Jacks split, but earn Summit League top seed

Saturday, May 22

Huether Field

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Western Illinois [DH]

5/22/2010 10:00:00 PM | Baseball

By: SDSU Sports Info

The South Dakota State University baseball team earned the top seed in next week's Summit League Championship after splitting a doubleheader with Western Illinois Saturday afternoon at Erv Huether Field to close out the regular season.

The Jackrabbits recorded a 24-10, seven-inning victory in the opener, then couldn't put together one final comeback in a 15-14, eight-inning loss in Game 2. SDSU, 37-19 overall, finished tied atop the Summit League standings with Oral Roberts with identical 19-9 league records, but the Jackrabbits were awarded the top seed by virtue of winning three of four regular season meetings with ORU. The Golden Eagles dropped an 8-3 decision to visiting North Dakota State in their season finale Saturday.

SDSU will face Oakland (Mich.) in first-round action Thursday at The Summit League Championship in Tulsa, Okla. Game time will be announced Sunday.

In action Saturday, the Jackrabbits scored multiple runs in each of the first five innings as SDSU tied its Division I-era record for runs in a game with 24.

Western Illinois took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a home run by Jason Summers, but the Jackrabbits tallied three in the first inning and two more in the fifth. Joel Blake, who was 5-for-5 with seven runs batted in, drove in one run in the first and added a two-run single in the second.

The Fighting Leathernecks regained the lead with a six-run third inning against Jackrabbit starter Stephen Bougher. Cole Waddell blasted a three-run home run to left field and Rich Mascheri plated the final two runs with a base hit.

SDSU responded by scoring the next 19 runs, putting up six runs of their own in the third inning, five in the fourth and eight in the fifth to put the 1-run rule into effect. Zach Briggs hit a two-run homer in the third and Jesse Sawyer added a three-run circuit shot in the fourth. The Jackrabbits' eight-run rally in the eighth was aided by a WIU error as Blake recorded another two-run single and Nick Andrews scored two more runs with a base hit.

The Jackrabbits rapped out 18 hits and drew eight walks. Western Illinois pitchers did not record a strikeout in the game.

Austin Busse allowed only two runs over 3 1/3 innings of relief to pick up the victory, evening his record at 1-1.

In the nitecap, the Jackrabbits came up with clutch hit after clutch hit to battle back from an 8-0 deficit and take a momentary lead late in the game before falling 15-14 in eight innings.

The Fighting Leathernecks battered SDSU starter Shane Kraemer for four runs in each of the first two frames, tallying eight hits against the Jackrabbit southpaw in one-plus innings. Waddell, Brian Jordan and Mascheri all had run-scoring doubles for WIU.

SDSU, which would score in six consecutive innings, began chipping away, scoring twice on a Daniel Telford single up the middle in the second inning and another run-scoring single by Blake in the third.

After Andrew Hagins put the Fighting Leathernecks up 10-4 with a two-run home run in the top of the fifth, SDSU answered with six runs in the home half of the inning to knot the game at 10-all. Telford doubled in the first run of the inning to knock out Leatherneck starter Randon Lingle. Beau Hanowski was hit by a pitch from reliever Carlos Pinedo to load the bases and Billy Stitz cleared the sacks with a grand slam to straight-away center field. For Stitz, it was also his 100^th hit of the season, becoming the first Jackrabbit to reach the milestone. Eric Cain then made it back-to-to back jacks with a shot to right-center field, his 15^th of the season.

The Jackrabbits held WIU scoreless in the sixth inning and took what would be their only lead of the game with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth. John Lee singled with one out, moved to third on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Melton.

SDSU appeared on the verge of a series sweep with closer Trever Vermeulen on the mound in the seventh inning. However, Hagins led off the frame with his second home run of the game and third of the doubleheader, an opposite-field shot down the left-field line to tie the game at 11-all. It was the first home run allowed all season by Vermeulen and brought an end to his consecutive scoreless-innings streak at 27 2/3. It also was the first run Vermeulen allowed to a Summit League opponent this season.

WIU would go on to tack on three more runs in the top of the seventh, including two on a single by Maschieri.

The Jackrabbits wouldn't go down without a fight, even when they were down to their last strike. On an 0-2 pitch with two runners on, Sawyer launched a three-run homer to left field to again tie the game, this time at 14-all.

The Fighting Leathernecks pushed across the winning run in the top of the eighth against reliever Alex Oberle as Anthony Kaskadden doubled with one out, stole third and scored on a groundout.

SDSU put together a final threat in the bottom of the inning, putting runners at second and third with one out. However, winning pitcher Chris Duguay induced popouts from Hanowski and Stitz to end the game and the Jackrabbits' chances of an outright regular season title.

Stitz led the Jackrabbits with a 3-for-5 effort at the plate. Mascheri, Summers and John Koszulinski each had three of the Leathernecks' 20 hits.

Western Illinois ended its season 14-39 overall, 6-21 in The Summit League.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series, 8-3 ... Western Illinois ended a seven-game losing streak against the Jackrabbits ... the jackrabbits fell to 4-1 in extra-inning games with their loss in the finale ... the teams combined for 100 runs in the four-game series (SDSU 64, WIU 36) ... the Jackrabbits hit .421 as a team in the series, led by Blake with a .647 batting average (11-for-17) ... Sawyer drove in 13 runs in the series and homered in all four games, upping his season total to 18 and career total to 37 ... Vermeulen's ERA increased to 1.15 ... Stitz's grand slam was his second of the season and third of his career ... SDSU split or won all seven Summit League series during the regular season ... the Jackrabbits split a four-game series at Oakland in April

Game 1: SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 24, WESTERN ILLINOIS 10
WIU 106 002 1 -- 10 14 2
SDSU 326 580 x -- 24 18 1
WIU: Rich Mascheri, Austin Brough, Chris Fuch, John Sneegas and Jason Summers. SDSU: Stephen Bougher, Austin Busse (3), Blaine Alberta (7) and Zach Briggs, Nick Andrews (6).
W-Busse (1-1). L-Mascher (0-1). SV-none.
HR: WIU-Jason Summers (6), Cole Waddell (4), Andrew Hagins (3); SDSU-Jesse Sawyer (17), Zach Briggs (8).

Game 2: WESTERN ILLINOIS 15, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 14 (8 inn.)
WIU 440 020 41 -- 15 20 2
SDSU 021 161 30 -- 14 13 1
WIU: Randon Lingle, Carlos Pinedo (5), Chris Duguay (5) and John Koszulinski. SDSU: Shane Kraemer, Sam Pieczynski (2), Mike Robinson (4), Trever Vermeulen (6), Alex Oberle (8) and Zach Briggs, Nick Andrews (6).
W-Duguay (1-0). L-Oberle (7-5). SV-none.
HR: WIU-Andrew Hagins 2 (5); SDSU-Billy Stitz (6), Eric Cain (15), Jesse Sawyer (18).