Friday
NDSU Baseball opened a three game weekend series in Omaha Friday, looking for their fourth straight win.
Bison starting pitcher Nolan Johnson would get his afternoon started on the right note, sending down the first three Omaha hitters on strikes. The Lefty would pick up his fourth strikeout of the day in the second inning, before sitting three hitters down in the third inning, to bring his strikeout total to seven through three innings.
North Dakota State’s offense would threaten over the first three innings but weren’t able to breakthrough to give their starting pitcher some run support. Sam Canton would lead off the top of the fourth with a single to left field and a Noah Gordon sacrifice bunt would move Canton over to second base with one down. After getting Tate Martin to ground out, Omaha’s Cameron Teinert was one out away from escaping the inning. With a 1-1 count, Alex Urlaub would get jammed on a fastball, flicking it out to right field to drive in Canton, to give NDSU a 1-0 lead, through three and a half innings.
Nolan Johnson continued dealing on the mound, with five innings done, the junior hadn’t allowed a baserunner, sending the first 15 Maverick hitters down in order. Alex Urlaub would get another RBI chance for the Bison in the sixth inning, following a Noah Gordon automatic double. With two outs once again, Urlaub would deliver on that opportunity, dribbling the ball back up the middle, scoring Gordon, doubling NDSU’s lead, 2-0.
Omaha would finally get in the hit column with a two out single in the sixth inning but would leave the runner on base. North Dakota State started the seventh inning with a Jake Schaffner walk, one that would prove to be a mistake. After Schaffner’s walk, NDSU would get two hits, one being a triple by Davis Hamilton. Following Hamilton’s triple, Sam Canton would bring him home via sacrifice-fly, which would plate the Bison’s third run of the inning, stretching their lead to five. North Dakota State would add their final run of the afternoon in the eighth inning, moving Tate Martin station-to-station, eventually bringing him home on a Tommy Simon single that didn’t leave the infield.
Omaha would finally get on the board in the eighth inning with the help of poor defense from the Bison. Lead-off hitter Trey Palmer would get on base with a single and would score two batters later following a wild throw that ended up out of play, from left fielder Colten Becker. The Mavericks would score their second run of the inning after a double from Drew Borner and would get their final run of the afternoon, following NDSU’s third error of the inning, this time coming from the sure-handed shortstop Jake Schaffner. Freshman Danny Lachenmayer would get out of the inning for the Bison, two batters later, leaving this contest at 6-3, through eight innings. Lachenmayer would get the ninth inning, sending Omaha down in order, to give North Dakota State their fourth win in a row.
Saturday
NDSU came into Saturday’s matchup looking to extend their winning streak to five games. The Mavericks would threaten against Bison starting pitcher Logan Knight in the first inning, before Knight would get out of the jam with a strikeout.
North Dakota would get some traffic on the base paths in the second inning, without registering a hit. Two walks and a hit by pitch would set up Jake Schaffner with the bases loaded but Mavericks starting pitcher Ben Weber would freeze Schaffner with a breaking ball to get out of the inning.
Henry Zipay would reach base for Omaha with one down in the bottom of the third inning, via a dropped third strike. Tyler Bishop would move Zipay over to third base with a single and Mason Gaines would drive in Zipay, with a bouncing dribbler to the second base, reaching first base safely. NDSU would limit the damage and after three innings, Omaha lead 1-0.
Jackson Trout would lead off the bottom of the fifth inning for Omaha with a single, eventually moving to third base after a base hit and an unassisted putout at first base. Mason Gaines came to the plate with another RBI opportunity with two runners in scoring position. Gaines would bring home one run on a sacrifice-fly in Trout, advancing Henry Zipay to third base. Cardel Dick would bring in Zipay with a scolding double to the left-center field gap. Trey Palmer would plate the fourth Omaha run of the afternoon, with a single to center field.
NDSU would once again threaten in the top of the sixth inning. After Davis Hamilton reached base on a single with one out, Omaha would respond, getting Sam Canton to fly out. Tate Martin would advance Hamilton to third base with a single. Then Alex Urlaub who knocked in two runs yesterday, stepped up to the plate looking to breakthrough for the Bison with another RBI chance. Urlaub would take a walk and load the bases with two down. Luke Shannahan would pinch hit for Bennet Freiter and on a 2-2 pitch, Ben Weber would get his eighth strikeout of the day, buckling Shannahan, escaping the jam for Omaha. Austin Bergum would get the call in relief to start the seventh inning for the Bison, ending Logan Knights day.
Bergum started his relief appearance surrendering back-to-back walks. Cardel Dick dropped down a bunt to advance the runners but would reach after beating out the wild throw from NDSU’s third baseman Davis Hamilton. The wild throw allowed the Mavericks to push across their fifth and final run of the afternoon, increasing their lead to 5-0. Sam Roberts would relieve Austin Bergum with no outs, fairing much better than Bergum, getting three straight outs, two coming from strikeouts.
North Dakota State would finally get their lonely run of the afternoon in the top of the ninth inning. Jake Schaffner would drive in Evan Gustafson with a single, making it three straight Bison hitters in a row to reach base. NDSU just needed one more batter to reach in order to bring the tying batter to the plate, but wasn’t able to, as Tanner Foerstch would retire the next three Bison hitters, to end the afternoon, with a final score of 5-1.
Sunday
North Dakota State Baseball played the final game of a three-game series against Omaha Sunday.
Parker Puetz made his season debut Sunday afternoon, starting on the mound for the Bison. The Mavericks came out swinging to start, as they would get their first run before recording an out, via a Trey Bishop double. Cardel Dick would get two more runs across and after a walk to Trey Palmer, Puetz would be relieved by Senior Sam Roberts on the mound, ending his day after getting one out, leaving two runners on base.
A double by Blake Stenger that would get past the left fielder would allow those two inherited runners to score and after stealing third base, Stenger would be brought home the next batter, on a sacrifice fly to give Omaha a six-run lead to start. With the great run support, Mavericks starting pitcher Maddox Meyer would work on cruise control, giving up just two hits in his four innings of work. The second hit was a Colten Becker double that featured a great relay play to cut down Becker at third base, who was eying a triple.
Omaha would increase their lead, scoring two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. A Jackson Trout triple that got past the diving Dante Smith in right field, plated the first run of the inning. Trout would brought home just two batters later on a single from Tyler Bishop, putting Omaha up 8-0.
Colten Becker would try to rally the Bison bats in the top of the sixth inning, hitting a 107-mph rope down the right field line that just barely stayed fair for a home run. NDSU would get two more runners on after Becker’s HR, but Brayden Curtis would escape the threat for Omaha, preserving the 7-run lead. Omaha would gain that run right back in the bottom of the sixth, when Cardel Dick scored on a Trey Palmer RBI single.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Mavericks would close this game out, scoring two runs from two different singles from Myles Gaines and Cardel Dick, to give Omaha the victory via the ten-run-rule after seven innings.
The Loss pushes the Bison to 9-18 overall, 7-4 in Summit League play after dropping two out of three against Omaha.
*This article was written by Flag Family Media intern Cayden Lloyd*
