Box Score EMERSON, Ga. -- The Omaha baseball team opened a neutral-site weekend series with Chicago State on Friday, defeating Chicago State 6-1 at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint. The win was the first victory by any NCAA team at the facility.
Junior right-hander
Tyler Fox (1-1) recorded his first win of the season, limiting Chicago State to just three singles over 5.0 scoreless innings. The Thornton, Colo., native struck out one and walked four. Sophomore righty
Brett Sasse also had a strong performance on the mound, holding the Cougars to one hit with four strikeouts in 3.0 innings of middle relief. The loss went to Eric Hall (0-2), who surrendered three runs on five hits and five walks over 6.2 innings.
Junior
Cole Gruber led the Mavericks at the plate, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs driven in. Senior
Justin Threlkeld also scored twice, and juniors
Alex Schultz and
Collin Leif each had a hit, a run scored and two RBI.
Omaha piled on its offense in bunches, starting with three runs on a pair of hits in the top of the second inning. Threlkeld drew a leadoff walk and freshman
Adam Caniglia was hit by a pitch to put two runners on, followed by a two-run triple to right center by Leif to make it 2-0. Gruber followed immediately with a single up the middle to push the third run across, giving UNO a quick and efficient 3-0 lead.
The Mavericks added another trio of runs in the eighth inning on one hit. Junior
Alex Mortensen and Threlkeld led off the inning with consecutive walks, and both scored on Schultz's one-out double to right center. After a Cougar pitching change, the Mavericks drew two more consecutive walks to load the bases for Gruber, whose RBI groundout plated Schultz to bring the score to 6-0.
CSU had managed just four singles over the first eight innings, but the Cougars mustered one run on one hit in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Robert Swenson doubled to left to drive in David Wright, leaving the final tally at 6-1.
With the win, the Mavericks improve to 2-2 (0-0 Summit League) this season, while the Cougars drop to 0-4 (0-0 WAC).
Omaha continues the series with Chicago State on Saturday, Feb. 21, with first pitch at 11 a.m. (CT).
