SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A full slate of Summit League series is upon us after Oral Roberts and St. Thomas got things started last weekend in Tulsa. The Golden Eagles swept the Tommies and will hit the non-conference trail with a weekend series at Memphis.
ORU rightfielder Matt Hogan put up absurd numbers last week, finishing with three home runs and 18 RBI during a 4-1 stretch for ORU to collect three national weekly awards from the
NCBWA, D1Baseball.com and Collegiate Baseball.
The remainder of the League will be in conference action as North Dakota State begins its regular season title defense with a three-game set at Omaha, while South Dakota State and Northern Colorado will battle in Colorado Springs and St. Thomas and Western Illinois will square off in Macomb.
The Bison will take the momentum of their first series win of the season with them to Omaha to face a Mavericks' squad that has not played since defeating Nebraska 10-6 on March 14. NDSU took two of three from Houston Christian this past weekend in the Lone Star State.
The Jackrabbits and Bears will play their League-opening series at the Air Force Academy with a Friday doubleheader and a single game Saturday now on the slate. The Tommies and Leathernecks, who play each other twice during the League season, swapped venues for this weekend's series since field conditions on WIU's campus are better at this time.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE BISON (3-17, 0-0 SL) | @ndsubaseball
Next Up: at Omaha* (3/24, 6:30 p.m. CT; 3/25, 3 p.m. CT; 3/26, 2 p.m. CT); at Nebraska (3/28, 7 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at Houston Christian (W, 10-7; W, 6-5; L, 6-5)
The Bison picked up their first series win of the season, taking two of three on the road at Houston Chrisitan ... With seven hits in the HCU series, shortstop Peter Brookshaw became the seventh NDSU player to record 200 hits in a career ... Brookshaw currently leads the Bison in doubles (8) and home runs (6) entering League play ... Cadyn Schwabe is leading a quartet of Bison hitting .300 or better on the season ... Schwabe owns a .350 clip and also has a team-high 28 hits ... Righthander Tristen Roehrich logged a season-high six innings in Sunday’s start at HCU and shares the team lead in strikeouts at 33 with Cade Feeney ... Feeney’s averaging 1.5 strikeouts per inning pitched in 2023 ... NDSU opens its 2022 Summit League regular season title defense this weekend at Omaha.
NORTHERN COLORADO BEARS (2-15, 0-0 SL) | @UNC_BearsBSB
Next Up: SDSU* (3/24, 12 p.m. MT DH; 3/25, 12 p.m. MT); at UC-Colorado Springs (3/28, 3 p.m. MT)
Previous Games: at Utah (L, 12-5; L, 12-8)
The Bears open year two of Summit League action this weekend with a three-game series in Colorado Springs against South Dakota State ... The series is being played at the Air Force Academy due to unplayable field conditions in Greeley ... UNC will look to snap a 15-game skid in Friday’s opener against the Jackrabbits ... The Bears did manage to scratch across 13 runs in a two-game set at Utah after averaging just 4.5 runs per game in their first 15 contests ... Rightfielder Austin Bunn went 5-for-6 against the Utes to push his team-leading batting average to .341 on the season ... Righthander Murphy Gienger has a team-best 21 punchouts in 15.1 innings of relief work this season ... He tossed three innings in game two against Utah, allowing one earned run, while striking out five.
OMAHA MAVERICKS (6-8, 0-0 SL) | @OmahaBSB
Next Up: NDSU* (3/24, 6:30 p.m. CT; 3/25, 3 p.m. CT; 3/26, 2 p.m. CT); at (3/5) Arkansas (3/28, 6 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: vs. Stonehill (W, 10-0; W, 13-3); at Nebraska (W, 10-6)
Omaha has now gone 6-2 since starting the season 0-6 and the Mavericks will take a four-game winning streak into its Summit League-opening series vs. reigning regular season champion NDSU ... Omaha had a three-game home series vs. Valparaiso cancelled last weekend, so it has not played since posting a 10-6 win over Nebraska on March 14 ... The Mavericks snapped the Cornhuskers’ winning streak at four with that victory ... Charlie Bell struck out a season-high six batters and Cam Frederick notched his first career four-hit game against the Huskers ... Eduardo Rosario drove in three runs against Nebraska, giving him nine games in his career with at least three RBI ... Third baseman Mike Boeve carries a League-best .475 clip into the NDSU series.
ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES (14-8, 3-0 SL) | @ORUBaseball
Next Up: at Memphis (3/24, 6 p.m. CT; 3/25, 4 p.m. CT; 3/26 1 p.m. CT), at Missouri State (3/28, 6:30 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: St. Thomas* (W, 10-2; W, 21-2 (7); W, 8-2); Wichita State (W, 5-2)
The Golden Eagles outscored St. Thomas 39-6 and hit .448 as they opened Summit League play with a sweep of the Tommies ... Rightfielder Matt Hogan went 6-for-11 with 10 RBI in the series, while centerfielder Jonah Cox went 9-for-15 with seven RBI to pace the ORU offense ... Hogan is now batting .358 on the season with a League-best eight home runs and 34 RBI, while Cox ranks second among all Summit League players with a .457 clip (42-for-92) ... Cox’s 42 hits are the most among DI players this season ... Cox has hit safely in 21 of 22 games this season and has 14 multi-hit games to his credit ... He had a career-high four hits in the game-two victory over UST when he finished a home run shy of the cycle ... ORU boasts three of the four qualified Summit League hurlers with a sub-4.00 ERA ... Brooks Fowler (2.49 ERA, 2-1) leads that quartet, while Harley Gollert (3.12 ERA, 3-0) and Joshua Caravalho (3.63 ERA, 2-1) round out the foursome ... ORU will take a break from Summit League play with a three-game series this weekend at Memphis.
ST. THOMAS TOMMIES (2-13, 0-3 SL) | @TommieBase
Next Up: at Western Illinois* (3/24, 3 p.m. CT; 3/25, 2 p.m. CT; 3/26, 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at Oral Roberts (L, 10-2; L, 21-2 (7); L, 8-2); at Kansas State (L, 11-3; W, 2-1)
The Tommies and Leathernecks will open Summit League play against each other in Macomb and will now play their second series in St. Paul (May 12-14) ... Snowy field conditions forced the programs to swap locations ... The Tommies snapped an 11-game skid with a 2-1 victory at K-State Wednesday ... Outfielder Brigs Richartz equaled his season-high with three hits in Tuesday’s opener against K-State and drove in the game-winning run in the 2-1 triumph in game two ... He has hit safely in 12 of 16 contests and a carries a team-best .300 batting average into the series with WIU ... After opening the season 5-for-34 at the plate, freshman Dylan O’Connell is 8-for-22 (.363) and has hit safely in five of his last six games ... Richartz, O’Connell, Max Moris and Ben Vujovich all had two hits in Friday’s opener against Oral Roberts.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE JACKRABBITS (4-12, 0-0 SL) | @GoJacksBaseball
Next Up: at Northern Colorado* (3/24, 12 p.m. MT DH; 3/25, 12 p.m. MT)
Previous Games: vs. Iowa (L, 5-4); at Iowa (L, 12-2; L, 5-3)
The Jackrabbits were swept by Iowa in a series split between Parkville, Mo., and the Hawkeyes’ home park in Iowa City ... Sophomore Alex Clemons struck out seven Hawkeyes in 3.1 innings of work across two appearances against his home-state team ... Jess Bellows paced the Jackrabbits’ bats with a .400 average in three starts (4-for-10) ... The power-hitting combo of Dawson Parry and Ryan McDonald were kept in the yard by the Hawkeyes’ hurlers, but those two bring a combined nine home runs into League play ... McDonald has six of those to go with 12 RBI on the season ... Parry tops the team with 13 RBI, while Nic Nelson (10) and Luke Ira (11) also have reached double figures in that category ... Reliever Ryan Bourassa boasts a 1.98 ERA and has struck out 26 in 13.2 innings of work out of the Jackrabbit bullpen ... He has three saves in six appearances.
WESTERN ILLINOIS LEATHERNECKS (3-16, 0-0 SL) | @WIUBaseball
Next Up: St. Thomas* (3/24, 3 p.m. CT; 3/25, 2 p.m. CT; 3/26, 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at Illinois State (L, 6-1); at SEMO (L, 6-1; L, 10-3; L, 4-0)
The Leathernecks will now host St. Thomas in their Summit League-opening series and return to St. Paul in May (12-14) as the programs swapped locations due to unplayable field conditions on the UST campus ... Outfielder Nick Mitchell continued his scorching start to non-conference play, going 7-for-13 in the three-game series at SEMO ... Mitchell is now batting .442 on the season (34-for-77) and has hit safely in 16 of 18 games (11 multi-hit game) ... He equaled his season-high with four hits in the finale and leads all Summit League players with nine doubles and 16 extra-base hits ... Lefthander Jack Bell has made a League-high 11 appearances and struck out 18 in 19.2 innings of work ... Rightander Tyler Kapraun has made five starts and owns a 4.44 ERA, while holding the opposition to a .216 batting average.
#SUMMITBSB
