SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- If you like offense, then the start to the Summit League baseball season is right up your alley. All seven teams are averaging more than five runs per game in League play with Oral Roberts leading that charge at just over 11.5 runs per game.

The Golden Eagles are off to a 9-0 start and hitting .380 as a team in those contests. ORU outfielders Jonah Cox and Matt Hogan are both batting over .500, putting up staggering averages of .538 and 517, respectively. Cox is the national leader in hits with 63, while Hogan leads all Summit League batters with 13 roundtrippers.

Those two will look to continue their ambush on Summit League pitchers when Northern Colorado visits Tulsa this weekend.

St. Thomas picked up its first series win of the season after taking two of three from the Bears last weekend. UST opened the series with a 21-run outburst only to be shutout in game two by UNC freshman Dylan Smith in a 10-0 loss. After 22 consecutive road games, the Tommies will play their first home games of the season when NDSU visits St. Paul this weekend.

The Bison are coming off a break from League play that saw them upset No. 19/22 Texas Tech in the series opener, 8-1 behind another strong start from righthander Cade Feeney. The Bismarck native is trying to show it is not all about offense around the League as he has won three straight starts.

Tommie outfielder Brigs Richartz hit for the cycle in the series-opening win over the Bears and was joined in that club by SDSU shortstop Luke Ira, who achieved the same feat four days later in a non-conference win over Briar Cliff.  All Ira did in his last five games is club three home runs and drive in 15 for the Jackrabbits, who have won four of five, including their first League series last weekend at Western Illinois.

The Jackrabbits will also get their first home games in this weekend when Omaha visits Brookings.  Both of those teams are 4-5 in League play and trying to position themselves within the top four at the halfway point of the season. The Mavericks dropped three straight to the League-leading Golden Eagles, but rebounded with a 6-5 win over in-state rival and Big Ten foe Nebraska on Tuesday.

Omaha third baseman Mike Boeve (.548; sixth) and South Dakota State catcher Ryan McDonald (.551; eighth) rank among the top 10 nationally in on-base percentage. Boeve is batting .425 and has drawn 18 walks, while McDonald is hitting .394 and drawn a League-high 27 free passes.  He has also hit 12 home runs, which only trails Hogan in that category.

So, what fireworks are in store for this weekend?  One thing is for sure - there should be plenty.

NORTH DAKOTA STATE BISON (8-23, 4-2 SL) | @ndsubaseball
Next Up:  at St. Thomas* (4/14, 3 p.m. CT; 4/15, 1 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT); Mayville State (4/18, 6:30 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at (19/22) Texas Tech (W, 8-1; L, 8-5; L, 8-3); at Minnesota (L, 12-8)
The Bison upset No. 19/22 Texas Tech in the series opener with the Red Raiders, marking the first time this season a Summit League team defeated a ranked opponent ... NDSU righthander Cade Feeney won his third straight start, allowing just one earned run on four hits in six innings of work as he won his second TicketSmarter weekly pitching honor in the last three weeks ... Druw Sackett led NDSU offensively with a 6-for-14 effort against the Red Raiders ... Sackett matched his career-high with four hits and added three RBI in Friday’s series-opening win ... NDSU returns to League play this weekend with a three-game series at St. Thomas ... The Bison are scheduled to play their first home game at Newman Outdoor Field Tuesday against Mayville State.

NORTHERN COLORADO BEARS (5-23, 3-6 SL) | @UNC_BearsBSB
Next Up: at Oral Roberts* (4/14, 6:30 p.m. CT; 4/15, 2 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT); Colo. School of Mines (4/19, 3 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: St. Thomas* (L, 21-9; W, 10-0 (8); L, 7-5); at Colo. School of Mines (L, 9-8)
The Bears dropped two of three in a home series with St. Thomas ... After the Bears surrendered 21 runs on 19 hits in the series opener, freshman righthander Dylan Smith turned in the best outing of his first collegiate season, holding the Tommies scoreless and to four hits in an eight-inning complete game shutout ... Smith fanned six as he picked up his second win of the season ... Outfielder Jake King hit safely in all three games against the Tommies and carries a 10 -game hitting streak into a weekend series at Oral Roberts ... King is 16-for-45 (.356) during that stretch and has improved his batting average to .327 ... He is hitting .433 in League play, while Carson Gross (.375) and Caden Wagner (.364) are also batting over .350 against conference foes ... Those three combined to go 4-for-8 with three RBI and five runs scored in the game-two victory over St. Thomas.  
  
OMAHA MAVERICKS (12-14, 4-5 SL) | @OmahaBSB
Next Up: at South Dakota State* (4/14, 3 p.m. CT; 4/15, 1 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: Oral Roberts* (L, 5-4; L, 16-9; L, 8-5); at Nebraska (W, 6-5)
Omaha dropped three straight at home to Oral Roberts to fall below .500 in League play at 4-5 ... The Mavericks tried to rally late in game one, but fell 5-4 after scoring twice in the eighth ... Rightfieder Brennan Bales had his best series as a Maverick, going 4-for-10 with a double and two home runs ... Bales, a Houston Christian transfer, had a season-high three hits in game two, homering in the seventh and eighth innings of a 16-9 loss to the Golden Eagles ... Catched Edaurdo Rosario hit his team-leading fifth home run of the season in the series finale ... Rosario has hit safely in eight of his last nine games ... Third baseman Mike Boeve also went 4-for-10 against the Golden Eagles ... In Tuesday’s 6-5 extra-inning win over Nebraska, Boeve went 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBI as the Mavericks beat Nebraska for the second time this season ... Boeve is now batting .425 and hit his second home run of the season against the Huskers ... Omaha has a three-game set at South Dakota State on its docket this weekend.

ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES (24-10, 9-0 SL) | @ORUBaseball
Next Up: Northern Colorado* (4/14, 6:30 p.m. CT; 4/15, 2 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT); ()
Previous Games: at Omaha* (W, 5-4; W, 16-9; W, 8-5); at (17/18) Oklahoma State (W, 8-5)
The Golden Eagles continued their torrid hitting in League play, batting .327 in a series sweep of Omaha that saw them outscore the Mavericks 29-18 ... The defense was also pristine, committing just one error in 110 chances as ORU enters a weekend series with Northern Colorado leading all DI teams with a .986 fielding percentage ... Centerfielder Jonah Cox hit .467 (7-for-15) in the Omaha series and added three more hits in ORU’s 8-5 win over No. 17/18 Oklahoma State to push his national-leading hit total to 63 ... Shortstop Mac McCroskey and rightfielder Matt Hogan both homered three times against the Mavericks with McCroskey going deep twice in the finale ... McCroskey drove in seven and secured his second TicketSmarter weekly honor of the season ... Cox (.538) and Hogan (.517) are both batting over .500 against League opponents ... In the win over the Cowboys, righthander Cade Denton earned his eighth save of the season, firing two scoreless innings to close out the victory ... Denton is tied for third nationally with that save count and owns a 1.14 ERA in 16 appearances (31.2 IP/43 Ks).

ST. THOMAS TOMMIES (4-18, 2-4 SL) | @TommieBase
Next Up: North Dakota State* (4/14, 3 p.m. CT; 4/15, 1 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT); at Minnesota (4/19, 6 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at Northern Colorado* (W, 21-9; L, 10-0 (8); W, 7-5); at Air Force (L, 18-3)
The Tommies picked up their first series win of the season, taking two of three at Northern Colorado ... Brigs Richartz hit for the cycle in a 21-9 victory for the Tommies in the series opener ... Richartz finished the series batting .400 against the Bears (6-for-15) with a team-high four RBI ... Eleven different UST players had at least one RBI in the series and six had at least four hits ... Walker Retz was solid in his game two start for the Tommies, giving up just one earned run on eight hits, while striking out six in a season-high seven innings of work ... Retz has yielded just three earned runs over a 17-inning span (1.59 ERA) covering his last three starts ... The Tommies will play at home for the first time this season with NDSU set to visit a Summit League series.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE JACKRABBITS (10-17, 4-5 SL) | @GoJacksBaseball
Next Up: Omaha* (4/14, 3 p.m. CT; 4/15, 1 p.m. CT; 4/16, 1 p.m. CT); Northwestern (Iowa) (4/18, 3 p.m. CT); Waldorf (4/19, 3 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: at Western Illinois* (W, 6-3 (10); L, 14-4 (8); W, 8-6); Briar Cliff (W, 18-5); Dakota Wesleyan (W, 20-1 (7))  
The Jackrabbits have won four of five, including a two of three at Western Illinois to register their first Summit League series win of the season ... Shortstop Luke Ira went 11-for-23 with three home runs and 15 RBI during that stretch, which included hitting for the cycle in an 18-5 non-conference win over Briar Cliff ... Ira hit a pair of home runs and drove in eight against the Leathernecks, then went 5-for-5 with four runs and four RBI at Briar Cliff ... Ryan McDonald continued to swing a hot stick, batting .417 in four starts ... He also belted two home runs and is one of two Summit League players in double digits in that category as he pushed his season total to a dozen round-trippers ... SDSU will play Omaha in a three-game series in Brookings, marking their first home games of the campaign.

WESTERN ILLINOIS LEATHERNECKS (4-23, 1-5 SL) | @WIUBaseball
Next Up: at Michigan State (4/14, 6:05 p.m. ET; 4/15, 3:35 p.m. ET; 4/16, 1:05 p.m. ET); SIUE (4/18, 3 p.m. CT)
Previous Games: vs. SDSU* (L, 6-3 (10); W, 14-4 (8); L, 8-6); at Eastern Illinois (L, 14-0)
The Leathernecks dropped two of three to visiting South Dakota State to fall to 1-5 in League play ... Shortstop Derek Botaletto went 6-for-15 in the series and centerfielder Nick Mitchell went 4-for-10 to pace the WIU offense ... Mitchell has a team-high 14 multi-hit games and carries a .429 batting average into a non-conference series at Michigan State this weekend ... Lefthander Tyler Kapraun picked up the win in game two of the series with SDSU, equaliing his season-high in innings pitched at 6.0 ... Kapraun struck out six and scattered six hits, while allowing one earned run in a 14-4 win for the Leathernecks ... The 14 runs were a season-high for WIU.

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