College Baseball: Oral Roberts Downs NDSU 9-3

Oral Roberts pounded out 15 hits to beat North Dakota State 9-3

FARGO, N.D. (NDSU Athletics) — Cal Hernandez went 4-for-4 at the plate as Oral Roberts pounded out 15 hits to beat North Dakota State 9-3 in Summit League baseball Saturday, May 5, at Newman Outdoor Field.

Hernandez doubled, tripled and scored three runs for ORU while Nick Roark and Harrison Smith each homered to help lift the Golden Eagles (29-15, 18-5 Summit) to their eighth consecutive victory.

Left fielder Logan Busch was 3-for-4 with a triple, RBI and run scored for North Dakota State (18-21, 9-12 Summit). Starting pitcher Blake Stockert dropped to 4-3 with the loss allowing five earned runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in five innings.

ORU starter Miguel Ausua pitched 7 2/3 innings allowing three runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and no walks to improve to 8-1 on the year. Reliever Brady Womacks fanned four of the five batters he faced.

Smith’s two-run homer put ORU ahead 5-0 in the fourth inning before NDSU got on the board with Carter Thompson‘s double to the wall in left field plating Busch after a two-out single.

Oral Roberts tacked on single runs in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings to keep the Bison out of reach.

Mason Pierzchalski drove in Bennett Hostetler after a leadoff double in the eighth and Busch’s RBI triple made it 8-3.

North Dakota State and Oral Roberts are scheduled to close out the three-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 6.