Comets beat Blue Hawks for regular-season DAC baseball title

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MAYVILLE — Joe Ferriera got the best of Dickinson State for the second straight game — and this time, the Mayville State sopho-more helped his team win the Dakota Athletic Conference regu-lar-season baseball title.

Two days after hitting a go-ahead two-run double to beat the Blue Hawks, Ferriera found him-self pinch hitting in the seventh inning with his team trailing by a run. He stepped in and crushed a three-run homer to deep center field on his first pitch from DSU senior Roberto Gonzalez to give the Comets their a 4-2 lead.

Mayville State never trailed again. Brock Gnadt and Dan Bauer teamed up to pitch a beauty and helped the Comets to a 6-2 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams Monday afternoon at Scott Berry Field.

With the win, the Comets (25-11, 16-5 DAC) earned the No. 1 seed in this week’s DAC tourna-ment, which begins Wednesday at Southside Municipal Ballpark in Dickinson. The Blue Hawks (21-13, 13-5 DAC) will have the No. 2 seed.

DSU head coach Andy Emard, still sporting an interim tag in his first season in the position, blamed himself for the loss.

“I was outcoached,” Emard said. “They came up with hits when they needed to. Berry has been around for a long time. He put his guys in a position to win.”

Mayville State deserved some credit though.

Gnadt stuck out nine and walked only one over 7 1/3 innings to pick up the win. His only real setback came in the fourth inning when DSU catcher Travis Setere hit a two-run homer to left center to break a scoreless tie.

Bauer got the save after quelling DSU’s threat in the eighth. He came in with one out and two runners aboard. He struck out Justin Elizondo and forcing Liam Foran into a fly out to end the inning.

The Blue Hawks left an unchar-acteristic 12 runners on base.

C.J. Ketron got a no decision despite pitching six solid innings. The seldom-used starter struck out four and walked four while giving up two earned runs. Gon-zalez went two innings and took the loss.

Emard felt the good daytime home crowd gave the Comets a boost.

“It was a good atmosphere,” Emard said. “It came down to really the first adversity we were facing. We had some lulls during the season. This is a spot for us where we hadn’t really faced some adversity. Our guys played hard, and played through it.

Both teams have byes in the first round of the DAC tournament Wednesday. Mayville State plays at 4 p.m. against the winner of Minot State and Valley City State. while DSU plays at 7 p.m. against the winner of Jamestown College and Dakota State.

The tournament’s winner ad-vances to the NAIA Opening Round tournament on May 12.

“We would have loved to have a conference championships, but our goal all along has been the confer-ence tournament because we want to move on.”

Notes: On Monday, Gonzalez was named DAC pitcher of the week. He had the win in DSU’s 21-3 victory over Jamestown College on April 28, when allowed 11 hits and struck out five with two walks.

DSU 000 200 000 — 2 8 2

MSU 000 010 41x — 6 8 2

C.J. Ketron, Roberto Gonzalez (7) and Travis Setere. Brock Gnadt, Dan Bauer (8) and Billy Tomblin. W–Gnadt. L–Gonzalez. S–Bauer. HR–DSU, Setere; MSU, Joe Ferriera.

Highlights: DSU, Russell Graham 2-for-5, Derrick Gunderson 1-for-4; Travis Setere 3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI; Liam Foran 2-for-4. MSU, Alex Berry 1-for-3, 2 RBI; Joe Ferreira 1-for-1, HR, 3 RBI; Bauer 1-for-4, RBI, 1 2/3 IP, SV, 3 K, 2 BB, 0 ER; Gnadt 7 1/3 IP, 9 K, 1 BB, 1 ER, 7 H.

Records: DSU 21-13, 13-5 DAC; MSU 25-11, 16-5 DAC.

Dakota Athletic Conference Tournament

At Southside Municipal Ballpark, Dickinson

Games Wednesday

1) No. 4 Valley City State vs. No. 5 Minot State, 10 a.m.

2) No. 3 Jamestown College vs. No. 6 Dakota State, 1 p.m.

3) No. 1 Mayville State vs. Game 1 winner, 4 p.m.

4) No. 2 Dickinson State vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.

Games Thursday

5) Game 2 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 10 a.m.

6) Game 1 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.

7) Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 4 p.m.

8) Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7 p.m.

Games Friday

9) Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 winner, 10 a.m.

Championship: Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 1 p.m.

Second championship: If Championship loser’s first loss was in 1 p.m. game, 4 p.m.

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