North Dakota State Rallies Late to Beat Oakland in 11 Innings, 3-2

Thursday, May 24

Tulsa, Okla.

3:30 PM

North Dakota State

39-18

Oakland

24-30

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
North Dakota State	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	11	1
Oakland	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	5

North Dakota State Rallies Late to Beat Oakland in 11 Innings, 3-2

5/25/2012 12:20:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

TULSA, Okla. - Max Casper hit an RBI single in the 11th inning and Kyle Kingsley got the final three outs in order to give No. 3 seed North Dakota State a 3-2 win over No. 2 seed Oakland in the first round of the Summit League baseball tournament Thursday, May 24.

NDSU's Nick Anderson tied the game 2-2 with a homer on the first pitch of the ninth inning after Bison reliever Jake Heck used five pitches to escape a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the bottom of the eighth with a ground ball and a double play.

The Bison (39-18) got on the board in the first inning when Tim Colwell hit a leadoff single and scored three batters later on Wes Satzinger's safety squeeze bunt, but Oakland (24-30) held the momentum most of the game thanks to some timely defense.

OU threw out three NDSU runners at the plate, with right fielder John Estes and center fielder Tim Ryan gunning down Zach Wentz to end the first and sixth innings, respectively. First baseman Aaron Cieslak got Colwell in the 10th on Satzinger's squeeze bunt.

The Golden Grizzlies tied the game 1-1 in the fifth when John Estes singled and scored on Tim Ryan's two-out single to center field, and OU went ahead 2-1 in the sixth when Cieslak drew a one-out walk and scored two batters later on Spencer Marentette's single.

Oakland threatened to break the game open in the eighth when Jake Morton and Mike Carson hit back-to-back singles and Cieslak drew an intentional walk to load the bases and end NDSU starter John Straka's day.

Heck got a first-pitch ground ball to Casper, who was playing in at shortstop and cut down Morton at the plate. Marentette grounded back to Heck to start a 1-2-3 double play after it appeared Carson was breaking from third for a suicide squeeze.

Kingsley, the NDSU closer, pitched three innings with three strikeouts, one hit and one walk and improved to 6-3 with the victory. Straka allowed seven hits, four walks and struck out three in the no-decision.

Colwell was 4-for-6, Kyle Kleinendorst was 3-for-4, and the Bison put down seven sacrifice bunts in the game including two by Nick Colwell and three by Satzinger.

Oakland starter Jeff Gorecki pitched nine innings with seven hits, two walks and no strikeouts. OU closer Russell Luxton gave up four hits in two innings and dropped to 3-5 with the loss.

North Dakota State advanced to play host and No. 1 seed Oral Roberts (34-22) at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 25, in the second round of the double-elimination tournament. ORU beat No. 4 seed Southern Utah 2-1.