Completed Event: Baseball versus Arizona State on May 30, 2026 , Loss , 0, to, 17
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FINAL
Baseball
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South Dakota State University Athletics
Friday, May 22
Tulsa, Okla.
7 p.m.
South Dakota State University
9
vs
4
Southern Utah
Jackrabbits advance to Summit League championship
5/22/2009 11:30:00 PM | Baseball
TULSA, Okla. ? Freshman Layne Somsen pitched South Dakota State's second complete game victory of the day and Billy Stitz hit two home runs to lead the Jackrabbits into the finals of the Currington Mortgage Summit League Championship with a 9-4 victory Friday night.
Facing elimination heading into the day, the Jackrabbits opened Friday with a 7-3, 10-inning win over Centenary (La.) behind a complete-game, 12-strikeout effort from Caleb Thielbar. SDSU improved to 26-29 overall and will square off against host and top-seeded Oral Roberts in the championship of the double-elimination tournament at 1 p.m. Saturday at J.L. Johnson. Should the Jackrabbits win that game, a second game to decide the tournament champion would follow immediately. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Southern Utah, which dropped a heart-breaking 9-6 decision to Oral Roberts earlier in the day, closed its season with a 27-24 record. The Thunderbirds led 6-3 before giving up six runs in the top of the ninth inning.
The Thunderbirds drew first blood, scoring in the top of the first inning as Bo Cuthbertson singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a base hit by Bucky Aona.
SDSU came back to take the lead in the bottom of the first. Joel Blake led off with a home run and Stephen Turner added a run-scoring single later in the inning.
The Jackrabbits built their advantage to 3-1 in the second inning on Stitz's first home run of the game, a two-out solo shot to right field off SUU starter Alec Reichle.
Aona delivered another run-scoring single for Southern Utah in the third inning and tied the game in the fourth on a leadoff solo home run by Matt Sanford.
From there, it was all Jackrabbits as they scored in four consecutive innings. Blake started a two-run rally in the fifth inning with a double. He later scored on a fielder's choice and Jesse Sawyer scored on a Tony Martin base hit.
Stitz hit his second solo home run of the game in the sixth inning and Jesse Sawyer delivered a run-scoring double later in the inning. The final two Jackrabbit runs scored on an RBI groundout in the seventh inning on an eighth-inning error.
The last SUU run came on Sanford's second home run of the game to lead off the top of the eighth.
A Yankton native, Somsen did not walk a batter as he pitched his team-best third complete game of the season. The right-hander scattered 11 hits and struck out four as he won his fourth consecutive decision.
Blake led the Jackrabbits' 15-hit attack by going 4-for-5 with three runs scored. Both Blake and Martin, who was 2-for-4, broke the previous single-season hits record during the game, with Blake ending the night with 79 hits and Martin 78. Matt Hanson's record of 77 hits was set during the 2002 season. Also collecting two hits in the game were Sawyer, Turner and Stitz with the two home runs.
Aona and Cuthbertson each tallied three of the Thunderbirds' 11 hits.
NOTES: SDSU won the season series with Southern Utah, 4-2, and pulled even in the all-time series at five games apiece ... the Jackrabbits are 0-3 against Oral Roberts this season and 1-6 versus the Golden Eagles since joining The Summit League in 2008 ... Blake notched his fifth four-hit game of the season and 22nd multiple-hit game of 2009 ... two of Blake's four hits were doubles as he established a new Jackrabbit single-season record with 21 two-baggers ... the previous single-season doubles record of 20 was set by Craig Parry in 2008 ... Martin extended his hitting streak to nine games ... both of Somsen's previous complete games came in seven-inning contests ... senior right-hander Isaac Johnson is the scheduled starter in Saturday's 1 p.m. game
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 9, SOUTHERN UTAH 4
SUU 101 100 010 4-11-3
SDSU 210 022 11x 9-15-2
SUU: Alec Reichle, Kyle Hamman (5), Braden Yardley (6), Kelsey Outram (8) and Justin Neuhart. SDSU: Layne Somsen and Tony Martin.
W-Somsen (4-7). L-Reichle (2-7).
HR: SUU-Matt Sanford 2; SDSU-Joel Blake (13), Billy Stitz 2 (4).
Players Mentioned
UTIL
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RHP
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C
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IF
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RHP
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OF
/ Baseball
LHP
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1B
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