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OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha baseball team clinched a share of the 2013 Summit League regular-season title on Thursday, shutting out South Dakota State, 6-0, at the Ballpark at Boys Town.

By assuring itself of at least a share of the league's regular season title with SDSU, the baseball program locked up the first conference championship of any UNO team in Division I competition. In their first season as a member of the Summit League – and their second year as a Division I team – the Mavericks were picked last in the preseason coaches' poll before opening league play with an 8-0 start and maintaining first place in the standings for the remainder of the season.

With three games left in the UNO-SDSU weekend series, Omaha now needs just one more win over the Jackrabbits to win the regular-season championship outright.

Two Omaha pitchers combined to shut out the Jackrabbits, led by freshman starter Tyler Fox (6-2). The Thornton, Colo., native threw 7.0 scoreless innings, limiting South Dakota State to three singles with five strikeouts on the day. Senior Cory Buckley entered the game in relief in the eighth inning, holding SDSU to one single with a pair of strikeouts.

The loss went to SDSU starter Layne Somsen (4-4), who allowed five runs (four earned) off 10 hits over 5.0 innings of work. Somsen struck out five and issued no walks.

As a team, UNO strung together 13 hits for the afternoon, led by three apiece from junior Brett Bass and redshirt freshman Clayton Taylor. Bass went 3-for-4 with a run scored, while Taylor finished 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Buckley was 2-for-4 with a run, and freshman Alex Schultz was 2-for-4, scored once and drove in another run. Senior Ryan Keele also played a major role, driving in three runs in the win.

South Dakota State totaled just four singles, with one each from Eric Danforth, Nick Andrews, Paul Jacobson and Aaron Machbitz.

Omaha jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, as Taylor led off with a single through the left side and later scored on Keele's RBI single through the right side. The Mavericks added another run in the third when Buckley led off with a double and advanced to third on an error, then scored on an RBI groundout from Keele that made it 2-0.

UNO plated two more runs with four hits in the fourth inning. Bass came in on an RBI double to center by Schultz, and two batters later, Taylor singled in Schultz to extend the lead to 4-0. In the fifth, the Mavericks extended their margin to five runs, with senior Tyler Splichal coming in with a sacrifice bunt from junior Caleb Palensky. The final notch came in the eighth, as a pinch-hitting Connor McCrite delivered a leadoff double down the left field line and scored on Keele's sacrifice fly to center, pushing the final score to 6-0.

With the win, the Mavericks improved to 25-21 (18-5 Summit League), while the Jackrabbits dropped to 30-19 (15-8 Summit League).

Omaha returns to action on Friday, May 17, hosting South Dakota State for a 1 p.m. doubleheader at the Ballpark at Boys Town. Live stats will be available for both games on OMavs.com, and live audio will be available for game two of the afternoon.