FARGO, N.D. - The North Dakota State baseball team remains tied for second place in The Summit League after a doubleheader split against Oral Roberts on Sunday, April 24, at Newman Outdoor Field.

North Dakota State (11-20, 8-4) won the opener 5-3 behind the pitching of starter Luke Anderson, who went 7 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.  Oral Roberts (19-16, 8-4) erupted for four runs in the fourth and six in the seventh to win the nightcap 11-4.

Chris Elder accounted for all three ORU runs in the opener with a solo homer in the fourth and a two-run shot in the eighth to chase Anderson, who allowed only one other runner to reach second base and upped his record to 2-1.

Kyle Kingsley gave up a two-out single before ending the eighth with a ground ball, and Jason Mattila pitched a scoreless ninth for his fourth save of the year.

NDSU went ahead for good in the fourth when Max Casper drew a one-out walk and scored on a two-out double by Zach Wentz to make it 2-1.  Nic Obey lifted a sacrifice fly in the fifth and the Bison stretched the lead to 5-1 in the sixth on an RBI single by Tyler Steen and a ground ball by Blake Turbak.

Wentz was 2-for-3 with two doubles to lead the Bison and Elder finished 2-for-3 for the Golden Eagles.  Joe Spring, the second of four ORU pitchers, allowed two runs in 1 2/3 innings and fell to 2-1 with the loss.

In the second game, ORU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Elder homered over the center field wall on the eighth pitch of the game.  It was his third round-tripper of the day and fifth of the season.

NDSU strung together four straight hits to take a 3-1 lead in the second.  Nick Colwell hit a one-out double, Max Casper singled to shortstop and Wes Satzinger hit a two-run double before scoring on Wentz's 40th career double, which ranks fourth in school history.

ORU started the fourth with a pair of singles before Bennett Pickar hit a one-out double to tie the game.  The Golden Eagles went ahead on Cam Schiller's two-out, two-run double with Brett Burch scoring a split-step ahead of the third out when Nick Baligod was thrown out going from first to third.

Baligod and Schiller started the six-run seventh with back-to-back doubles and ORU sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning to blow the game open.

Schiller finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and the Golden Eagles got two hits apiece from Baligod, Pickar, T.J. Bennett and Brandon King.  Casper was 2-for-3 to lead NDSU.

ORU's Alex Gonzalez allowed three runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts and upped his record to 4-5 with the win.  Closer Matt Rush, who entered a 5-3 game, got his sixth save of the year.

Wentz started and pitched four innings with five runs, seven hits, two walks and one strikeout in the loss.

North Dakota State is scheduled to host Dakota Wesleyan at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before hosting Centenary in a four-game Summit League series beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m.