North Dakota State, Southern Utah Split Baseball Doubleheader

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota State and Southern Utah split a Summit League baseball doubleheader Saturday, May 5, with NDSU winning the opener 4-1 and SUU taking the second game 4-2 at Newman Outdoor Field.

NDSU's David Ernst (4-0) pitched seven innings of two-hit ball with three strikeouts and three walks, and Kyle Kingsley struck out four of the six men he faced for his fourth save of the year in Game 1.

SUU's Brad Royer drove in three runs in Game 2, including back-to-back home runs with Bo Cuthbertson for a 3-0 lead in the third inning. Lefty Justin Neubauer (6-3) held the Bison to six hits and walked none.

Max Casper and Tim Colwell each had RBI singles in the opener for NDSU (35-12, 11-4), Tyler Steen scored two runs including one on a wild pitch, and Nick Anderson hit a sacrifice fly to score Zach Wentz.

Southern Utah (14-28, 8-6) got its only run in the fourth when Cuthbertson drew a one-out walk, stole second with two outs, and scored on Justin Neuhart's single to left field.

Bison starter Luke Anderson struck out four of the first seven men he faced before Taggart Lunceford singled through the right side, Royer homered inside the foul pole in left, and Cuthbertson homered to right over a leaping Kyle Kleinendorst.

NDSU got two runs back in the sixth thanks to two SUU errors.  Colwell singled and scored on a would-be inning-ending ground ball, and Wes Satzinger had a two-out single before scoring on Ben Herauf's pinch-hit single.

DJ Andrade hit a leadoff single, moved up on a sac bunt and scored on Royer's single up the middle to give the Thunderbirds a 4-2 lead in the seventh.  NDSU got a two-out single from Colwell but couldn't score.

The four-game series concludes with a single nine-inning game at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 6.