OFFENSE COMES ALIVE IN DOUBLEHEADER SPLIT

Saturday, April 24

Brookings, S.D.

noon

South Dakota State University

North Dakota State

Photo by: SDSU Sports Information

4/24/2021 9:36:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

The South Dakota State baseball team combined for 24 runs and 31 hits in a doubleheader split against North Dakota State Saturday at Erv Huether Field, with Landon Badger pacing the Jackrabbits at the plate.

The Jackrabbits, now 11-21 overall and 6-10 in Summit League play, won via the 10-run rule in game one by a score of 12-2 and fell in 10 innings, 13-12, in the second game.

NDSU is now 25-12 overall and 14-9 in conference play after the series split in Brookings.

GAME 1: SDSU 12, NDSU 2
Badger's big day began when he hit home runs in three consecutive innings. After NDSU scored a first inning run on an RBI double, Badger's first home run came on a solo shot in the second inning to even the score at 1-1.

A three-run home run by Badger followed in the fourth that put the Jacks up 5-1 and a grand slam in the fifth broke open the game, giving the Jacks a 10-2 lead.

Badger finished the game 3-for-5 with eight RBIs. Between the home runs, Jess Bellows kept his hitting streak alive by collecting an RBI single in the fourth to give the Jacks a 2-1 lead, and had a bases-loaded walk in the fifth, which stretched SDSU's lead to 6-2.

Derek Hackman homered to right-center field and Avery Mellman hit an RBI double to enforce the 10-run rule in the eighth inning.

Luke Ira reached base four times in his three-hit game while Jamie Berg, Hackman and Mellman each collected two hits.

Cody Carlson improved to 2-3 on the season by going six innings, striking out seven batters while allowing no earned runs and eight hits. Brett Mogen pitched two scoreless innings in relief to finish the game, striking out one batter and giving up three hits.

For NDSU, Jack Simonsen went 3-for-4 with an RBI and three other Bison collected two hits. Ben Smith allowed 10 earned runs and 12 hits, walked four and struck out five.

GAME 2: NDSU 13, SDSU 12
Hackman carried his momentum into game two as he put SDSU on the board in the first with an RBI single.

After NDSU tied the game at 1-1, Badger blasted his fourth home run of the day on a solo shot to right to give the Jacks a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third. Hackman then followed two batters later with a home run to stretch the SDSU lead to 3-1.

Bellows added another run in the fourth on an RBI single, but NDSU's Simonsen's two-run home run cut the SDSU lead to 5-3 in the fifth.

NDSU rallied to take a 9-5 lead with big sixth and seventh innings, where they scored a combined six runs on six hits, but the Jacks answered back with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to regain the lead 10-9.

Mellman's RBI double gave the Jacks insurance in the eighth, but the Bison tied it at 11-all in the ninth on a two-run home run by Bennett Hostetler to send the game into extras.

NDSU broke the tie in the 10th on an RBI single and sacrifice fly. SDSU looked to respond, scoring one run in the bottom half of the inning, but left the bases full to end the game.

Derek Hackman went 5-for-6, including hit home run, two doubles, four runs and two RBIs. Mellman finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate with a walk and two RBIs, while Ryan McDonald and Reece Anderson each collected two hits.

Bret Barnett, the first of six Jackrabbit pitchers as he went three innings, allowed one earned run on three hits and struck out two. Eli Sundquist struck out four batters in two innings of work and surrendered two runs and two walks.

For the Bison, the pitching staff combined for 13 strikeouts. The winning pitcher, Gabe Pilla, went 2 2/3 innings, gave up two hits, one run and one walk and struck out four. Four NDSU batters had two hits, including Hostetler, who also drove in five runs

NOTES

Badger became the first Jackrabbit to hit three home runs in a game since Joel Blake accomplished the feat at Western Illinois exactly 12 years ago to the day.
Sixteen hits in game two is a season high for SDSU and the most since March 6, 2020,when the Jacks had 18 hits at Air Force.
Bellows extended his on-base streak to 12 consecutive games. In the streak, the freshman has six straight games with a hit.
SDSU dropped to 3-1 in extra-inning games, 3-6 in one-run games and 4-1 when they score 10+ runs in a game.
Hackman finished the day 7-for-10 with three RBIs, two home runs, two doubles and one walk.
Badger went 4-for-9 with four home runs and 10 RBIs in the doubleheader.

UP NEXT
South Dakota State is scheduled to travel to Oral Roberts for its first road series in nearly a month. The four-game series begins Friday with a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

-GoJacks.com-