BATS COME ALIVE LATE IN SERIES-CLINCHING WIN

Sunday, April 10

Brookings, S.D.

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

11-16, 5-4

Western Illinois

4-24, 2-7

Western Illinois

South Dakota State

Photo by: Erik Williams

4/10/2022 4:56:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Jamie Berg ignited a late-inning surge with his first career home run as South Dakota State recorded a 12-1 victory over Western Illinois in the decisive game of a three-game Summit League baseball series Sunday afternoon at Erv Huether Field.

With their fifth win in their last six games, the Jackrabbits improved to 11-16 overall and 5-4 in league play. WIU dropped to 4-24 on the season, including a 2-7 mark in The Summit League.

With the game tied at 1 in the bottom of the sixth, Berg connected on a two-run homer to right field off Leatherneck reliever Caden Kratz. Three pitches later, Ryan McDonald made it back-to-back home runs, launching his fifth round-tripper of the season over the fence in left field.

SDSU would go on to add one more run in the home half of the sixth, then put the 10-run rule into effect with a seven-run seventh inning. Dawson Parry plated Luke Ira with the final run of the sixth inning with a single to right and ended the contest with a grand slam to left field an inning later. It was Parry's third home run and second grand slam of the season.

Drew Beazley knocked in the first two runs of the seventh inning with a pinch-hit single to left over a drawn-in infield. McDonald added a run-scoring single later in the frame.

Jordan Sagedahl gave the Jackrabbits an early lead with a home run to center field to lead off the second inning.

Western Illinois tied the game in the fifth inning on three consecutive hits, the last of which was a run-scoring single by Nick Mitchell. The Fighting Leathernecks were on the verge of taking the lead an inning later as Gage Cruz singled and Diego Munoz doubled to the gap two batters later. However, Luke Ira made a perfect relay throw home from medium-deep left-center field cut down Cruz for the second out of the inning.

SDSU starter Owen Bishop allowed only the one run, scattering nine hits with four strikeouts. He did not walk a batter. Ryan Bourassa was credited with the win after striking out the only batter he faced to end the WIU sixth, and Reece Arbogast followed with a perfect 1-2-3 seventh.

For Western Illinois, Brian Raymond worked the first five innings and limited the Jackrabbits to a run on three hits. The left-hander struck out six and walked four.

Nine different Jackrabbits recorded hits as SDSU finished with a 13-9 advantage. Parry led the way by going 3-for-4 with a career-high five RBIs, with McDonald and George adding two hits each.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits are scheduled to close out their homestand by hosting Northwestern (Iowa) at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

NOTES

SDSU leads the all-time series, 40-29
The Jackrabbits' four home runs marked their most in a game since hitting four in the first game of a doubleheader against North Dakota State on April 24, 2021
SDSU has now homered in 10 consecutive games
The Jackrabbits scored double figures in runs for only the second time this season
SDSU set a single-game season high with 26 total bases
Jackrabbit pitchers did not issue a walk for the first time in 2022
Ira extended his hitting streak to nine games
McDonald hit out of the leadoff spot for the first time in his career and reached base four times to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 16 contests
Beazley reached base for the 11^th consecutive game
Bourassa has recorded 41 strikeouts in 28 innings pitched this season