Completed Event: Baseball versus Arizona State on May 30, 2026 , Loss , 0, to, 17
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FINAL
Baseball
0
vs Arizona State
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South Dakota State University Athletics
Sunday, May 2
Huether Field
1 p.m.
South Dakota State University
9
vs
7
Centenary (La.)
Sawyer, Vermeulen lead Jacks to series split
5/2/2010 5:00:00 PM | Baseball
Jesse Sawyer homered twice and Trever Vermeulen tied the South Dakota State single-season saves record as the Jackrabbit baseball team earned a split of a four-game series with a 9-7 victory over Centenary (La.) Sunday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.
SDSU improved to 27-15 overall, exceeding its win total from a season ago, and improved to 10-6 in The Summit League. Centenary dropped to 22-18 overall, 11-4 in league play.
After Centenary took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, Sawyer tied the game in the home half of the frame with a leadoff home run to right field.
The Gents took a 3-1 in the third inning on a leadoff home run by Keegan Acker just inside the right-field foul pole and a sacrifice fly later in the frame by Jeff Ericson.
SDSU broke through with five runs in the bottom of the third. Joel Blake plated the first two runs with a base hit through the left side, and John Lee, Eric Cain and Zach Briggs delivered run-scoring singles later in the inning to knock out Centenary starter Justin Kraft.
Centenary took advantage of a Jackrabbit error in the fifth inning to score three times on only one hit and knot the game at 6-all.
Sawyer gave the Jackrabbits a momentary 7-6 lead with his second opposite-field home run of the day - and 13th round-tripper of the season - with one out in the fifth. However, the Gents tied the game again on a sacrifice fly by Alex Todd in the top of the sixth.
The Jackrabbits gained the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth. Zach Rhodes led off with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Scott Rhodes. Billy Stitz followed with a base hit to move Rhodes to third before Daniel Telford lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Rhodes.
Vermeulen entered the game in the seventh and allowed only a pair of hits in his three innings of work as he recorded his ninth save of the season. The junior right-hander from Mitchell tied the single-season record previously set by Gary Olechoski in 2006 and Jacob Kougl in 2007. In addition, Vermeulen lowered his earned run average to 0.77, which likely will lead the nation when statistics are released by the NCAA on Tuesday.
Briggs gave the Jackrabbits an insurance run with a solo home run to lead off the eighth.
Alex Oberle picked up his seventh win of the season after recording the final two outs of the sixth inning. Freshman Shane Kraemer started for the Jackrabbits, allowing six runs on six hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out three.
Stephen Tromblee took the loss in relief for Centenary.
Hits were even at 10 apiece. Stitz, Sawyer and Briggs each tallied two for SDSU, while Acker, Cliff Shepard and Ericson each notched two hits for the Gents.
SDSU resumes Summit League play by hosting a four-game series May 7-9 against league-leading Oral Roberts. First pitch for the opening game is 3 p.m. Friday at Erv Huether Field.
NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series, 8-5 ... Sawyer posted the fifth two-home run game of his collegiate career and second this season to move into a tie with Russ Langer (1998-2001) for fifth place on the SDSU career home run chart with 32 ... Stitz recorded his 28th multi-hit game of the season and took over fourth on the single-season hits chart with 76 ... Cain upped his single-season run batted in total to 60, tying him with Billy McMacken (1990) for second most by a Jackrabbit player ... Vermeuelen took over second place in career saves at SDSU with 12, breaking a tie with Bruce Mogen (11 saves from 1983-86) ... the Jackrabbits set single-season team records for runs scored (412) and runs batted in (389) this week
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 9, CENTENARY (La.) 7
CC 012 031 000 -
7 10 0
SDSU 015 011 01X - 9 10 1
CC: Justin Kraft, Stephen Tromblee (3), Derek Dalzell (6), Dakota Robinson (8)
and Jeff Schaffert. SDSU: Shane Kraemer, Mike Robinson (6), Alex Oberle (6),
Trever Vermeulen (7) and Zach Briggs.
W-Oberle (7-3). L-Tromblee (2-3). SV-Vermeulen (9).
HR: CC-Keegan Acker (1); SDSU-Jesse Sawyer 2 (13), Zach Briggs (5).
Players Mentioned
UTIL
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C
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OF
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OF
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LHP
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IF
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OF
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RHP
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