SDSU finishes off sweep of UNC

Friday, May 18

Greeley, Colo.

2 p.m. MT

South Dakota State University

Northern Colorado

5/18/2007 9:00:00 PM | Baseball

By: SDSU Sports Info

GREELEY, Colo. ? South Dakota State ran its baseball winning streak to six games with a 4-1 victory over Northern Colorado on Friday, finishing off a sweep of a two-game series.

SDSU improved to 31-18 overall in its final game before next week's Division I Independent Tournament. The Bears dropped to 14-33.

The Jackrabbits took an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the third inning. With two outs, Tyson Fisher was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a balk and scored on a base hit by Nick Adams. Cal Lewis then walked, and Tony Martin followed with a single to center to plate Adams.

After a weather delay of about an hour, the Jackrabbits tacked on a run in the top of the seventh. Korby Mintken led off the frame with an opposite-field triple and scored on a groundout by Fisher. Mintken's triple was his seventh of the season, tying the Jackrabbit single-season record he set a season ago along and shares with three others, and was the only extra-base hit among SDSU's 14 hits on the day.

UNC got the run back in the home half of the inning on an Adam Symons solo home run off reliever Kirby Morsching to lead off the frame. SDSU closed out the scoring in the ninth with a run on a sacrifice fly by Cal Lewis, scoring Fisher.

Caleb Thielbar pitched five shutout innings to improve to 7-2. The sophomore left-hander allowed three hits and two walks, while striking out one. Kevin Morsching pitched the final two innings to earn his first career save.

Six different players tallied two hits each for the jackrabbits. Symons had two of UNC's seven hits.

The Jackrabbits open the Division I Independent Tournament May 23 with a matchup against New York Tech. First pitch is set for noon Mountain Time in Orem, Utah.

Notes: SDSU's victory was the 30th of the season against a Division I opponent ... Mintken added to his career-record triples total, which now stands at 14 ... Thielbar won his seventh consecutive decision, tying Matt Bowman for the team lead for victories ... Rapid City native Blaine Linster was 2-for-3, recording his first career multi-hit game for the Jackrabbits ... SDSU and UNC will meet again on May 25 at the independent tournament ... SDSU leads the season series, 5-0, and the all-time series, 16-11