It took Omaha's offense 14 innings to break through in its weekend series against North Dakota State. And when the runs finally came, the Mavericks piled them on in bunches in a 10-2 win at Tal Anderson Field.
But when the nightcap of the twin bill started, the offensive woes returned. And Omaha (16-17) suffered its second shutout defeat in as many days, 2-0, and dropped a Summit League series for the first time.
The Bison (21-11) scored only two earned runs off of the three Maverick starters over the weekend, yet they won a road series in which they played as the home team after the games were moved from Fargo, N.D., due to cold weather. NDSU moved to 9-3 in league play while Omaha slipped to 7-5 in the Summit.
"We've been on the other side of that for a couple of weekends the past month," Mavericks coach
Evan Porter said. "That's kind of how we're playing baseball right now. We have to all the little things right to win a series, and we didn't do that in the third game or first game of this series. And it cost us."
Omaha trailed 1-0 early in Saturday's opener after the Bison got an unearned run in the first inning. It eventually broke out, offensively, in the fifth, when four straight batters drove in a run.
Mike Boeve tied the score with an RBI single, then
Eduardo Rosario drove him in with a double.
Drew Hmielewski followed with a run-scoring single of his own before
Eddie Satisky made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly.
The Mavericks tacked on six more runs over the next three innings to pull away.
Harrison Denk and Rosario paced seven Omaha players with multi-hit games with three hits apiece. Rosario drove in runs in three consecutive plate appearances to back Bell (4-3), who didn't allow an earned run in five innings.
Omaha, however, couldn't carry the offensive momentum over to the second game, even though it managed seven hits against NDSU starter Evan Sankey. It left runners on base in four of the first seven innings. In the fourth, Omaha had two men on with no outs, yet it couldn't scratch a run across.
North Dakota State plated the winning run with two outs in the seventh after Cadyn Schwabe stole second base when he was seemingly picked off. The Bison added a Brock Anderson homer in the eighth.
"Until we can get our offense rolling a little bit or until we can get some timely hitting, our margin for error is zero," Porter said. "We made a few mistakes in the second game today, and it ended up being one run and that's all they needed.
"Getting guys to third base with less than two outs, we didn't do that today. We didn't get a bunt down. We didn't execute on a hit and run. We didn't cover a base there in the seventh inning. When you're not getting the timely hitting, that's going to hurt you. And it'll be the difference in the ball game, like we saw today."
Mark Timmins (2-2) scattered five hits over seven innings, yet he suffered the loss.
NDSU's Jake Drew (2-0) got the win with 2.1 innings of hitless relief.
The Bison scored only four earned runs in three games, but they won twice.
"We've got to credit their pitchers, too," Porter said. "They did a great job, just like ours did."
