SDSU baseball shuts down the Mavericks, 5-0

OMAHA, Neb. (SDSU) — Drew McDowell pitched six no-hit innings and Ty Madison completed the shutout bid with three scoreless frames as South Dakota State locked up a berth in next week’s Summit League Baseball Championship with a 5-0 victory over Omaha Wednesday night at Tal Anderson Field. The Jackrabbits improved to 21-27 overall and evened their Summit League record at 12-12 with their fifth win in their last seven conference games.

Omaha dropped to 18-24 overall and 13-11 in league play. SDSU, which overtook Northern Colorado for third place in the league standings, was designated as the home team due to Wednesday’s game being a makeup game from a series scheduled for early April in Brookings that was canceled due to inclement weather. McDowell, who threw the first six innings as part of a combined no-hitter against Buena Vista in his last outing on April 28, ran his hitless innings streak to 12 Wednesday night.

The right-hander from Billings, Montana, matched a career high with seven strikeouts while walking three and hitting two batters en route to his team-leading fourth win of the season. Omaha finally broke into the hit column in the top of the seventh with a pair of two-out singles by Edoardo Cornelli and Eli Hoerner off Madison, but the SDSU reliever induced a groundout for the final out of the seventh and allowed only one more baserunner the rest of the way with a strikeout to secure his first save of the season. SDSU wasted little time to get on the board, scoring three batters into the game.

Center fielder Owen Siegert , who returned from injury to make his first appearance since late March, opened the bottom of the first inning with a single, moved to second on a walk to Nolan Grawe and scored on a base hit by Nate Wachter . Wachter also had a hand in the Jackrabbits scoring two runs in each of the third and sixth innings. A native of nearby Blair, Nebraska, Wachter led off the third inning with a single and later scored on a wild pitch.