JACKRABBITS SWEPT BY HOT-HITTING UNC

Friday, March 29

Papillion, Neb. // Papillion La Vista South H.S.

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

11-14, 4-3

Northern Colorado

4-22, 4-4

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Northern Colorado	0	0	2	1	0	0	7	3	6	19	18	0
South Dakota State	3	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	1	7	15	1

Photo by: Mark Kuhlmann

3/30/2024 12:30:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

PAPILLION, Neb. — Northern Colorado continued its offensive onslaught Friday, scoring 45 runs in a sweep of a Summit League baseball doubleheader from South Dakota State at Papillion-La Vista South High School.

The Bears, who won by scores of 19-7 and 26-12, improved to 5-22 overall and 5-4 in league play. SDSU dropped to 11-15 overall and 4-4 in The Summit League.

Game 1: Northern Colorado 19, South Dakota State 7
For the second day in a row, the Bears exploded in the late innings against the SDSU bullpen to take a 19-7 victory.

The Jackrabbits led 6-3 through six innings, but UNC grabbed the lead with a seven-run top of the seventh. The inning started with a hit batter and snowballed from there as Caden Wagner singled in the first run of the frame while Kai Wagner and Austin Bunn each drew bases-loaded walks from SDSU closer Alex Clemons to force in two more runs to tie the game at 6-all. Carson Gross put the Bears out front with a two-run single to greet the next Jackrabbit hurler, Dylan Driessen, and Jackson Romero and Zain Zinicola chipped in with RBI singles later in the frame.

Bunn continued to torture Jackrabbit pitching with his third home run of the series, a three-run blast in the eighth and the Bears received a trio of two-run homers in the ninth by Kai Wagner, Gross and Sam Pease.

Cade Stuff opened the scoring with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning that staked Jackrabbit starter Nic McCay to an early lead. Caden Wagner brought UNC to within 3-2 with a two-run single in the third inning, but a Jess Bellows RBI single in the third inning and two-run homer by Luke Luskey put the SDSU advantage back at three runs at 6-3.

McCay struck out 10 and walked only one in his six innings of work.

UNC reliever Jake Carvajal struck out seven in 3 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the victory.

Five different players tallied three each for UNC, which held an 18-15 advantage in hits. Bunn and Gross each drove in four runs.

Stuff, Luskey and Bellows combined to go 9-for-12 for the Jackrabbits, with each player recording three hits.

Game 2: Northern Colorado 26, South Dakota State 12
Each team hung a nine-run inning on the board, but Northern Colorado put up a bunch of other crooked numbers in securing the sweep with a 21-hit performance.

The Bears jumped out to a 10-0 lead scoring four times in their opening at-bat and adding three more runs in each of the second and third innings. Two Jackrabbit errors in the opening frame aided UNC as Bunn plated the first run with a single and Gross followed with a two-run double.

A double error by the Jackrabbits led to a three-run second inning, while Zinicola hit the first of his two home runs in the game to score two of the third-inning runs.

However, SDSU battled back to take an 11-10 lead with a nine-run home half of the third and a two-run fourth. Jordan Sagedahl led off the bottom of the third with his second home run of the series and added a run-scoring double later in the inning. Cael Frost pulled SDSU to within 10-6 with a grand slam, a blast to right-center field that was his team-leading 12^th home run of the season. A sacrifice fly by Stuff and an RBI single by Dagen Schramm plated two more runs.

The Jackrabbits' two runs in the fourth inning came across without a hit as Stuff was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and he later scored on a balk. Frost delivered his fifth RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to score Dawson Parry, who had reached on a walk.

The SDSU lead was short-lived, however, as UNC responded with four runs in the top of the fifth with Jackrabbit starter Jake Goble still on the mound. Caden Wagner put the Bears out front for good with a two-run double and he later scored on a two-run homer by his younger brother, Kai.

Zinicola connected on a three-run homer in the sixth to give the Bears a 17-11 lead, then UNC put the 10-run rule into effect with their nine-run frame in the top of the seventh. Caden Wagner's third hit of the game drove in one run ahead of the Jackrabbits' fifth error of the game that extended the inning and led to a two-run single by Bunn and three-run homer by Gross.

Bunn finished Game 2 5-for-6 with three RBIs, while Gross went 4-for-6 with five driven in. Zinicola knocked in six runs and scored four times with a 3-for-4 performance.

Sagedahl and Schramm finished with two of the Jackrabbits' nine hits.

Hunter Gibson came on to pitch two scoreless innings of relief to be credited with the victory for UNC.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits are scheduled to play Tuesday at Minnesota. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Siebert Field in Minneapolis.

NOTES

SDSU leads the all-time series, 40-31
UNC tallied 64 runs and 54 hits in the three-game series
Bunn was 10-for-15 (.667 batting average) in the series for UNC, collecting three home runs, three doubles and 13 runs batted in
Frost's grand slam was his first as a Jackrabbit and fourth by an SDSU player this season
Frost moved into a tie with Parry for the team lead in RBIs with 35
Frost had his streak of reaching base safely in 22 consecutive games come to an end in the opener
Reece Anderson has the Jackrabbits' longest current reached base streak at 16 games
McCay moved into third place in career strikeouts at SDSU with 199, passing Stephen Bougher (191 strikeouts from 2010-13), Ryan Bourassa (191 K's from 2021-23) and Caleb Thielbar (196 strikeouts from 2006-09) in Friday's first game
McCay's start was the 34^th of his career, putting him in a tie for seventh place in program history with Kolton Emery (2011-14)

-GoJacks.com-

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Next Event

North Dakota State

W, 5-1

Apr 5 (Fri)

6 p.m.

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Full Schedule

Team Stats

Pitching:

W: Carvajal,Jake (1-0)

L: Clemons, Alex (2-2)

Northern Colorado

Batting:

2B: Zinicola,Zain 1 ; Wagner,Caden 1 ; Gross,Carson 1

HR: Wagner,Kai 1 ; Bunn,Austin 1 ; Gross,Carson 1 ; Pease,Sam 1

RBI: Zinicola,Zain 1 ; Wagner,Caden 3 ; Wagner,Kai 3 ; Bunn,Austin 4 ; Gross,Carson 4 ; Romero,Jackson 2 ; Pease,Sam 2

Base Running:

RUNS: Zinicola,Zain 2 ; Sanchez,Brandon 1 ; Wagner,Caden 3 ; Wagner,Kai 3 ; Fisher,Garrett 1 ; Bunn,Austin 2 ; Gross,Carson 3 ; Romero,Jackson 1 ; Pease,Sam 3