FARGO, N.D. — Luke Luskey moved into South Dakota State’s career top 10 for home runs with a pair of round-trippers and finished the day with seven runs batted in to lead the Jackrabbits to a 16-10, series-clinching victory over North Dakota State in Summit League baseball action Sunday afternoon at Newman Outdoor Field.
SDSU improved to 18-26 overall and 9-11 in league play. The Bison dropped to 10-28 overall and 6-12 in The Summit League.
The Jackrabbits got out to a quick start, scoring three times in the top of the first inning. After Nolan Grawe drew a one-out walk and Nate Wachter singled, Luskey opened the scoring with a run-scoring double to left field. Dayton Franke followed with double to the fence in right field to score two more.
Luskey then accounted for the next six runs for SDSU, hitting a two-run homer to straight-away center field in the third inning and connecting on a grand slam an inning later a few feet to the right of his first blast for a 9-1 lead. The home runs were his team-leading ninth and 10th of the season, as well as the 31st and 32nd of his career to put him in a tie for eighth place in program history.
Both of NDSU’s first two runs of the game came on long balls. Kyle Law led off the bottom of the second inning with his fifth homer of the season and Blake Timmons started the Bison fifth with his first home run of the season off Jackrabbit starter Sam Novotny.
The Bison drew to within 9-6 with a four-run bottom of the sixth, highlighted by a two-run double from Caleb Corbin, but SDSU answered with four runs of its own in its next turn at the plate. Carter Taylor lined a two-run homer to left for the first two runs of the top of the seventh and Luke Wroblewski added a two-run single later in the frame.
Nic Werk’s two-run single in the eighth and a sacrifice fly by Wachter in the ninth provided some additional insurance after NDSU tallied a run in the seventh and three more in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by Dante Smith and an RBI hit by Diego Trujillo, who was 4-for-5 on the day.
Novotny logged 5 2/3 innings to pick up this third win of the season, striking out four and walking two. Tristan Augedahl pitched the final 3 1/3 innings for SDSU to pick up his third save of the season.
SDSU finished with a 17-13 advantage in hits and was led by Luskey’s first four-hit game of his career. Wachter added three hits, while four other Jackrabbits notched two hits apiece.
Jonah Walker allowed the first nine runs of the game for NDSU and was assessed the loss.
ON DECK
The Jackrabbits host their final home games of the season next weekend, opening a three-game Summit League series against St. Thomas with a 1 p.m. matchup at Erv Huether Field.
NOTES
- SDSU claimed the season series, 4-2, and leads the all-time series, 138-90
- The Bison and Jackrabbits are tied at 46 wins each in Summit League regular season games since joining the league in 2008
- The Jackrabbits posted double digits in runs for the 13th time this season
- Luskey turned in the second two-homer, seven-RBI game by a Jackrabbit this week, matching Wachter’s performance against Minnesota Morris on April 29
- Luskey moved past Tim Johnson (31 homers from 1984-87) and Kerry Jacobson (31 from 2000-02), then tied Russ Langer (32 home runs from 1998-2001) for eighth place on the SDSU career home run list
- Luskey’s two-home run game was his second of the season — both against NDSU — and fifth of his career, the latter total ranking as the second most in the Division I era of Jackrabbit baseball (since 2005) behind career home run leader Jesse Sawyer’s eight multi-homer games
- Wachter went 6-for-11 (.545 batting average) in the three-game series
- Two of Novotny’s three wins this season have been against North Dakota State