Bemidji State Baseball Splits Doubleheader Against Jamestown, Smith Earns Relief Win

Beau Thoma doubled, homered, and drove in three runs to power Bemidji State to a 9-7 victory over Jamestown in the second game of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader Wednesday at Ronken Field in Sioux Falls. Jacob Smith worked five innings of relief to earn the win, and closer Castle Huggard retired the final four batters to preserve it, giving the Beavers a split after dropping the opener 6-5.

The second-game win started with an early offensive surge. Bemidji State plated seven runs in the first two innings against Jamestown starter Nolan McCaffery, who was chased after one-plus innings having surrendered six runs on six hits. Thoma's three-run home run highlighted a four-run fourth inning that pushed the Beavers ahead 7-1 and put the game firmly in their hands.

Jacob Smith (now 1-2) then held things together on the mound, allowing two runs on five hits across five innings while striking out one. Matt Filippi and Noah Drusch tacked on RBI singles to stretch the lead to 9-4 heading into the eighth.

Jamestown made it uncomfortable late. Jacob Thomas and Melvin Maldonado hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning to pull the Jimmies within 9-7, and they loaded the bases with two outs in the same frame before Huggard struck out Grant Chapman to end the threat. In the ninth, Huggard got Jett Nelson looking at strike three with the tying run on first to close out the win. Huggard's four-out effort earned him his second save of the season.

Hunter Hyden went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a walk. Ten of Bemidji State's 12 hits in the nightcap were singles.

The first game told a different story. Trailing 5-0 after two innings, the Beavers mounted a genuine comeback: Filippi launched a two-run home run in the fourth, Hyden's RBI single in the fifth cut it to 5-4, and Thoma tied it with a solo shot to left-center in the sixth. Jamestown answered immediately in the bottom half when Reese Logsdon's RBI single scored pinch-runner Dallas Cummins for the go-ahead run, and reliever Elias Harris shut down BSU in the seventh to secure the 6-5 Jimmies win.

The split moved Bemidji State to 7-24 overall and 4-16 in the NSIC.