half of the sixth and seventh innings. Zan Von Schlegell plated the sixth-inning run with a sacrifice fly and Matthew Maulik added a run-scoring single in the seventh after Vujovich created more havoc on the bases.

Vujovich tallied two hits, stole three bases and scored three runs while Brigs Richartz led the Tommies’ 10-hit effort with a 3-for-4 day at the plate.

Carter Sintek posted the only other Jackrabbit hit, a single in the third inning.

Ritter worked seven innings en route to the victory, striking out five and walking one. Skilbeck finished on the mound for the Tommies with five strikeouts in two hitless and scoreless frames.

For SDSU, starter Owen Bishop was assessed the loss after walking three and surrendering three runs in only 1 1/3 innings. He struck out two and walked three. Reece Arbogast finished the second inning before giving way to Jake Goble, who pitched the final six frames. Goble struck out four and did not walk a batter in his longest outing of the season.