Dalton Miller hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning for the Northern Colorado baseball team Friday, sending the fourth-seeded Bears to their first Summit League championship after a 10-9 win over North Dakota State in an elimination game in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
UNC, which started the season 0-21 in its nonconference schedule, will play No. 3 seed and tournament host Oral Roberts at noon Saturday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
Oral Roberts (26-30-1) is undefeated in the double-elimination tournament. UNC (16-37-1) will have to beat the Golden Eagles twice Saturday to win the league title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. This is UNC’s first appearance in the league tournament.
If the second game is necessary, it will be played about 30 minutes after the end of the first game.
ORU is 0-6-1 against UNC this season, including a 14-0 win Thursday in the teams’ second game of the tournament. The Golden Eagles earned a trip to the championship game with the win and had the day off Friday while waiting for the outcome of the Northern Colorado and North Dakota State game.
UNC took a 4-0 lead after five innings against the second-seeded Bison and then rallied after North Dakota State scored all of its runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. UNC beat top-seeded Omaha in its tournament-opening game Wednesday.
Miller, a junior infielder from Las Vegas, came up with the game-winning hit on a one-out, 1-0 pitch from NDSU’s Joey Danielson. Caden Wagner led off the inning with a single to third for UNC. He went to second on a ground out by Brandon Sanchez. Wagner advanced to third on Craig Kenny’s single to center, setting up the winning run for Miller.
He came into the game as a lead-off, pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth, drew a walk and started a rally during which UNC scored four runs to tie the game 9-9.
Wagner had two hits with a home run and three RBI. Wagner homered in the fourth inning, staking the Bears to the 4-0 lead. His brother, Kai, also had two hits (with a double) and three RBI. UNC outhit North Dakota State 15-9.
Kenny and Carson Gross both had two hits. Gross had a two-run single in the third as UNC built its early lead.
Bears relief pitcher Jake Carvajal (3-0) picked up the win after pitching the ninth and 10th innings. Carvajal, a right-handed redshirt sophomore from Dallas, didn’t give up a run and allowed just one hit with two strikeouts.
Carvajal was the first pitcher used Thursday against ORU and gave up five runs on two hits and three walks without recording an out as the Golden Eagles padded their 2-0 lead.
