TULSA, Okla. – The North Dakota State baseball team fell short at Oral Roberts, 10-4, on Friday night at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
The Golden Eagles (23-12, 8-2 Summit) got off to a fast start pushing three runs across on four hits in the opening inning to create a 3-0 advantage after an RBI double from Holden Breeze. Oral Roberts kept its foot on the gas adding three more runs to stretch its lead to 6-0 following an RBI single from Jackson Loftin in the second inning.
The Bison (21-13, 9-4 Summit) responded with four runs in the third to cut the deficit down to two.
Brock Anderson sparked the frame with an RBI single before
Druw Sackett followed it up with a two RBI double into left.
Peter Brookshaw capped the big frame with a sacrifice fly into right field to score Sackett to make score 6-4. Oral Roberts answered back in the bottom half of the third with two runs after Caleb Denny used a sacrifice fly into center field to increase the edge to 9-4.
NDSU made one final comeback attempt in the seventh loading up the bases following a single off the bat of
Calen Schwabe and a couple walks, but all three were left stranded. The Golden Eagles went on to hold off the Bison the rest of way to take the first game of the series, 10-4.
NDSU totaled 10 hits as a team with six different players contributing at least one.
Charley Hesse led the way with a game-high three hits on four appearances with one run.
Max Loven (5-3) got the start and tossed one strikeout over 2.0 innings.
Wyatt Nelson went a career-high 5.0 innings on the mound with one strikeout, one walk and didn't allow a run.
NDSU and Oral Roberts will conclude the three-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m.
