FARGO, N.D. (SUMMIT) – Third-seeded South Dakota State’s Nic Nelson belted three home runs to lead the Jackrabbits to a 17-4 victory over second-seeded North Dakota State in game two of the Summit League Baseball Championship Wednesday at Newman Outdoor Field.

Nelson’s trio of long balls and his eight RBI tied tournament single-game records as SDSU never trailed in a contest they outscored the Bison by 13 but outhit the tournament hosts 14-13.

Nelson hit two-run homers in the first, sixth and eighth innings and added a two-run single in the sixth. His first home run barely snuck inside the leftfield foul pole and came with two outs in the first with the Jackrabbits facing the League’s ERA leader and all-league first teamer Cade Feeney.

SDSU built a 9-0 lead off the Bison righthander by adding six runs in the fourth. Feeney had only yielded 12 total runs in seven starts against League opponents during the regular season, but was touched up for seven earned runs and nine total in the loss.  

NDSU would push across four runs in the fifth to make it a 9-4 contest, but Nelson got half of those runs right back in the top of the sixth with his second tater of the contest. 

The Jackrabbits put up their second six-run frame of the game in the seventh when Nelson capped the scoring with his third long ball. It marked the second time in the last seven games that Nelson homered three times in a game and pushed his season total to 16.

Reece Anderson, Dawson Parry and Jess Bellows added two hits a piece for the Jackrabbits as they never trailed.

Reece Arbogast started for the Jackrabbits, but did not factor in the decision as he held NDSU scoreless through four innings before the Bison broke through with those four runs in the fifth.

Will Busch went 3-for-4 to lead NDSU’s 13-hit attack as he doubled twice and had an RBI single to his credit.

Pitcher of Record
Win – Dylan Driessen (5-4): 1.1 IP, 0 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walks, 1 strikeout
Loss – Cade Feeney (6-5): 4.0 IP, 9 hits, 7 earned runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts

Notable Notes
• Nelson’s three home runs tied the Summit League Tournament single-game record set by J.J. Swiatkowski and Mark Pedersen of Valparaiso in the same game vs. Western Illinois in the 2020 event.
• Nelson’s eight RBI also tied the single-game tournament record set by three different players with the last time coming by Oral Roberts’ Eric Vandeventer vs. Oakland in 2019.
• Nelson’s second two-run homer of the game was SDSU’s 85th of the season, which broke the Jackrabbits’ single-season record. He pushed that to 86 with his third home run of the game.
• Terrell Huggins’ fifth-inning double was NDSU’s 114th of the season, which set a single-season program record. 
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Up Next
NDSU will take on Omaha in the tournament’s first elimination game at 12:05 p.m. CT Thursday, while SDSU will face top-seeded Oral Roberts in a winner’s bracket game at 6:05 p.m. CT.