TULSA, Okla. -- Dalton Miller's walk-off single in the 10th inning lifted fourth-seeded Northern Colorado to a 10-9 victory over second-seeded North Dakota State Friday and into the 2024 Summit League Baseball Championship title game. The Bears, who are making tournament debut this season, move on to face tournament host Oral Roberts in Saturday's title tilt.
Both teams held four-run leads in a game that was scoreless going into the bottom of the third inning. After that, at least one team scored in each inning except the ninth after the Bears roared back to tie things 9-9 with a four-spot in the eighth.
It was a back-and-forth fair throughout as North Dakota State trailed 4-0 after five innings before Sam Clanton woke the bats up with home runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
The Bison did threaten early, loading the bases in both the second and third innings off UNC starter Dylan Smith but each time NDSU came up empty. Catcher Will Busch popped out to Smith on the infield to end their first bases-loaded chance. Then, a base-running miscue cost NDSU in the third when Cadyn Schwabe got too far off second base, forcing Jake Schaffner to try to score from third where he was tagged out at the plate.
UNC capitalized on its first good scoring chance in the third when Austin Bunn walked, advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw by NDSU starter Leland Wilson and would score on a sacrifice fly by Carter Monda.
The Bears would add to their lead with two more in the third and a single tally in the fourth. Carson Gross supplied the third-inning runs with a two-out, two-run single and Caden Wagner delivered a solo shot to give UNC a 4-0 advantage through five.
The Bison would finally get to Smith in the sixth when Colton Becker led off with an infield single and Canton followed with a two-run blast to cut their deficit in half.
NDSU would move in front with a five-run seventh. The Bison started the frame with back-to-back singles off Smith, who was then replaced by Jack Tuttle. He was greeted by a bunt single by Schwabe to load the bases before Tulsa native James Dunlap squared things up with a two-run single through the left side of the infield.
Canton would give the Bison their first lead of the game at 7-4 with his second roundtripper of the contest. This one was a three-run shot that just cleared the right field wall.
The Bears responded in their half of the seventh to make it a 7-5 contest. The first three UNC batters reached but NDSU reliever Skyler Riedinger was able to limit the damage to just one run on a RBI-single by Garrett Fisher.
Schwabe would start a two-run rally for NDSU in the eighth with a RBI-single and Dunlap would follow with an RBI-groundout as the Bison saw their lead expand to its largest of the game at 9-5.
UNC would make that deficit disappear in its half of the eighth as the Bears pushed across four runs to draw even at 9-9. Monda drove in the first run with an RBI-groundout before the Wagner brothers each delivered run-scoring hits. Kai laced a two-run double down the left field line and Caden produced the game-tying hit with a line drive just over the glove of leaping NDSU third baseman Garret Hill.
Both teams went scoreless in the ninth as NDSU reliever Joey Danielson and UNC reliever Jack Carvajal trades zeros.
Carvajal pulled off the feat again in the 10th, setting up the offensive heroics for the Bears, who will now play in the program's first Summit League Tournament title game. C. Wagner led off the extra frame with an infield single, then moved to second on a fielder's choice. Craig Kenny advanced him to third on a line-drive single and he would score the game-winning run on Miller's single to right.
Pitcher of Record
Win – Carvajal (3-0): 2.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts
Loss – Danielson (1-5): 2.0 IP, 7 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
Notable Notes
• With the win, the Bears set up the first matchup between the No. 3 seed and No. 4 seed in the tournament title game.
• The last extra-inning game at the tournament came in 2014 when Western Illinois knocked off Fort Wayne 8-7 in 10 innings.
• Caden Wagner's solo home run in the fifth was his fourth of the season. He finished 3-for-6 to post his 19th multi-hit game of the season.
• Wagner's brother, Kai, also had three hits in the contest as the Bears outhit the Bison 15-9.
• Miller's game-winning RBI was his first run driven in since a home game against the Bison on April 14.
• Canton's two homers pushed him into the team lead in the category with seven on the season. Omaha's Eddie Satisky was the last player to homer twice in a tournament game, doing so in the opening round of the 2023 tournament against Oral Roberts.
• Canton's five RBI are a new career-high at the Division I level - he spent his first two seasons at Gonzaga.
• Schwabe was hitless through the first two games of the tournament after arriving in Tulsa with a 23-game hitting streak but snapped out of that with his third three-hit performance of the season.
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Up Next
Fourth-seeded Northern Colorado will play third-seeded Oral Roberts in the 2024 #SummitBSB Championship title game at 1 p.m. CT on the Summit League Network. The "if necessary" game would be played approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
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