Jacks even series with Western Illinois

Saturday, April 30

Brookings, S.D.

1:00 PM

South Dakota State University

17-25, 11-9

Western Illinois

12-26, 9-11

Western Illinois

South Dakota State

4/30/2016 4:26:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Landon Busch pitched five shutout innings in relief en route to his seventh consecutive win as South Dakota State evened its Summit League series against Western Illinois at a game apiece with a 6-3 victory Saturday afternoon at blustery Erv Huether Field.

The Jackrabbits improved to 17-25 overall and 11-9 in league play. Western Illinois dropped to 12-26 overall and 9-11 in The Summit League. The two squads are scheduled to play the decisive game of their three-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday.

SDSU took an early lead, scoring twice in the bottom of the first inning on run-scoring singles by Jesse Munsterman and Newt Johnson.

Western Illinois grabbed a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning on only one hit against Jackrabbit starter Will McAffer. A walk and hit batter allowed the first two batters of the inning to reach and both moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Adam McGinnis. Chris Tschida scored on a groundout by Nick Schrader and Deion Thompson scored on a double to right-center by Conner Currier. Currier scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw to third base on a steal attempt.

The Fighting Leatherneck lead was short-lived, however, as SDSU responded with three runs of its own in the home half of the fourth. Anthony Schneider walked to lead off the frame and later scored the tying run on the second Western Illinois error of the game. Two more unearned runs scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Ringhofer and Munsterman's second RBI single of the game.

SDSU tacked on what would be the final run of the game in the fifth as Schneider again walked, stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Cody Sharow.

That was more than enough run support for Busch, who limited Western Illinois to three hits, walked two and struck out five over his five innings. Busch's seven-game personal win streak matches the longest by a Jackrabbit pitcher in the Division I era, matching Caleb Thielbar (2008) and Blake Treinen (2010).

Munsterman and Sharrow each collected two of SDSU's seven hits. Matt Johnson had his 19-game hitting streak come to end, tying him with Tyson Fisher (2005) for the longest hitting streak by an SDSU player in the Division I era.

Roman Visintine tallied two of Western Illinois' four hits.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 6, WESTERN ILLINOIS 3
WIU 000 300 000 3-4-2
SDSU 200 310 00X 6-7-1
WIU: Sam Cottingham-Beard, Jordan Pannell (5) and Adam McGinnis. SDSU: Will McAffer, Landon Busch (5) and Luke Ringhofer.
W-Busch (7-2). L-Cottingham-Beard (1-2). Save-none.
HR: none.