MINNEAPOLIS — South Dakota State pitchers Kaden Rylance and Ty Madison limited Northern Colorado to two hits and the Jackrabbits found just enough offense to earn a berth in the finals of the Summit League Baseball Championship with a 2-1 victory Thursday night at Siebert Field.
The Jackrabbits, who improved to 23-30 overall, are 2-0 in the league tournament for the first time in program history. SDSU will meet either Northern Colorado or Oral Roberts at 1 p.m. Saturday, with an if-necessary game to determine the winner of the double-elimination tournament to follow immediately.
SDSU scored its runs in back-to-back innings against Bear starter Jake Storey. The Jackrabbits opened the third inning with infield single from Luke Wroblewski and Keagen Jirschele, although Wroblewski was picked off for the first out of the inning. After Nic Werk replaced Jirschele on the bases via a fielders choice, Owen Siegert dumped a double on a 3-2 pitch into the left-center gap just out of the reach of the UNC center fielder to bring Werk home all the way from first base.
The Jackrabbits caught a huge break to score what would be the decisive run in the fourth inning. Nate Wachter led off with a double and advanced to third base on a one-out single by Luke Jones. Dayton Franke then stepped to the plate and dropped down a squeeze bunt right back to Storey. Wachter appeared to be hung out to dry on the play, but Storey’s throw home was errant, allowing Wachter to score.
Rylance held UNC without a hit until surrendering a single with one out in the sixth inning to Jaden Stone that advanced Brandon Sanchez to third base after Sanchez was hit by a pitch. Logan Pruski followed with a sacrifice fly.
A freshman right-hander from Watertown, Rylance completed his six innings with five strikeouts, two walks and a run on one hit.
SDSU turned to Madison for the final three innings and the senior continued his prowess out of the bullpen by striking out two and allowing an infield single to Ethan Mooser with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before inducing a groundout to third base to end the ballgame.
Madison’s save was his second of the season.
The Jackrabbits finished with a 7-2 advantage in hits. No player had more than one hit in the contest.
Storey was the hard-luck loser for the Bears after working six innings and striking out three while walking one.
NOTES
- SDSU leads the all-time series against UNC, 47-39, and the season series, 4-2
- Thursday’s game marked the first-ever meeting between the Jackrabbits and UNC in the Summit League Baseball Championship
- The Jackrabbits will be making their seventh appearance in the championship series, winning their lone Summit League tournament title in 2013 and advancing to the final day in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2023
- SDSU improved to 3-1 in neutral-site games and 2-10 in night games this season
- The Jackrabbits upped their record in one-run games to 4-7, but have won their last three
- Siegert has hit safely in all six games since missing the entire month of April due to injury and now has an overall hitting streak of eight games to match a career high
- Luke Luskey set an SDSU single-season record by being hit by a pitch for the 19th time, breaking a tie with Jesse Sawyer (18 in 2010)
- Werk reached three base three times with a single and two walks
- Jackrabbit pitchers have retired the leadoff batter in 17 of 18 innings so far in the tournament, including all nine innings on Thursday