JAMESTOWN, N.D. (JimmiePride.com) – The fifth inning of Monday afternoon’s game at Jack Brown Stadium was one to remember for the University of Jamestown baseball team.
Seventeen Jimmie batters went to bat, with 13 of them scoring on 12 hits, two walks, and an error against three Concordia-Moorhead pitchers, resulting in an 18-13 win over the Cobbers.
UJ hit five home runs in the frame, including a solo home run by Luke Shekeryk (JR/Seattle, WA) to lead off the inning. After Dylan Dudley (JR/Cottage Grove, OR) singled and Matt Meraz (SR/Aurora, CO) walked, Brice Foster (SR/Lynnwood, WA) smashed a three-run homer to cut the deficit to 12-10. On the very next pitch, Tayler Cullen (JR/Santa Rosa, Calif.) homered over the left field fence to make it 12-11 and chase reliever Nathan Leitner. Pinch-hitter Michael Asahara (SO/Spanaway, Wash.) greeted new Cobber pitcher Justin Kloster with a single, then Kendall Yackley (SO/Lynnwood, WA) doubled to put runners at second and third. Brian Rice (JR/Vancouver, WA) doubled to deep center field, scoring Asahara and Yackley to make it 13-12. Grant Okawa (SR/Mississauga, ON) launched a two-run home run to give the Jimmies a 15-12 lead. Shekeryk, batting for the second time in the inning, singled and advanced to second on an error. Dudley walked and Meraz singled, scoring Shekeryk and moving Dudley to third. Meraz stole second and moved to third on Foster’s sacrifice fly for the first out of the inning. After a strikeout, Asahara hit a two-run bomb to left, increasing the lead to 18-12. After another pitchng change, Yackley doubled, and the Cobbers were able to retire the next batter to end the inning.
Concordia took a 3-0 lead off Jimmie starter Mitchell Dennis (FR/Okotoks, AB, Canada) in the first inning, but UJ came back to tie the game in the bottom half. Rice homered on a 2-1 count, then with one out and Okawa on first, Dudley homered to deep center to make it 3-3.
The Cobbers put together an eight-run inning in the top of the third to take an 11-3 lead.
Dirk Eymundson (SO/Parkland County, AB, Canada) and Yackley each drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth as the Jimmies got within 11-5 before Concordia added another run in the top of the fifth.
Ben Ray (JR/Federal Way, WA) (1-0), the third of six Jimmie relievers, was credited with the win. He worked one inning, allowing an unearned run on one hit.
Yackley was 3-for-5 while Rice, Okawa, Shekeryk, Dudley, Foster, and Asahara all had two hits. Foster drove in four runs, while Rice knocked in three.
The 18 runs scored by the Jimmies was the most since they plated 20 in a 20-4 win over Briar Cliff (Iowa) on March 8, 2019, in Tucson, Ariz.
Jamestown, now 21-12 this season, hosts Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) University on Saturday and Sunday in a pair of GPAC conference doubleheaders.