ORU Athletics
OMAHA, Neb. – On Thursday afternoon, the Oral Roberts baseball program advanced to the semifinals of the Summit League Championships with a 7-1 win over South Dakota State.
Matt Gaskins dominated on the mound from start to finish, throwing a four-hit complete game. Through nine innings of work, Gaskins did not allow a walk while striking out six Jackrabbit hitters.
Back-to-back doubles from Jake McMurray and Ryan Cash got the Golden Eagles rolling in the first inning, before Blake Hallsingled through the left side to make it a 2-0 ballgame.
Anthony Martinez pushed the ORU lead to three in the second inning when he launched his third home run of the season to left field.
South Dakota State got their lone run of the ballgame in the fourth inning when an unearned run came around to score.
A pair of runs in the fifth inning pushed the ORU lead back to four runs. The Golden Eagles used some small ball to push those runs across, scoring on a sacrifice fly from McMurray and a ground out by Cash.
Alec Jones plated runs in the sixth and eighth innings to bring ORU’s lead to six. In the sixth innings, Jones doubled off the third base bag and scored Hall from second. Jones plated Hall again in the eighth with a sacrifice fly to right field.
Inside the Box Score
- ORU is now 14-0 all-time against South Dakota State in Summit League Tournament games.
- The Golden Eagles are now 21-0 all-time in opening round action of the Summit League Tournament.
- Seven of the nine Golden Eagle hits went for extra bases.
- ORU matched their single-game high with five doubles on the afternoon.
- Blake Hall finished just a home run short of the cycle.
- Alec Jones and Hall both tallied multi-hit games on Thursday.
- Jones has now tallied five multi-hit games in his last seven contests.
- ORU scored in five of the eight innings in which they hit.
- Thursday’s game was Gaskins’ second nine-inning complete game of his career and third total complete game.
- Gaskins did not walk in the contest.
Up Next
The Golden Eagles will square off with the winner of North Dakota State and Omaha in the semifinal game tomorrow afternoon. First pitch from Tal Anderson Field will take place at 3 pm