Box Score PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The Omaha baseball team picked up its first win of the season on Sunday at the GCU Classic, rallying late for a 5-4 non-conference victory over North Dakota State at Brazell Stadium. With the win, the Mavericks improve to 1-2 (0-0 Summit League), while the Bison drop to 0-3 (0-0 Summit League).
Redshirt freshman
Ryan Cate led the way at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a run scored and two more driven in. Juniors
Cole Gruber,
Alex Schultz and
Alex Mortensen also finished with two hits, a run and an RBI apiece.
Junior
Gregg Gausden (1-0) earned the win in relief, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings while limiting NDSU to three hits with no walks. The loss went to Bison reliever Blake Stockert (0-1).
North Dakota State opened to a quick lead in the top of the first inning by a score of 2-0. Drew Fearing led off the game with a single to center and later scored on a double play, after which Mason Pierzchalski singled to right to plate Paul Funk.
In the fourth, Ben Petersen drove in JD Larimer with a double to left, giving the Bison a 3-0 advantage. Omaha notched its first run in the bottom half of the inning when Mortensen doubled to left with one out and later came in on an RBI single to third by Schultz.
NDSU then answered with another run in the fifth to push its lead to 4-1, as Funk double to left and drove in Fearing. But the Mavericks pulled within one in the bottom of the fifth with Cate's two-out, two-run double to right that scored Taylor and Gruber.
UNO made it 4-4 in the seventh, knotting the score on an RBI single to center by Mortensen to score Cate. Finally, in the eighth, the Mavericks scored the go-ahead run on Gruber's RBI single to center that plated Schultz and put Omaha up 5-4. Though the Bison put one runner on to start the ninth inning and sent him to second with a sacrifice bunt, the Mavericks shut down the threat with two groundouts and went on to earn their first win of the year.
Omaha returns to action on Friday, Feb. 20, facing Chicago State. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. (CT) in Atlanta, Ga.
