Diamond Jacks: South Dakota State baseball headed back to NCAA tournament
· Yahoo Sports
May 24—MINNEAPOLIS — They have a losing record.
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Their team ERA entering the conference tournament was well over 7.00.
They went 0-6 against league champion Oral Roberts in the regular season.
None of that matters now.
The South Dakota State baseball team is going to the NCAA tournament, having earned the Summit League's automatic bid by winning the conference tournament.
The Jackrabbits entered Saturday's championship round with a 2-0 record in the tournament, meaning Oral Roberts would need to beat them twice. They got them once, beating SDSU 4-1 in the opener at Siebert Field, but the Jacks bounced back to take the winner-take-all championship, outlasting the Golden Eagles 9-6.
It's SDSU's second Summit League title and first since 2013. That win 13 years ago was certainly a major moment for Jackrabbit baseball, punching their first-ever ticket to the Division I tournament. But this one's bigger. In 2013, Oral Roberts wasn't in the Summit League. They had briefly left their longtime home for the Southland Conference, only to return soon after and resume their utter dominance of Summit League baseball.
The Jacks were 0-19 against the Golden Eagles in Summit League tournament play coming into this year's tournament. As the 4-seed in a four-team tournament, there was little reason to think this year would be any different. But behind a suddenly salty pitching staff, clutch hitting and reliable glove work, the Jacks have finally slayed the Eagle, and punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament the hard way.
They'll find out their opponent and destination on Monday. The NCAA Selection Show is set for 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
The Jacks are 24-31. Their sixth straight season with a losing record (though they've finished above .500 in conference play in five of eight Summit League seasons under coach Rob Bishop).
Yes, their were signs of a contending team all spring, but you had to look hard to see it. This weekend that team shined through.
"We didn't really have any pressure at all but if you look back at our entire season, we've had our share of ups and downs," said the Jacks' Nic Werk. "It just shows the talent we have, the grit we have, and finally all the pitching and hitting all came together and showed how good this team can be."
Certainly the Jacks would've liked to avoid the drama and win the first game on Saturday, but ORU's Jackson Farrell had other ideas, limiting the Jacks to a run on three hits in 6.2 innings in the Eagles' 4-1 win.
Drew McDowell was solid on the mound for SDSU, allowing one earned run on three hits in seven innings, but it wasn't enough to outduel Farrell. Cooper Combs had a two-run single in the first inning to give ORU an early 2-0 lead and that was enough.
That left one game for a trip to the Big Dance, and with both teams running low on pitching, the Jacks emerged victorious in a back-and-forth affair.
The Eagles scored twice in the top of the first but the Jacks answered with two of their own on back-to-back homers by Nolan Grawe and Nate Wachter. Jacks starter Sam Novotny was chased in the fourth having allowed four runs in 3.2 innings, and Bishop turned to ace reliever Ty Madison, who came through again.
The senior from Omaha allowed one earned run in 5.1 innings, his third outing of the tournament. For the weekend Madison worked 10 innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts. He was named tournament MVP.
"I'm so happy for Ty Madison," Bishop said. "That guy has just gutted it out all year and been so big for us. It was great to have that guy standing on the mound."
With the score tied 5-5 in the fifth, Werk delivered a two-run double to put the Jacks in front 7-5, a lead they would not relinquish. They added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Carter Taylor and an RBI double by Keagen Jirschele, and Madison would finish the outing with three straight scoreless innings.
Luke Jones went 4-for-4 for the Jacks, while Wachter, Jirschele and Werk all had two hits, with Werk adding a solo homer to his big double.
Werk, Wachter, Madison, Jones, Owen Siegert and Kaden Rylance all made the all-tournament team.
"I really liked our mindset today," Bishop said. "I thought we were just playing baseball and being ourselves. The one thing about this group — we don't always play well but we always play hard. We're a really resilient group of guys. We came into this week saying, hey, we're the 4-seed, there's no pressure on us. Let's just go play baseball."