SDSU baseball wins fifth in a row

Wednesday, April 6

Brookings, S.D.

2:00 PM

South Dakota State University

9-18

North Dakota

5-15

North Dakota

South Dakota State

4/6/2016 5:22:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Freshman Will McAffer struck out six batters over 4 1/3 innings to lead the South Dakota State University baseball team to a 5-3 victory over the University of North Dakota Wednesday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.

The game was called due to cold weather after UND batted in the top of the seventh inning. The second game of Wednesday's scheduled doubleheader was canceled. With their fifth consecutive victory, the Jackrabbits improved to 9-18 overall. UND dropped to 5-15.

A right-hander from North Vancouver, British Columbia, all of McAffer's strikeouts came in the first three innings. He fanned the side in the first inning, struck out two in the second and added a punchout in the third.

The Jackrabbits broke a scoreless deadlock with a three-run third inning. Cody Sharrow was hit by a Nick Gagnon pitch to lead off the frame. After a walk to Phil Velez, Nick Smith dropped a bunt single down the third-base line and an errant throw allowed Sharrow to score all the way from second base. Velez later scored on a wild pitch and Smith came around to score on a base hit by Jesse Munsterman.

SDSU tacked on a run in the fourth on a base hit by Velez that scored Anthony Schneider, who led off the inning with a single to right. Velez's hit extended his current hitting streak to a team-best nine games.

McAffer ran into trouble in the fifth as the Fighting Hawks batted around and scored three times. Cooper Maas plated the first run with a base hit and the second UND run scored when the Jackrabbits made two errors on the same play. Reliever Greg Casper allowed the third run of the inning to score on a groundout, but induced a foul popout with the bases loaded to keep the Jackrabbits in the lead.

Casper would go on to pitch the final 2 2/3 innings to earn his first save as a Jackrabbit, allowing two walks and one hit while striking out three.

After a Munsterman double moved him to third base, Luke Ringhofer scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth with what proved to be the final run of the game. Munsterman was the lone Jackrabbit with more than one hit, going 2-for-3 as SDSU out-hit the Fighting Hawks by a 7-4 count.

McAffer surrendered three hits and walked only one in his longest outing as a Jackrabbit.

Miles Lewis was 2-for-3 to lead UND at the plate.

The Jackrabbits will continue their homestand with a three-game weekend series against Omaha. First pitch for Friday's series opener is scheduled for 3 p.m.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 5, NORTH DAKOTA 3
UND 000 030 0 3-4-1
SDSU 003 110 X 5-7-3
UND: Nick Gagnon, Henry Berning (3), Luke Hansen (5), Brandon Radmacher (5) and Hayden May, Brett Harrison. SDSU: Will McAffer, Greg Casper (5) and Luke Ringhofer.
W-McAffer (1-0). L-Gagnon (0-1). Save-Casper (1).
HR: none.