Bishop wins 600th as Jacks earn series split

Sunday, March 10

Little Rock, Ark.

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

7-8

Little Rock

4-12

South Dakota State

Little Rock

Photo by: Mike Janes/Four Seam Images

3/10/2019 5:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Freshman Nic McCay pitched into the eighth inning to help lead South Dakota State to an 8-6 victory over UA Little Rock Sunday afternoon at Gary Hogan Field, giving Jackrabbit head coach Rob Bishop his 600^th career collegiate coaching victory.

The Jackrabbits improved to 7-8 overall, while UA Little Rock fell to 4-12.

SDSU never trailed in the contest although it had to survive some anxious moments in the ninth inning to salvage a split of the four-game series and wrap up its week-long Spring Break trip with a 4-4 mark.

The Jackrabbits tallied a run in the top of the first without a hit. Gus Steiger and Braeden Brown each drew walks before Steiger advanced on a wild pitch and scored when the throw to third base was errant.

The SDSU lead grew to 5-0 with a pair of runs in both the fourth and sixth innings. A groundout by Luke Ira and single by Steiger plated the fourth-inning runs, while Steiger and Brown delivered back-to-back sacrifice flies in the sixth.

McCay carried a shutout into the home half of the sixth and retired eight men in a row before allowing a two-run home run to Ryan Benavidez. It was Benavidez's second home run of the series.

The Jackrabbits pushed their lead to 8-2 with a three-run top of the seventh, highlighted by a two-run single by Derek Hackman and RBI double by Ira. Hackman and Ira each notched two hits to pace SDSU's 10-hit attack, with Ira's other hit a triple.

UA Little Rock wouldn't go down without a fight as the Trojans batted around in the bottom of the ninth, scoring four times. Christian Reyes' third hit of the game drove in one run against the Jackrabbit bullpen, with Chase Coker adding a sacrifice fly. Garrett Scott was hit by a pitch to force in the third run of the inning to close the gap to 8-5.

Bret Barnett, the third SDSU pitcher of the inning, allowed a run to score on a wild pitch before inducing the final out on an outfield foulout to end the game.
McCay earned his second victory of the season, striking out six and walking only one in 7 2/3 innings.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits open Summit League play Friday at Western Illinois. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Alfred D. Boyer Stadium in Macomb, Illinois.

NOTES

UA Little Rock leads the all-time series, 4-2, dating back to 2012
McCay's outing was the longest by a Jackrabbit pitcher this season
Logan Holtz extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single in the eighth inning
Holtz has reached base safely in all 14 games he has played this season
Steiger has hit safely in seven consecutive games and reached base in 10 in a row
Ira moved into a tie with Steiger for the team lead in multi-hit games with eight
SDSU batters drew a season-high nine walks
Bishop has a 51-64 record in three seasons at SDSU after stops at Huron University (38-18 in one season), Miles City Community College (377-151 in 10 seasons) and Montana State Billings (134-153-1 in six seasons)