MINNEAPOLIS — The streak is over.
Heading into Wednesday’s opening game of the Summit League Baseball Championship, South Dakota State had never beaten Oral Roberts in a postseason game, but behind 7 1/3 strong innings from Sam Schlecht and timely hitting, the Jackrabbits came away with a 7-3 victory over the top-seeded Golden Eagles at Siebert Field.
With the win, SDSU improved to 22-30 overall and will face Northern Colorado at 6 p.m. Thursday with the winner advancing to Saturday’s championship. ORU fell to 32-23 and will play Omaha in an elimination game at noon Thursday.
After Oral Roberts’ Martell Davis hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second, the Jackrabbits grabbed the lead with two runs in the top of the fourth. Luke Luskey hit the second pitch of the inning for his team-leading 13th home run of the season to tie the game, then the Jackrabbits turned to some small ball for their second run of the frame. Luke Jones followed Luskey’s homer with a double, moved to third base on a groundout and scored on a safety squeeze bunt by Keagen Jirschele that resulted in a single.
SDSU extended its lead to 6-1 with a four-run sixth inning. Luke Wroblewski opened the inning by drawing a leadoff walk, which resulted in ORU starter Easton Teel being removed from the game in favor of Summit League Pitcher of the Year Jack Hill. Each of the first four hitters Hill faced reached base as Jirschele drew a walk and Nic Werk loaded the bases with another perfectly executed bunt to the right side for a single.
Owen Siegert then came through with his third hit of the game, rolling a single through the right side to drive in both Wroblewski and Jirschele. Nolan Grawe followed with a single to right center that scored Werk and advanced Siegert to third. The final run of the inning came across when Siegert scored on a sacrifice fly by Nate Wachter to shallow right field.
An RBI groundout by Luskey in the top of the eighth scored Grawe for a 7-1 Jackrabbit lead.
In the meantime, Schlecht tied up Oral Roberts to the tune of matching his season and career high with eight strikeouts. A native of the northwest Twin Cities suburb of Maple Grove, Schlecht did not walk a batter and retired the leadoff hitter in each of the first seven innings before allowing a leadoff double by Hudson Ellis in the eighth. Ellis would later score on a two-run home run off the right-field foul pole by Summit League Player of the Year Makani Tanaka.
Ty Madison came on to retire all five batters he faced, including one by strikeout, to preserve SDSU’s first win in 20 tries against Oral Roberts in a Summit League tournament game.
Siegert was 3-for-5 to lead SDSU’s 12-hit attack, while Grawe and Luskey each added two hits.
NOTES
- Oral Roberts leads the all-time series, 89-24, and had won the last 15 meetings overall
- The Jackrabbits improved to 21-27 all-time in Summit League tournament games
- Luskey’s home run was the 35th of his career, moving him into tie for fifth place on the Jackrabbits’ all-time charts with Ryan McDonald (2019-23) and Dawson Parry (2022-24)
- Siegert has hit safely in all five games since his return from injury and is batting 9-for-19 (.474 average) in that span
- Overall, Siegert has reached base safely in 15 consecutive games with a seven-game hitting streak
- Wroblewski was the lone SDSU starter without a hit, but reached base twice on walks
- The top three hitters in the ORU lineup were a combined 1-for-12 with four strikeouts
- Schlecht previously struck out eight batters in a May 1 game against North Dakota State and in a 2025 start versus Northwestern (Iowa)