Oral Roberts Loses on Walk-Off to SDSU

Originally Published: May 7, 2010 10:14 PM CDT

Andrew Topps
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

BROOKINGS, South Dakota -- South Dakota State scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 12-11 victory over Oral Roberts in a Summit League series opener Friday.

ORU third baseman Brett Sowers double-clutched before throwing home on the final play. Eric Cain was able to slide under catcher Bennett Pickar's tag to give the Jackrabbits (28-15 overall, 11-6 Summit) the late win.

The Golden Eagles (26-19, 13-4) lost leads of 3-0, 7-2 and 11-9.

Oral Roberts leaped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Nick Baligod hit an RBI single and Seth Furmanek followed with a two-run home run.

South Dakota State sliced ORU's lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Daniel Telford homered for the first run and the second run scored on a ground ball double play.

Sowers knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Colby Price followed two batters later with a three-run homer to cap a four-run fifth for the Golden Eagles.

The Jackrabbits answered back in the bottom of the inning. Zach Briggs led off the inning with a solo home run to make it 7-3. Billy Stitz doubled in a run and Telford knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly. Cain blooped a double to centerfield for two more runs as the Jacks pulled within 7-6.

Joel Blake capped the seven-run fifth with a two-run single for a 9-7 lead.

The Golden Eagles were not down for long coming right back with four runs in the top of the sixth. Chris Elder hit a three-run homer and Sowers added a solo home run to make it 11-9 ORU lead.

South Dakota State scored a run in the seventh and the game remained 11-10 until the bottom of the ninth.

Sean Johnson (2-2) started the ninth for the Golden Eagles by hitting lead-off batter Jesse Sawyer. John Lee moved Sawyer to second with a ground out, and Sawyer scored the tying run on a single by Cain.

Briggs moved Cain over to third with a single, setting up Beau Hannowski's game-winning grounder.

Trever Vermeulen (5-1) earned the win with 1.2 innings of shutout relief.

Johnson was tagged with the loss for ORU.

The teams are scheduled for a noon doubleheader on Saturday.