Jackrabbits sweep home-opening twinbill

Saturday, May 12

Bob Shelden Field

12 p.m.

South Dakota State University

IPFW

5/12/2007 6:00:00 PM | Baseball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State used a combination of small ball in the opener and long ball in the nitecap to sweep a baseball doubleheader from IPFW Saturday afternoon at Bob Shelden Field.

With 7-4 and 15-4 victories, the Jackrabbits improved to 27-18, ensuring themselves of their first winning season since 2002. IPFW dropped to 9-34. The two teams will close out the series with another twinbill Sunday, starting at 11 a.m.

In the opener, the Jackrabbits used timely situational hitting en route to a 7-4 victory.

IPFW grabbed a 3-1 lead in the top of the third with a two-out rally. Mark Carden singled to left and moved up a base on a single through the right side by Tony Nichting. Jared Davis then drove a Matt Bowman pitch over the fence in left-center field for his eighth home run of the season.

SDSU had taken an early 1-0 in the bottom of the first as Tim Hanigan walked, took third on a Tyson Fisher single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Adams. The Jackrabbits rallied to tie the game at 3-all in the fourth inning on a run-scoring double by Tony Martin, which was followed two batters later by Korby Mintken's triple.

Cal Lewis delivered a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to give SDSU the lead at 4-3, but the Mastodons tied the game with a run in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Ryan Diem.

SDSU took the lead for good in the home half of the sixth, scoring twice against reliever Brett Merkley. Mintken singled home the first run, then proceeded to steal second and third on consecutive pitches before scoring on Jake Rogers' sacrifice fly ? the third of the game for the Jackrabbits.

After walking to lead off the eighth inning, Matt Zabel added an insurance run as he scored on the second of two wild pitches.

On a day in which he set the SDSU single-season record for innings pitched in a season, Bowman worked 7 2/3 innings to pick up his team-leading seventh victory. The senior right-hander allowed seven hits, but struck out four and walked only one.

Erik Bess and Jacob Kougl each pitched two-thirds of an inning to secure the victory.

Fisher and Mintken each had two of SDSU's seven hits.

In Game 2, the Jackrabbits broke out the big bats, scoring early and often in a 15-4 drubbing.

SDSU sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning, scoring six times. Tony Martin blasted his second grand slam of the season and seventh home run of the year to give the Jackrabbits a 5-0 lead. Craig Parry plated the first run of the inning and Chris Iverson drove in Mintken with the final run of the inning with a double.

IPFW starter Cole Uebelhor lasted only two-thirds of an inning as he was charged with all six runs. He gave up six hits, walked two and threw two wild pitches in facing 10 batters.

The Mastodons had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI groundout by Shaun VanDriessch, then scored three times in the fifth inning, including a run-scoring single by VanDriessch.

The Jackrabbits put the game out of reach in the third inning, batting around again as they scored seven times. Mintken led off the inning with his school-record 12th career triple and scored on a base hit by Iverson. Later in the inning, Adams lined a ball over the fence in center field for a three-run homer and Cal Lewis hit a three-run shot of his own to left field for his 13th round-tripper of the season.

The beneficiary of the Jackrabbit offensive outburst was starting pitcher Isaac Johnson, who improved to 4-0. In his five innings, Johnson scattered seven hits, struck out three and walked one. Sam Pieczynski and Matt Baerlocher each threw an inning of scoreless relief.

Iverson was 3-for-4 and drove in three runs as SDSU out-hit the Mastodons, 15-9. Fisher, Lewis and Mintken each posted two hits.

Four different players tallied two hits each for IPFW.

Notes: Saturday's games were the first SDSU has played in Brookings this season ... SDSU leads the all-time series against IPFW, 7-0, winning all six meetings between the two squads this season ... the Jackrabbits have posted double figures for runs in five of the six games versus IPFW this season, outscoring the Mastodons, 70-27 ... the previous Jackrabbit record for innings pitched in a season was 85 1/3 by Trevor Schulte in 1994; Bowman now stands at 89 2/3 innings ... Dave Lane, who played from 1983-86, held the previous Jackrabbit triples record with 11 ... SDSU improved to 16-5 against Division I independents this season ... scheduled starters for the Jackrabbits on Sunday are Caleb Thielbar (6-2, 3.68 ERA) and Kirby Morsching (2-2, 2.33 ERA)