OMAHA, Neb. -- No. 2 seed North Dakota State survived a pitcher's duel on the opening day of the 2025 Summit League Baseball Championship, earning a walk-off, 1-0 win over No. 3 seed Omaha in 10 innings at Tal Anderson Field.
After both teams went scoreless through nine innings of play, NDSU shortstop Jake Schaffner led off the 10th inning with a triple then scored two pitches later on a wild offering from reliever Oliver Mabee that walked it off for the Bison.
Summit League Pitcher of the Year Nolan Johnson and Omaha starter Ben Weber, an all-league second team selection, went toe-to-toe on the mound as both managed to escape their outings without surrendering a run.
Weber did his best Houdini act early on, escaped a pair of jams in the first and second innings as the Bison left five men on base. The righthander struck out the side in the opening frame after allowing a single and a walk, then got out of a bases-loaded predicament in the second.
In that frame, Luis Garcie packed the bags with a bunt single but Weber was able to strike out Schaffner looking, then induced a groundout to first to keep the game scoreless through two.
Weber did not retire NDSU in order until the sixth inning but the Bison could never crack the scoreboard off the K-State transfer despite drawing five walks and tallying three hits.
Johnson continued to be equal to the task as he also held the Mavericks scoreless through seven-plus innings of work. He had less traffic on the base paths as he retired nine straight Mavericks at one point. Omaha did put two on base for the first time in its half of the sixth but Johnson was able to did out of that jam.
Mason Gaines led off the seventh with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt but he became the fifth Maverick stranded after a nice running catch by Blake Timmons on the warning track in right field kept the game at 0-0.
The lefthander came out for the eighth but issued back-to-back walks to bring a close to his outing. Henry Zipay, the Summit League Player of the Year, moved the runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt off reliever Danny Lachenmayer.
From there, Lachenmayer incuded a pair of groundouts with the second being of the web-gem variety as Schaffner showed why he was named the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year. He made a diving stop to his left and came up firing to first base where Alex Urlaub made a clean pick to barely get a hustling Tyler Bishop.
Lachenmayer would retire nine straight Mavericks to keep Omaha at bay, while Weber made it through a caree-best nine innings, allowing only four hits and striking out a career-high 10 batters.
Mabee replaced Weber to start the 10th inning and Schaffner jumped on the first pitch he saw, driving the ball in the right-center gap to make it to third and set up his game-winning run.
Pitcher of Record
Win – Danny Lachenmayer (3-3): 3.0 IP, 0 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts
Loss – Oliver Mabee (1-3): 0.0 IP, 1 hit, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts
Notable Notes
• Johnson threw seven scoreless innings for the second time this season at Tal Anderson Field. He struck out 10 and allowed only one hit in a regular season start on April 4 against the Mavericks
• Weber established new career-highs in innings pitched (9.0) and strikeouts with 10 in the no decision
• This was just the fourth 1-0 baseball game overall and first 1-0 extra-inning game in Summit League Championship history
• NDSU has now won four of five touranment games played in Omaha after winning the event played at Tal Anderson Field in 2021
• Schaffner's 10th-inning triple was his fourth three-base hit of the season
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Up Next
No. 2 seed North Dakota State will play top-seeded Oral Roberts in a winner's bracket game on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT, while No. 3 seed Omaha will take on No. 4 seed South Dakota State in a loser's bracket game at 12 p.m. CT.
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