Pitching staff earns two shutouts
The North Dakota State baseball team (22-11, 9-3 Summit) picked up a key series win against the Omaha Mavericks (16-17, 7-5 Summit) this past weekend. On Friday night, pitchers Max Loven and Tristen Roehrich guided the Bison to a 1-0 win. In Saturday’s doubleheader, Omaha took the first game 10-2, but the Bison responded in the second contest with another shutout, winning 2-0.
NDSU and UNO came into the series sitting first and third, respectively, in the Summit League standings. In the first game, NDSU’s Max Loven and Omaha’s Caleb Riedel gave the 303 assembled fans a pitcher’s duel as they combined for 18 strikeouts over the first six innings. That all changed when NDSU’s Logan Williams ripped an RBI double into the gap in left-centerfield to score Cadyn Schwabe and give the Bison the 1-0 lead in the sixth.
Despite threatening in the eighth inning, Omaha was unable to score, as reliever Tristen Roehrich picked up where Max Loven left off, tossing four strikeouts over the last 2 1/3 frames while securing the first shutout win for the Bison this year.
At the plate, five different Bison tallied one hit, and Logan Williams drove in the lone RBI on the evening.
Max Loven (5-2), who has proven to be a solid starter for series openers, tossed a season-high nine strikeouts on Friday night. In the relief effort, Tristen Roehrich’s four KOs contributed to the team’s season-best 13 strikeouts.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Bison suffered a rare blowout loss. Omaha collected 16 hits from seven different batters en route to their 10-2 win. Despite taking the 1-0 lead in the first off Logan William’s sacrifice fly, the Bison were kept mostly quiet the rest of the way against Maverick pitchers Charlie Bell and Joey Machado. For Omaha, catcher Eduardo Rosario and Summit League batting average leader Mike Boeve headlined the scoring for the Mavs, collecting a combined five hits and four RBIs.
At the plate, the Bison totaled eight hits but were unable to capitalize with runners in scoring position. Cadyn Schwabe was the lone bright spot in the offense, going 3-4 and hitting an RBI single in the ninth.
On the mound, Cade Feeney (4-2) tossed five strikeouts over five innings of work, and relievers Wyatt Nelson and Caden Edwards finished the game.
In game two of the doubleheader, both sides fought it out once again, as NDSU’s Evan Sankey and UNO’s Mark Timmins kept the game scoreless through six frames. In the seventh, however, freshman Will Busch drilled a pitch into right field, scoring Cadyn Schwabe and giving the Bison the 1-0 lead. In the following inning, NDSU gained an insurance run off of Brock Anderson’s fourth home run of the season. With the score 2-0 heading into the top of the ninth, closer Jake Drew held his ground, striking out two batters back-to-back to end the game.
In an article posted to omavs.com, Maverick Head Coach Evan Porter summed up the tight 2-0 loss. “Until we can get our offense rolling a little bit or until we can get some timely hitting, our margin for error is zero,” Porter said. “We made a few mistakes in the second game today, and it ended up being one run and that’s all they needed.”
With his four-strikeout effort over the last 2 1/3 frames, Jake Drew earned his second win of the year and continues to show he can close out opponents in late-game situations. Starter Evan Sankey set the table for Drew by keeping the Omaha bats quiet with four strikeouts and no walks over 6 2/3 innings of work.
“We’ve got to credit their pitchers, too,” Porter said. “They did a great job, just like ours did.”
Thanks to the dominant pitching performance, the Bison hitters only needed two runs to get the job done on Saturday afternoon. Brock Anderson (2-4) who homered in the eighth, and Cadyn Schwabe (2-3, 1 run) led the way for the Bison.
With their 2-0 win over the Mavericks, the Bison won their fifth series in a row. Despite having played all road games, the Bison are sitting 10 games over .500 and sit in second place in the Summit League.
Following that, the Herd will take on Summit League foe Oral Roberts (21-12, 7-2 Summit) in an important league series. The Golden Eagles lead the Summit League, and the Bison, by mere percentage points (.778 vs .750) and this will be the two programs’ only regular-season meeting this year. First pitches are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday from J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Okla.