South Dakota State scored in each of the first four innings and starting pitcher Adam Bray worked into the eighth inning as the Jackrabbits opened the Summit League Baseball Championship with a 7-3 victory over Fort Wayne Wednesday night at Sioux Falls Stadium.

 

The second-seeded Jackrabbits improved to 33-21 overall and move on to face top-seeded Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. Thursday. Fort Wayne dropped to 26-25 overall and will face fourth-seeded North Dakota State in an elimination game at 2 p.m. Thursday.

 

SDSU wasted little time to break into the scoring column. Paul Jacobson led off with a single and scored on Reid Clary’s two-out single to left field.

 

The Jackrabbits added a run in the second inning when Al Robbins scored on a wild pitch, then tacked on two more runs in the third on a Robbins double down the left-field line to score both Clary and Luke Ringhofer.

 

SDSU pushed the lead to 7-0 with a three-run fourth inning. Jacobson plated the first run of the frame with a base hit and Ringhofer delivered a sacrifice fly before the Jackrabbits executed a double steal with Zach Coppola scoring on the play.

 

Fort Wayne, which left the bases loaded in the third inning, broke through against Bray in the sixth inning. Brandon Soat led off with a double and later scored on a groundout.

 

Soat and the Mastodons further cut into the deficit in the eighth as Soat hit an opposite-field two-run homer to left field on what would be Bray’s final pitch of the night. Fort Wayne put two more runners on base later in the inning, but reliever Marcus Heemstra prevented further damage.

 

Bray struck out seven, walked two and gave up four hits in 7 1/3 innings. Andrew Clemen worked a scoreless ninth inning.

 

Eric Danforth led the Jackrabbits’ 10-hit attack with three hits. Jacobson and Clary each tallied two hits.