JACKS RALLY TO SPLIT TWINBILL

Friday, April 23

Brookings, S.D.

noon

South Dakota State University

9-20, 4-9

North Dakota State

24-10, 13-7

North Dakota State

South Dakota State

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

4/23/2021 8:09:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Ryan McDonald's two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning broke almost a 16-inning South Dakota State scoring drought and led the way to a Drew Beazley walk-off single in the ninth to give the Jackrabbits a doubleheader split with North Dakota State Friday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.

NDSU won the opener, 5-0, before the Jackrabbits rallied for the 3-2 victory in Game 2.

The Jacks are now 10-20 overall and 5-9 in conference play, while North Dakota State ended the day at 24-11 overall and 13-8 in Summit League action.

GAME 1: NDSU 5, SDSU 0
South Dakota State stranded 12 runners on base after three NDSU solo home runs and three Jackrabbit errors pushed the Bison past the Jacks.

The Bison got on the board on a home run by Nick Emanuel in the second, then got back-to-back shots from Jake Malec and Peter Brookshaw in the third inning.

After giving up those three homers, SDSU starter Adam Mazur settled down, retiring nine of his final 11 batters in his seven-inning outing. Mazur finished with 10 strikeouts and one walk while allowing seven hits.

The Jackrabbits couldn't cash in on several opportunities in the early innings, stranding a total of eight runners between the second and fourth innings, leaving the bases loaded twice.

Three SDSU errors in the final two innings brought in two more NDSU runs to make it 5-0. Looking for one more chance, the Jacks put runners on the corners in the bottom of the ninth but weren't able to get any runs on the board.

Jess Bellows went 2-for-5 as all seven of SDSU's hits were singles.

Tyler Olmstead, Jack Sullivan and Riley McSherry combined to pitch the final two innings in relief. The trio combined to strike out three batters and give up one hit and two walks.

GAME 2: SDSU 3, NDSU 2 (9 inn.)
Drew Beazley and NDSU's Max Loven squared off in a pitchers' duel for the first five innings of the game. Beazley's only earned run came in his final inning of work when NDSU's Jack Simonsen hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 in favor of the Bison.

Loven allowed just one hit in his first six innings of work, but a McDonald two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh ended the shutout, tied the game at 2-2 and sent the schedule seven-inning game into extra frames.

SDSU's bullpen of Ryan Bourassa and Eli Sundquist combined to go the final four innings, allowing three walks and striking out five batters.

In extra innings, NDSU put runners on first and second with just one out in the top of the eighth, but Sundquist came in to record the final two outs of the inning. The right-hander pitched out of another jam in the top of the ninth to keep the game locked at 2-2.

McDonald followed a leadoff walk to pinch-hitter Derek Hackman with a single to left. Beazley then stepped up to the plate and singled to left, driving home pinch-runner Carson Max from second base for the walk-off win.

Beazley, McDonald and Jess Bellows had two hits apiece to make up for SDSU's six hits in the game.

On the mound, Beazley threw five innings, allowing four hits, one earned run, one walk and struck out four batters.

NOTES

After going 4-for-9 in today's games, Bellows extended his on-base streak to 10 consecutive games. In the streak, the freshman has three consecutive multi-hit games and four straight games with a hit.
Olmstead moved up to sixth place on the program's career strikeouts list with 177, passing Jon Maras (175) and Ryan Froom (176) after striking out two batters in game one.
Mazur struck out 10-plus batters in a game for the third time this season.
Beazley has not given up more than one earned run in any of his eight outings this season.
SDSU improved to 3-0 in extra-inning games and 3-5 in one-run games.

UP NEXT
Due to expected inclement weather on Sunday, the Jacks and Bison will conclude the weekend series with a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon.

-GoJacks.com-