The North Dakota State Bison Baseball team traveled back down to Omaha Tuesday night to play the second game of the season against Creighton.
Jake Schaffner would start the night off right for the Bison with a base hit up the middle, before getting picked off at second base to make the third out of the first inning. Creighton would also get their first hitter on base to start the night after Tate Gillen lead off the bottom of the first with a double. Gillen would advance to third base via a sacrifice bunt just one batter later. Bison starter, Leland Wilson would get a strikeout before bouncing a pitch, allowing for Gillen to cross home plate on a wild pitch to bring Creighton a 1-0 lead. Matt Sargeant would make his 5 th appearance of the year when he came in to start the bottom of the second inning on the mound for NDSU. Sargeant would send Creighton down in order to keep the deficit at one, after two innings played.
After blanking the Bison in the top of the third inning, the Blue Jays would get their second run of the night after Matt Scherman drove a 3-2 pitch into center field, scoring Kyle Hess. NDSU would continue their pitching theme for the night in the fourth inning bringing on another reliever in Austin Bergum. Bergum would get hit hard during his outing, giving up a lead-off triple to Ben North. North would score just two batters later, when Teddy Deters scolded a ground ball to the first basemen Luke Shannahan. Shannahan came home on the play, beating North by a mile, but after a quick umpire meeting, North was ruled safe on a nice swim move. Creighton would add on one more run in the inning, when Deters scored on a groundout to the shortstop.
North Dakota State would finally have a threat in the top of the fifth inning, getting back-to-back two out walks from Blake Timmons and Bennet Freiter. Tommy Simon wasn’t able to capitalize on the threat, flying out to the right fielder to end NDSU’s scoring opportunity. Reese Ligtenberg would come on in relief for the Bison in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ligtenberg would get the first two hitters out, before giving up a walk to Nolan Sailors. Sailors would steal second base before being brought home by another Ben North single. North would be picked off at first base to end the inning, but not before increasing the Blue Jay lead to five.
The Bison would finally crack the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning after Jake Schaffner and Colten Becker reached base to start the inning. Schaffner would eventually be brought home with one out, via a Sam Canton single. NDSU wasn’t able to capitalize more in the inning, leaving the bases loaded after a Blake Timmons strikeout. The Bison would once again load the bases in the top of the seventh inning with one out. Sam Canton would collect his second RBI of the evening, getting hit by the first pitch of his at bat. Dante Smith would strike out on a full count to leave the bases loaded again for the Bison. Creighton would lead 5-2 through six and a half innings.
The deficit would remain the same once the top of the ninth inning rolled along. The Bison weren’t able to muster any offense in the top of the ninth, going down 1-2-3, to end the frustrating evening. Creighton would emerge victorious in this one, with a final score of 5-2. The loss drops the Bison to 13-23 overall for the season. NDSU outhit Creighton Tuesday night 7-6, but just couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position.
Jake Schaffner picked up three singles on Tuesday, also collecting a stolen base. Sam Canton registered one hit but drove in both of the runs NDSU scored. Leland Wilson was given the loss after pitching just one inning, giving up one run.
North Dakota State will be off until Friday, coming home to host the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits, for a three-game series, featuring a Friday double header. The first game is set for 11 a.m. first pitch, following a 2 p.m. start for the second game.
*This article was written by Flag Family Media Intern Cayden Lloyd*
