South Dakota State at Omaha
OMAHA (Interstat) — Hayden Lewis homered and drove in four runs, and Henry Zipay added four RBIs as Omaha rallied past South Dakota State 13-8 on Saturday in a Summit League game.
The Mavericks, who improved to 21-24 overall and won their third straight in the series, erased a 3-0 deficit with a three-run second inning and then took control with a six-run sixth. Lewis’ three-run home run in the second tied the game at 3-all after South Dakota State had taken an early lead.
South Dakota State (17-30) scored three runs in the top of the fifth to go ahead 6-3, keyed by Nolan Grawe’s RBI triple and a run-scoring single from Nate Wachter. But Omaha answered immediately.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mavericks sent 11 batters to the plate. Tyler Bishop singled and scored on Lewis’ RBI single to cut the lead to 6-4. After a walk and a wild pitch, Brody Sexton’s groundout scored Lewis to make it 6-5. Zipay then delivered a two-run single up the middle to give Omaha a 7-6 lead. The Mavericks added two more runs on a walk to Jackson Trout, a bases-loaded walk to Bishop and a bases-loaded walk to Sam Beck, making it 9-6.
Omaha extended its lead to 12-6 in the seventh. After walks to Brody Sexton and Chase Diggins, Zipay singled for two more RBIs. Jackson Trout followed with a sacrifice fly to center.
The Jackrabbits attempted a comeback in the ninth. With none out, Nate Wachter singled, and after two outs, Luke Evenson singled. Luke Wroblewski reached on a fielding error by the second baseman to load the bases. Keagen Jirschele then homered down the left-field line, a grand slam that cut the deficit to 13-10. But Grant Sorensen struck out to end the game.
Jirschele finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs and a home run. Grawe went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a triple for South Dakota State. Omaha’s Hayden Lewis was 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and four RBIs. Zipay went 2-for-5 with four RBIs.
Omaha starter Michael Sall pitched four innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out three. South Dakota State starter Kaden Rylance went 4 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs on three hits and striking out three.
The Jackrabbits out-hit Omaha 12-11 but committed two errors that led to two unearned runs. Omaha’s bullpen combined for five innings of relief, with Brayden Curtis, Tanner Hosick, Oliver Mabee, Cameron Teinert and Chris Coy holding South Dakota State to two earned runs over the final five frames.
The game marked the fourth meeting between the two teams in five days. Omaha took two of three in the regular-season series, including wins Thursday and Friday by scores of 10-7 and 11-3, while South Dakota State won Wednesday 5-0.
Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of South Dakota State 6, Omaha 5, and Interstat’s ELO system gave Omaha a 57.10 percent probability to win.