Jacobson, Clemen lift Jacks to series-opening win

Friday, April 15

Erv Huether Field

3:00 PM

South Dakota State University

11-22, 7-6

North Dakota State

17-14, 5-8

North Dakota State

South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

4/15/2016 6:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Jason Hove

South Dakota State hit a season-high four home runs, including two by Paul Jacobson, and Andrew Clemen carried a shutout into the eighth inning as the Jackrabbit baseball team opened a key Summit League series with an 11-3 victory over North Dakota State Friday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.

With their second league victory in a row, the Jackrabbits improved to 11-22 overall and 7-6 in the Summit. NDSU, which had its six-game winning streak snapped, dropped to 17-14 overall and 5-8 in league play.

The Jackrabbit offense set the tone right away as the first three batters of the game reached to load the bases before Matt Johnson put SDSU on the board with a sacrifice fly that plated Nick Smith.

Smith delivered a run-scoring single in the top of the second before Jacobson tucked a liner to left field inside the foul pole for a two-run home run and a 4-0 lead. Jacobson struck again off Bison starter Zach Mayo in the fourth with his second two-run homer of the game, a line shot to the right of the scoreboard in left-center field.

Jacobson added his career-best fifth RBI of the gam on a sacrifice fly in the seventh to push the SDSU lead to 8-0.

Clemen, meanwhile, struck out seven and did not walk a batter in keeping NDSU off the scoreboard until Ben Petersen connected on a three-run homer to left field with one out in the seventh inning. Clemen retired eight consecutive batters following a Taylor Sanders double with one out in the second inning.

SDSU responded in the home half of the eighth with a pair of round-trippers in the span of three batters. Matt Johnson crushed a ball over the fence in right-center for his third home run of the season and Anthony Schneider hit his first collegiate home run two batters later, connecting on a Nick Salentine pitch and sending it over the wall in left-center field.

Smith, Jacobson and Johnson all tallied three of the Jackrabbits' 16 hits, with Schneider adding a pair of hits and scoring three times.

Sanders and Paul Funk each notched two of NDSU's 11 hits.

The two squads are scheduled to play the middle game of their three-game series at 1 p.m. Saturday.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series, 108-59, dating back to 1956 … Jacobson's two-home-run game was the first of his career and the second time a Jackrabbit player accomplished the feat this season, joining Newt Johnson Feb. 27 against Virginia Commonwealth … the four home runs by the Jackrabbits were the most in a game this season and the most by the program since hitting four against NDSU on April 12, 2015, at Erv Huether Field … Clemen's eight innings marked the longest outing by an SDSU pitcher this season … Clemen's seven strikeouts were one off his career high … Johnson extended his hitting streak to 11 games … Luke Ringhofer walked and doubled to reach base safely for the 25^th game in a row … Jacobson posted three or more hits in a game for the fifth time this season … Schneider stole his eighth base of the season … as a team, SDSU is 36-of-39 on stolen base attempts and has been successful in 21 straight attempts dating back to March 13 at Northern Colorado … Saturday's probable starters are Ryan Froom (2-5, 7.32 ERA) for SDSU and Reed Pfannenstein (2-1, 3.82 ERA) for the Bison

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 11, NORTH DAKOTA STATE 3
NDSU 000 000 030 3-11-1
SDSU 130 210 130 11-16-1
NDSU: Zach Mayo, Nick Salentine (5) and Juan Gamez. SDSU: Andrew Clemen, Chris Halbur (9) and Luke Ringhofer.
W-Clemen (3-5). L-Mayo (1-4). Save-none.
HR: NDSU-Ben Petersen (2); SDSU-Paul Jacobson 2 (3), Matt Johnson (3), Anthony Schneider (1).