Jackrabbit's grand slam, one of team's three homers, breaks tie

By Roger Toland, Journal staff | Sunday, April 22, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

The baseball was flying out of Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday, and the shortest player on the field clubbed a grand slam homer in the seventh to lead South Dakota State to a 14-9 victory over Northern Colorado.

Tony Martin, a 5-foot-5 sophomore from Omaha, cracked his third homer of the season to spark SDSU's six-run inning.

With the score knotted at 8-8, Martin hit a Jason Banks fastball 400 feet to dead center.

"I was concentrating on seeing the ball and driving in some runs," Martin said. "The fastball was right down the pipe. I was looking away, but took advantage of his mistake. I'm not a home run hitter, so I just ran around the bases."

"The ball was flying out of the park," SDSU coach Reggie Christiansen said.

UNC had four homers and SDSU three. The two teams wrap up a three-game series at 1 p.m. today at Fitzgerald Stadium.

Nick Adams, who went 4-for-5 for the day, saw only two pitches from 6-foot-7 reliever Eric Skufca in the seventh, but singled in the tying run.

"I haven't seem him (Skufca) before so I was just trying to get the barrel of the bat on the ball," Adams said. "I had to protect against the inside fastball and didn't want to ground into a double play with the tying run on second. When I got down 0-1, I thought he would come back with a slider or off-speed pitch so I sat back on it and hit it through the hole."

Rapid City's Kevin Morsching picked up the victory in relief, his fourth in five decisions, but was chased in the seventh when the Bears had home runs from John Ray and Chad Murray.

"We've had a hard time closing out games," Christiansen said. "This was a good experience for (reliever Isaac) Johnson."

Johnson tossed the last two innings, giving up a ninth-inning run.

Anthony Garcia's leadoff homer gave UNC a 1-0 advantage in the first inning, but the Jackrabbits came back with two of their own in the bottom of the frame on Tyson Fisher's first round-tripper of the season.

Cal Lewis slicing double to the left-field corner gave the Jacks two more runs in the third before the Bears put up four runs in the fifth, three coming on Grady Gorman's homer.

SDSU, now 19-14, got two back in the sixth on Adams' double to center and Craig Parry's controversial home run off the scoreboard.

After Bears' coach Kevin Smallcomb complained to all three officials, they eventually huddled the called Parry's blast a home run.

"I thought it hit the scoreboard, but I wanted to make sure when I got to second" said Parry. "When they threw the ball in, Coach Christiansen was waving me in."

SDSU shoved across a pair of insurance runs in the eighth on Tim Hanigan's single, a passed ball and Jake Rogers' double and Fisher's sacrifice fly.

"Rogers' hit in the eighth was as big as any of them," said Christiansen. "It gave us some insurance."

Rogers, Korby Mintken, Cal Lewis and Hanigan each added a pair of hits for SDSU, while Ray and Adam Symons had three apiece for the Bears.

Rapid City freshman Mike Robinson has been slated to start on the mound for Rapid City today.

"This will be a big start for Mike in front of the home crowd," said Christiansen. "The plan is for him to be a starter so this will be a good test."

"This is a big deal for me," agreed Robinson. "The opportunity to pitch with friendly faces will be great."

Robinson also pointed out that the Jacks have not swept a series this season and a victory today will do that.

"I want to get the ball and throw," said Robinson. "The crowd will help. They are a distraction, but like a pleasantry. I hope to put on a good show for the hometown. Coach (Chris) Smart (pitching coach) knows how to handle pitches. He calls all my pitches and I have a lot of faith in him. He tells me what to do and I try to do it."

In what should make Post 22 coach Dave Ploof proud because he preaches it all the time, Robinson said "throwing pitches in the zone and jumping ahead of the hitters will be the big thing."

Contact Roger Toland at 394-8430 or roger.toland@rapidcityjournal.com