SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Mother Nature is going to keep four Summit League teams off the diamond this weekend as series between St. Thomas and North Dakota State in Fargo and Omaha and South Dakota State in Brookings have been cancelled. That leaves all eyes on Oral Roberts and Northern Colorado as their series in Tulsa will be played as scheduled on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The Golden Eagles are unbeaten in six Summit contests, while Bears arrive in Tulsa with a 4-4 mark. All three games are slated for the Summit League Network.
This is the second straight week North Dakota State has fallen victim to harsh spring weather in the upper Midwest. Heading into this weekend, Omaha and SDSU were the only two Summit squads that were able to get their first nine games in without any postponements or cancellations.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
• Mother Nature has announced her presence in back-to-back weekends in Fargo, cancelling last weekend’s series with Oral Roberts and this upcoming weekend’s series with St. Thomas. These teams will play four-game series later in the season when NDSU travels to Tulsa and St. Paul to make up one of the games lost.
• Mother Nature also forced the Omaha-South Dakota State series this weekend that was scheduled for Brookings to be cancelled. Those teams will play a four-game set in Omaha later in the season as well.
• With those two cancellations, that leaves Oral Roberts and Northern Colorado as the only series left on the docket. The Golden Eagles and Bears will play single games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the Holiday Weekend.
• The Golden Eagles have won their first six Summit contests and are 14-12 overall after falling to (16/11) Oklahoma 4-0 Tuesday in a home game at Chapman Park. Designated hitter Will Edmunson went 2-for-4 to pace the ORU offense, who was limited to five hits and blanked for the third time this season.
• ORU shortstop Martell Davis is batting .417 in Summit play to lead the Golden Eagles at the dish during their perfect start to league play.
• Righthander Easton Teel continues top several pitching categories having allowed just one earned run over 13.2 innings in two Summit starts (0.66 ERA). He has logged 13 punchouts and opponents are hitting just .125 off of him in those starts.
• After taking game one of their series with South Dakota State, the Bears succumbed to a hot Jackrabbits’ offense that churned out 21 runs in game two and game three victories.
• UNC arrives in Tulsa with a 4-4 ledger in Summit action and a league-best .304 team batting average.
• The Bears are paced at the plate by Sam Pease, who is 10-for-20 (.500) in six starts, while outfielder Mason Griffin is hitting .382 and leads all Summit players in home runs (3) and RBI (14) during conference action.
• Pease hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the fourth inning of the Bears’ 9-6 win over SDSU and finished the series 3-for-9.
• The Jacks compiled 48 runs and combined for 42 RBI in the series win at Northern Colorado. Outfielder Luke Wroblewski hit .600 (9-for-15) last week, and went 6-for-12 with a home run, eight runs and nine RBI against the Bears.
• Reigning Summit League Player of the Year Henry Zipay has a league-best 16 hits for Omaha during the Mavericks’ 6-3 start to Summit play. He had season-highs in hits (4) and RBI (4) during the Mavericks’ 11-7 series-clinching win at St. Thomas.
• Righthander Sam Beck earned the Kwik Star weekly pitching accolade after allowing just one earned run on three hits over five innings in the victory. Beck is also hitting .286 on the season as a two-way player for the Mavericks.
• Tommies’ first baseman Joe Roder was on a tear at the plate over four games, earning his second career Kwik Star peak peformer nod. Roder belted three home runs and had multiple hits in all four games as he drove in 11. The senior had just nine RBI total in UST’s first 22 games.
• SDSU’s Nolan Grawe and Omaha’s Jackson Trout share the league-lead with 12 doubles a piece. Grawe leads all players with 15 extra-base hits and his 24 RBI are also tops in the league for all games. Trout shares third with 22 total RBI.
• Jackrabbit teammate Luke Luskey is second with 23 RBI and he paces all players with five dingers on the season.
• St. Thomas lefthander Owen Marsolek leads all hurlers with 40 total strikeouts and fanned seven in his latest quality start as he went the distance in a 15-3 seven-inning run rule victory over Omaha.
UPCOMING
Game | Stream/TV | Local Time
Thursday, April 2
Northern Colorado at Oral Roberts | SLN | 6 p.m. CT
St. Thomas at NDSU (Cancelled)
Omaha at SDSU (Cancelled)
Friday, April 3
Northern Colorado at Oral Roberts | SLN | 6 p.m. CT
St. Thomas at NDSU (Cancelled)
Omaha at SDSU (Cancelled)
Saturday, April 4
Northern Colorado at Oral Roberts | SLN | 2 p.m. CT
St. Thomas at NDSU (Postponed)
Omaha at SDSU (Postponed)
Tuesday, April 7
Northern State at SDSU | SLN | 3 p.m. CT
Oral Roberts at Oklahoma State | EPSN+ | 6 p.m. CT
Wednesday, April 8
Northern Colorado at Air Force | MWN | 4 p.m. CT
NDSU at Creighton | ESPN+ | 6 p.m. CT
SDSU at Minnesota | B1G+ | 6 p.m. CT
Key: B1G+ (Big Ten Plus); ESPN+ (ESPN Plus); MWN (Mountain West Network); SEC+ (SEC Network Plus); SLN (Summit League Network).
RESULTS
Friday, March 27
Northern Colorado 9, SDSU 6
Oral Roberts at NDSU (Cancelled)
Saturday, March 28
Omaha 12, St. Thomas 2 (8)
St. Thomas 15, Omaha 3 (7)
SDSU 21, Northern Colorado 10
Oral Roberts at NDSU (Cancelled)
Sunday, March 29
SDSU 21, Northern Colorado 2 (7)
Omaha 11, St. Thomas 7
Oral Roberts at NDSU (Postponed)
Tuesday, March 31
Air Force 18, Northern Colorado 6 (7)
(16/11) Oklahoma 4, Oral Roberts 0
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