OMAHA, Neb. — Omaha’s Drew Borner hit a two-run single in the bottom of the 10th inning to finish off a 7-6, Maverick comeback victory against South Dakota State in an elimination game Thursday afternoon at the Summit League Baseball Championship at Tal Anderson Field.
The Mavericks, who trailed 5-0 entering the sixth inning, improved to 20-29 overall and will face the loser of Thursday night’s winners-bracket game between North Dakota State and Oral Roberts. SDSU had its season come to an end with a 16-36 overall record.
SDSU had taken a 6-5 lead in the top of the 10th inning when Dagen Schramm drew a leadoff walk. Pinch runner Davis Carr advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nicholas Werk and took third on a wild pitch. After Carter Sintek walked, Nolan Grawe lofted a fly ball to deep right-center for his fourth run batted in of the game with a sacrifice fly that scored Carr.
Omaha’s final rally of the game all came with two outs. After Jackrabbit closer Dylan Driessen retired the first two batters of the 10th inning, Paul Schuyler worked a walk and Cardel Dick followed with a single. A walk to Tyler Palmer loaded the bases, setting the stage for Borner, who lined a Driessen offering just inside the right-field line to bring home both Schuyler and Dick for the walk-off victory.
Jackrabbit starter Caleb Duerr held Omaha without a hit through the first five innings, but ran into trouble in the home half of the sixth. Duerr opened the frame by hitting Sam Beck and Jackson Trout in consecutive at-bats and Henry Zipay delivered the first Maverick hit with a single to left field to play Beck. Tyler Bishop then stepped to the plate and clubbed a three-run opposite-field home run to right field to pull Omaha to within 5-4 and bring an end to Duerr’s afternoon.
Jake Goble came on in relief and worked perfectly through the Omaha lineup his first time through the order, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the ninth. Schuyler opened the inning with a single up the middle on an 0-2 pitch and pinch hitter Blake Stenger followed with a bunt single.
Driessen then entered in relief and allowed another bunt single by Palmer to load the bases with nobody out. A sacrifice fly by Borner brought home the tying run and the Mavericks then re-loaded the bases on a walk to Sam Beck. Driessen then induced back-to-back groundouts to the left side of the infield with shortstop Carter Sintek throwing home for a force out for the second out of the inning and Grawe corralling a ball hit his way at third base for an unassisted putout third to get out of the jam.
SDSU built a 5-0 lead with two runs in the third inning and by adding three more runs an inning later. Grawe delivered run-scoring hits in both frames, plating the first run of the game with his third-inning single and adding a two-run single in the fourth. Bryce Ronken added a run-scoring single in the third inning, while Sintek closed out the fourth-inning scoring by scampering home on a wild pitch.
Both Sintek and Grawe tallied three of the Jackrabbits’ 10 hits. Omaha’s seven hits were spread among seven players.
Duerr struck out two, walked one and hit the two batters over his five-plus innings of work. Goble added two strikeouts in his three-plus innings.
Cameron Teinert pitched three scoreless innings of relief while Beck picked up the win after beginning the game at second base.
NOTES
- SDSU claimed the season series against Omaha, 4-3
- The Jackrabbits moved to 2-1 in Summit League tournament games against Omaha
- SDSU went 0-2 at the Summit League Baseball Championship for only the second time in 14 appearances, falling to 20-27 overall in tournament games
- The Jackrabbits dropped to 1-1 in extra-inning games in 2025
- Ronken reached base safely for the 31st consecutive game
- Sintek finished the season with 78 hits, ranking him ninth on the SDSU single-season charts
- Sintek posted his 23rd multi-hit game of the season and ended the year with 102 total bases
- Grawe extended his hitting streak to 12 games and upped his SDSU freshman-record hit total to 69