BROOKINGS, S.D. - Despite falling 14-9 at South Dakota State in the regular season finale, the Mavericks will still enter the Summit League Championship as the No. 1 seed after Northern Colorado defeated North Dakota State later in the afternoon. Since St. Thomas, the Regular Season Champions, is still ineligible for postseason play, the Mavericks move into their spot in the tournament and will now host next year's tournament as well.
Omaha wraps up the regular season at 18-30-1 with a 16-13-1 conference record, tying them with St. Thomas for the most wins in league play. As for the Jackrabbits, their season concludes with a 20-29 overall record and 11-17 conference record as they miss qualifying for the tournament.
The Summit League Tournament bracket is now set, with Omaha the No. 1 seed, followed by North Dakota State at No. 2, Oral Roberts at No. 3, and Northern Colorado at No. 4.
Innings 1-3
In a complete reversal of the first two games of the series, the Mavericks found themselves trailing 4-0 through the first three innings. Omaha got a man on in all three innings, but a pair of inning-ending double plays cut things short in the first two.
Following an uneven start,
Charlie Bell tosses a 1-2-3 inning in the third, striking out his fourth and fifth batters in the process.
Innings 4-6
For the third game in a row,
Jackson Trout drove in Omaha's first run, this time with an RBI single in the fourth.
Haiden Hunt proceeded to then cut SDSU's lead in half with a sac fly. The Jackrabbits, though, would get both runs right back in the bottom of the inning on a fielder's choice and a sacrifice, before a Dawson Perry home run in the fifth grew SDSU's lead to 7-2.
In the top of the sixth, the Mavericks' bats suddenly got hot as the first seven batters all reached base safely en route to taking an 8-7 lead. After a leadoff single from Trout, Hunt tripled him home for the first run of the inning. Then,
Cardel Dick snuck one under the third baseman's glove to bring in Hunt, before
Matt Goetzmann delivered the biggest hit yet with a stand-up bases-clearing triple to make it 7-7. He would then come around to score on a wild pitch to give Omaha its first lead of the day.
The lead was short lived, however, as the Jackrabbits responded with five runs in the bottom of the sixth, including a grand slam from Luke Luskey for his second home run and seventh RBI of the afternoon.
Innings 7-9
Now down 12-8, the Mavericks had a huge opportunity to retake the lead in the top of the seventh after drawing three-straight walks to start the inning, but ultimately they were only able to score a single run on an RBI fielder's choice from
Henry Zipay.
The Jackrabbits got two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it a five-run game. A late two-run homer from
Henry Zipay in the ninth cut the deficit back to three, but that was all the Mavericks would get.
Inside the Box Score
Omaha has now scored at least 10 runs in five consecutive games against SDSU.
Hunt has extended his hitting streak to five games since returning to the starting lineup. He and Trout each totaled seven RBIs this series to lead the team, followed by Goetzmann with six.
Up Next
With the four-team tournament set, the Mavericks will return to action in Tulsa, Oklahoma next Wednesday at 12 p.m. vs. Northern Colorado in the opening game of the championships.
