Jackrabbits win series finale, 11-3

Sunday, May 10

Huether Field

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

IPFW

Former, current Jackrabbits take to the diamond

5/10/2009 5:30:00 PM | Baseball

By: SDSU Sports Info

Caleb Thielbar pitched six shutout innings and South Dakota State put together a balanced offensive attack as the Jackrabbit baseball team closed out a four-game series against IPFW with an 11-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.

The Jackrabbits won for the 11th time in their last 12 Summit League games, improving to 14-9 in league play and 21-27 overall. SDSU also moved one step closer to locking up a berth in the four-team Summit League postseason tournament, needing only one win next weekend against Southern Utah or a North Dakota State loss to IPFW.

IPFW dropped to 11-37 overall, 4-20 in The Summit League.

SDSU got on the board first with a run in the second inning. Zach Briggs singled with two outs and scored on Billy Stitz's double to the left-center field fence. For Stitz, it was his sixth double of the series and 12th of the season.

The Jackrabbits made it 4-0 with a three-run third inning. Joel Blake led off with a double and came around to score on Jesse Sawyer's double to left center two batters later. Sawyer later scored on a sacrifice fly by Stephen Turner and Tony Martin scampered home with the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.

Meanwhile, Thielbar kept the Mastodons off the scoreboard, working around five walks and three hits. The senior left-hander struck out at least one batter in each of his six innings of work en route to eight for the game.

SDSU broke the game open in the sixth inning, batting around and scoring five times. Jesse Ayala singled in the first run of the frame, with John Lee and Sawyer also adding run-scoring singles. Turner capped the scoring with a two-run single to right field that scored both Lee and Sawyer.

IPFW scored single runs against three different Jackrabbit relievers in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Chris Gottschall drove in the first Mastodon run as he went 2-for-5 in the game. Jason Doerffler notched a pair of doubles and Ryan Beer also posted two hits for IPFW, which finished the game with eight hits. The Mastodons stranded 15 runners in the game.

The Jackrabbits' offensive production of 16 hits was spread among eight different players with two hits each. Turner drove in three runs, while Sawyer added a pair of RBI.

SDSU closes the regular season with a four-game series Thursday through Saturday against Southern Utah. First pitch for Thursday's series opener is set for 3 p.m. at Erv Huether Field.

NOTES: SDSU improved to 13-3 all-time against IPFW ... the Jackrabbits hit .434 as a team in the four-game series ... of the team's 59 hits, 24 went for extra bases, including 19 doubles ... SDSU scored in double figures for the 10th time in Summit League play ... Blake led the Jackrabbits at the plate with a .611 batting average, going 11-for-18 with seven doubles, one home run, six runs batted in and six runs scored ... SDSU pitchers did not allow a home run in the series and compiled a team ERA of 3.90... Thielbar upped his career strikeout total to 173, putting him two behind Jon Maras (175 strikeouts from 1989-92) for second place on the SDSU career strikeouts list ... Thielbar also moved into a tie with Billy McMacken (1987-90) for sixth place on the school's career wins list with 19

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 11, IPFW 3
IPFW 000 000 111 3-8-4
SDSU 013 005 20X 11-16-1
IPFW: Tyler Baatz, Andrew Emge (6), Cory Bluhm (8) and Devin Taylor. SDSU: Caleb Thielbar, Mike Robinson (7), Austin Busse (8), Trever Vermeulen (9) and Zach Briggs, Tony Martin (7).
W-Thielbar (4-7). L-Baatz (0-5).
HR: none.