TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State baseball's 2021 campaign ended Saturday with an 8-6 Game 2 defeat to Rogers State. Three RiverHawks had three-hit games, but RSU scored in the ninth inning for the second straight day.
Northeastern State scored in the first three frames but could not quite hold on late in both games of the MIAA Quarterfinal.
With two outs in bottom of the first,
Collin Klingensmith slugged his 10th home run of the season, which landed on the softball field over the right center wall.
The next half inning, however, saw Rogers State respond in a big way plating five. After NSU starter
Jonathan Smithey struck out the first batter, six straight Hillcats reached base.
The first five batters reached for the RiverHawks in the bottom half but they could only push one run across.
Nathan Norris got NSU within three runs on a single to left to score senior
Jaxon Phipps.
Phipps hit his second two-run home run in as many days to cut the Hillcat lead to 5-4 in the bottom of third to plate Klingensmith who led off with a double.
Skyler Nelson, the Hillcat first baseman, singled in the top of fourth to give RSU a two-run cushion.
Neither team would threaten until the bottom of the sixth when
Brayden Rodden's deep fly ball to right was tracked down on the warning track to leave runners on the corners.
Ryan Summers and
John Rains kept RSU right where it was for four innings of relief of Smithey who allowed five earned runs across four innings of work.
In the eighth, the RiverHawks tied it up, 6-6. Phipps led off with a single before Norris and senior
Reid Fehr singled to load the bases with just one down. Roger State's closer came on looking for a five-out save and got two ground balls.
Blaze Brothers and Rodden each reached on fielder's choices to equalize the score.
In the ninth RiverHawks the closer,
Dakodah Jones, entered the game looking for a hold. He allowed a leadoff single but Rodden quickly threw out the runner trying to steal second. Following a walk and fielder's choice, Nelson hit a two-run triple off the base of the centerfield wall that was just out of the reach of Fehr to regain the momentum.
Cohen Bell relieved Jones and struck out the final batter to strand Nelson at third.
Phipps was not yet ready for his collegiate career to end and singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth but was stranded. He drove in his 120th career RBI and now leads the program all-time.
Northeastern State left 10 runners on base yet only struck out once, the fewest of the season. The RiverHawks conclude the season with a 26-16 overall record and were 23-10 in the MIAA. The second place finish was the best under head coach
Jake Hendrick and NSU finished 10 games over .500 for the first time since 2002.
Rogers State (20-20, 14-19 in MIAA) will play the winner of the Central Oklahoma and Missouri Southern series next weekend in Joplin, Mo. It played strong defense robbing the RiverHawks multiple times on diving catches in the outfield.
