OMAHA, Neb. — Drew McDowell pitched six no-hit innings and Ty Madison completed the shutout bid with three scoreless frames as South Dakota State locked up a berth in next week’s Summit League Baseball Championship with a 5-0 victory over Omaha Wednesday night at Tal Anderson Field.
The Jackrabbits improved to 21-27 overall and evened their Summit League record at 12-12 with their fifth win in their last seven conference games. Omaha dropped to 18-24 overall and 13-11 in league play. SDSU, which overtook Northern Colorado for third place in the league standings, was designated as the home team due to Wednesday’s game being a makeup game from a series scheduled for early April in Brookings that was canceled due to inclement weather.
McDowell, who threw the first six innings as part of a combined no-hitter against Buena Vista in his last outing on April 28, ran his hitless innings streak to 12 Wednesday night. The right-hander from Billings, Montana, matched a career high with seven strikeouts while walking three and hitting two batters en route to his team-leading fourth win of the season.
Omaha finally broke into the hit column in the top of the seventh with a pair of two-out singles by Edoardo Cornelli and Eli Hoerner off Madison, but the SDSU reliever induced a groundout for the final out of the seventh and allowed only one more baserunner the rest of the way with a strikeout to secure his first save of the season.
SDSU wasted little time to get on the board, scoring three batters into the game. Center fielder Owen Siegert, who returned from injury to make his first appearance since late March, opened the bottom of the first inning with a single, moved to second on a walk to Nolan Grawe and scored on a base hit by Nate Wachter.
Wachter also had a hand in the Jackrabbits scoring two runs in each of the third and sixth innings. A native of nearby Blair, Nebraska, Wachter led off the third inning with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. Carter Taylor drove in Luke Luskey with the second run of the frame with a double down the third-base line.
In the sixth inning, Nic Werk doubled with one out and Siegert walked before Grawe and Wachter notched back-to-back RBI singles. Wachter ended the night 3-for-4 to lead the Jackrabbits’ nine-hit attack. Werk and Siegert each added two hits.
ON DECK
Game 2 of the four-game series is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday.
NOTES
- SDSU leads the season series, 1-0, but Omaha holds a 99-96-1 advantage in the all-time series
- The Jackrabbits won a night game for the first time this season (1-8 record)
- SDSU posted its first shutout win since blanking St. Thomas, 3-0, on April 18, 2025
- The Jackrabbits are 18-6 this season when out-hitting the opposition
- In 11 relief appearances, Madison has posted a 2.25 earned run average and has struck out 28 batters and walked only three over 32 innings
- Luskey was hit by a pitch for the 18th time in 2026, matching Jesse Sawyer’s single-season program record set in 2010
- Wachter now ranks third on the team with 13 multi-hit games this season and extended his hitting streak to six games