JACKRABBITS, UNC SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER

Saturday, March 15

Greeley, Colo.

noon MT/1 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

1-12, 0-1

Northern Colorado

6-13, 1-0

South Dakota State

UNC

Photo by: Chris Board

3/15/2025 9:20:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GREELEY, Colo. — South Dakota State's Bryce Ronken recorded four hits in the opener and then drove in a career-best five runs in Game 2 as the Jackrabbits salvaged a split of a Summit League baseball doubleheader against Northern Colorado on Saturday. UNC claimed Game 1, 8-4, while the Jackrabbits posted a 12-7 victory to close out the day at Jackson Field.

SDSU moved to 2-12 overall and 1-1 in league play. The Bears ended the day 6-13 overall and 1-1 in The Summit League.

Game 1: Northern Colorado 8, South Dakota State 4
UNC starter Murphy Gienger held the Jackrabbits in check over 7 1/3 innings with 11 strikeouts and the Bears got the offense going early en route to an 8-4 victory.

Northern Colorado scored in each of the first innings, tying the game with a run in the bottom of the first before taking the lead with a three-run second inning. Brett Barber singled and scored the first-inning run and also came across in the second-inning rally on a two-run single by Kai Wagner. Carter Monda doubled in the go-ahead run.

Base hits by Jake Bullard and Craig Kenny plated runs in the third inning to chase Jackrabbit starter Arlen Peters and the Bears tacked on a run in the fourth when Barber was hit by a pitch, stole second and took third on an error before scoring on a wild pitch.

SDSU reliever Jake Goble kept the Jackrabbits in the game with three consecutive shutout innings as SDSU pulled to within 7-4 with a run in the top of the sixth and adding two more runs in the eighth. All three of those runs scored on sacrifice flies — by Dayton Franke in the sixth and by Luke Luskey and Nolan Grawe two innings later.

UNC answered with a run in the bottom of the eighth to stem the tide.

The Bears finished with a 12-11 advantage in hits despite Ronken posting the first four-hit game by an SDSU player this season by going 4-for-4 with a double. Luke Luskey and Jess Bellows each notched two hits for SDSU.

Luskey scored the first run of the game as he hit a two-out double in the opening inning and scored on a base hit by Nolan Grawe.

Goble struck out seven and did not walk a batter while allowing two runs on three hits over 5 2/3 innings of relief.

Gienger also did not issue a walk while scattering nine hits in picking up his first win of the season.

Game 2: South Dakota State 12, Northern Colorado 7
The Jackrabbits jumped out to an early lead and went on to match season highs with 12 runs and 15 hits.

Carter Sintek opened the game with a triple to right-center field and Ronken was credited with his first RBI of the game when he reached on an error. Ronken later scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of Grawe.

UNC countered with a run against SDSU starter Sam Schlecht in the bottom of the first, but the Jackrabbits took control by matching their biggest inning of the season with a five-run top of the second. The Jackrabbits sent 10 men to the plate in the inning, with six of them reaching in succession, starting when Dagen Schramm was hit by a pitch. Owen Siegert followed with a single, while Sintek (single), Ronken (double), Luskey (single) and Grawe (single) added run-scoring hits.

Schlecht ran into more trouble in the third as Northern Colorado trimmed the deficit to 7-5. Ty Madison came on to finish the frame and added a scoreless frame in the fourth, after which the Jackrabbits upped their lead to 10-5 with three more runs in the top of the fifth.

Jess Bellows led off the SDSU fifth with a base hit and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sintek. Ronken then followed with a two-run single through the right side that brought home both Nicholas Werk and Owen Siegert.

Redshirt freshman Tristan Augedahl relieved Madison with a run in and the bases loaded in the home half of the fifth, but worked out of the jam with a strikeout and flyout. The left-hander then tossed a scoreless sixth inning before giving way to co-closer Dylan Driessen for the final three innings.

Augedahl struck out four in 1 2/3 innings, with Driessen notching three strikeouts. Madison was awarded the win after striking out three in his two innings of work.

The Jackrabbits added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Dagen Schramm plated the sixth-inning run with a single while Ronken tallied his fifth RBI in the seventh with an RBI double that came after Sintek's second triple of the game.

Sintek, Ronken and Bellows each collected three of SDSU's 15 hits. Tony Castonguay posted three of the Bears' 15 hits.

UP NEXT
The decisive game of the three-game set is scheduled for noon Mountain Time (1 p.m. Central) on Sunday.

NOTES

SDSU leads the all-time series, 41-35
The Jackrabbits ended a seven-game losing streak to UNC with their victory in Game 2
Grawe extended his hitting streak to 11 games with hits in both games
Sintek has hit safely in eight consecutive games
Sintek became the fourth Jackrabbit player in the Division I era (since 2005) with two triples in a game and the first since Stephen Turner at Missouri State on March 10, 2009
Ronken went 7-for-10 in the doubleheader and raised his season batting average to .308
Luskey has reached base safely in all 14 games this season and 19 in a row dating back to late in the 2024 campaign
SDSU also scored 12 runs in its March 1 victory at Sacramento State and previously tallied 15 hits in a Feb. 27 game at Sacramento State
The Jackrabbits dropped to 8-9 in Summit League openers since joining the league at the start of the 2008 season