Oral Roberts Interview (Head Coach Ryan Folmar)

OMAHA, Neb. – Top-seeded Oral Roberts forced a winner-take-all game at the 2021 #SummitBSB Championship thanks to an offensive outburst in a 15-5 victory over No. 2 seed North Dakota State Saturday afternoon at Tal Anderson Field. The two teams will square off again at 5:50 p.m. CT to decide this year's champion.

After falling behind 3-0 in the first, ORU scored 11 unanswered runs to give them a shot at winning the program's 20th Summit League Tournament title. Second baseman led a 19-hit attack by the Golden Eagles with a 5-for-6 effort, while Caleb Denny and Blake Hall both homered. The Golden Eagels' 3-5 hitters combined to go 10-for-17 at the plate, scored seven runs and drove in six.

It looked bleak early on for ORU as the first three Bison reached base in the bottom of the first and came around to score. After Charley Hesse drew a bases loaded walk to start the scoring, Emanuel came through with a two-out, two-RBI single to put his squad up 3-0.

ORU starter Hunter Swift would settle in after the three-run first and limit the Bison to just two hits over the next four innings. He fanned seven Bison and the offense finally got going off NDSU starter Evan Sankey.

He had kept the Golden Eagles off the scorebard until the top of the fourth when they were able to push two runs across. Hall delivered his first of three RBI in the game with a single through the left side and Alec Jones was credited with an RBI-groundout. 

In the top of the sixth, Hall would give ORU its first lead of the game with a two-run homer over the leftfield wall that made it a 4-3 contest.

The Golden Eagles broke the game open in their half of the seventh, scoring seven runs off NDSU reliever Gabe Pilla. Cash delivered an RBI triple that Denny followed with the second two-run shot for ORU in as many innings.

Adam Oviedo added an RBI-single before Anthony Martinez capped the scoring with a three-run homer to push the ORU advantage to 11-3.

The Bison didn't go quietly as they got a pair back in the bottom half of the seventh on RBI singles from pinchhitter Garret Hill and Hesse, but ORU reliever AJ Archambo was able to limit the damage after striking out pinchhitter Will Busch with the bases loaded.

ORU tacked on four more runs in its last at-bat, pushing the lead to 15-5. 

Pitcher of Record
Win – Hunter Swift (3-0): 5.0 IP, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Loss – Evan Sankey (7-2): 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 1 strikeouts

Notable Notes
• ORU's 15 runs and 19 hits were the most by any team in a game during the 2021 tournament.
• Ryan Cash's five-hit game marked the 11th time a player has achieved that feat.  Only one player has a six-hit game in tournament history and that was Missouri State's Larry Doss in 1987. 
• This will be the third winner-take-all game for NDSU in its program history (lost in 2012 and 2013), while Oral Roberts is 3-1 in those contests, including a win over the Bison in 2012. The Golden Eagles also won a winner-take-all game in 2000 and 2016, but lost its last appearance in 2019 to Omaha.
    
Up Next
The NCAA Selection Show is scheduled for Monday, May 31 at 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN2.

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