North Dakota State baseball took home their fourth Summit League series win of the season and their second series win against the Golden Eagles at Newman Outdoor Field last weekend.
Due to the low temperatures on Friday, game one was pushed to Saturday afternoon, making it a doubleheader for the Bison.
Game One (April 20)
Oral Roberts won the series’ opening game 10-3 and scored six runs in the final three innings.
Leland Wilson started on the mound for the Bison and went six innings with five strikeouts. NDSU then had four pitchers in relief, allowing six hits total in the last three frames.
The Bison collected seven hits total in the game. Caden Schwabe went 3-for-4 at the plate and stole one base. He has now stolen 53 bases in his career, setting an all-time NDSU record.
Both teams scored right away in the first inning. After the Golden Eagles collected a run, Colton Becker’s ground out brought in Jake Schaffner to tie it at 1. Both teams then scored another run in the third frame. James Dunlap hit a sacrifice fly to tie it 2. The Golden Eagles scored one run in the fifth before both teams exchanged a run for the third time in the game in the sixth. The run in the sixth for NDSU was a home run from Sam Canton to deep right field. This was Canton’s second homer of the season. Oral Roberts scored six unanswered runs over the final three innings. The final score of the series opener was 10-3.
Game Two (April 20)
The second half of the doubleheader on Saturday was in the Bison’s favor, winning 7-6 with the help of a walk-off home run by Garret Hill in the ninth inning.
Logan Knight started on the hill and collected four strikeouts in five innings. Alex Karns and Joey Danielson filled up the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, allowing just one run. Skyler Riedinger earned the win and tossed the final scoreless inning.
NDSU got 12 hits as a team with five players recording multiple. Jack Steil got two hits and led the team with three RBIs.
Sam Canton started things off in the first inning with a single up the middle, scoring Jake Schaffner. The Golden Eagles then went on a hot streak in the third and fourth innings, scoring five runs. With the Bison trailing 5-1 at the top of the fourth, they got two back with an RBI from Steil and a sacrifice fly from Will Busch. Caden Schwabe contributed to the sixth frame with an RBI to left center that scored Schaffner once again, making the score 5-4. With two outs in the seventh, Steil gets his last two RBIs with a triple to deep left, giving the Bison the lead 6-5. Oral Roberts responded in the eighth with an RBI double which tied it back up. Riedinger entered the game in the final frame and sent the Golden Eagles down in order. The bottom of the frame started with back-to-back pop-outs from the Bison. Following that, Hill crushed one to right field and sealed the walk-off win 7-6.
Game three (April 21)
Garret Hill showed up again the next day in the series finale with a walk-off hit to take the win 5-4 over Oral Roberts.
Landon Koenig started on the mound and struck out three in 5.1 innings. Joey Danielson finished out the final frame with one strikeout and earned his first win of the season.
The Bison got 11 hits as a team. Caden Schwabe, James Dunlap and Davis Hamilton all logged two hits.
After Oral Roberts brought in a run in the first inning, Jake Schaffner tied it up with an RBI single to right field in the third. As the fourth frame came along, Jake Steil ripped one to left field which brought in Garret Hill to take the lead 2-1. The Golden Eagles scored three runs up to the seventh frame, leaving the score 4-2 throughout the eighth inning. Colton Becker’s RBI single to right field started the rally for the Bison. Sam Canton then tied it up 4-4 with his own RBI single to right field. Hill finished it off just like the night before with a walk-off single to deep center field which left the score 5-4.
North Dakota State improved to 12-22 overall and 9-6 in the Summit League. They will be back at Newman Outdoor field to face Mayville State on Tuesday(April 23) with the first pitch at 6:30 p.m.