TULSA-Seth Furmanek tossed 8.1 strong innings and blasted a pair of home runs to lead Oral Roberts to a 9-2 victory over Summit League foe North Dakota State, Thursday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.

The win improves ORU's record to 30-24 overall and 17-8 in Summit play, moving the Golden Eagles into a virtual tie with idle Centenary atop the standings with three games remaining before post-season play begins next week.

Furmanek enjoyed his best start since a complete game win over Wichita State on March 23, scattering four hits over 8.1 innings, allowing two runs and striking out a career-high seven batters. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth and helped his cause at the plate with his third multi-homer game of the season.

Furmanek gave ORU an early 1-0 lead with a solo home run to straightaway center in the second inning. The home run was his league-leading 20th of the season, making him the first ORU player since Mike Hill (23) in 1999 to reach the 20-homer mark.

The Golden Eagles blew it open with six runs in the third. North Dakota State starting pitcher Kyle Kingsley (4-6) easily retired the first two batters, but failed to get out of the inning.

Joey Winiecki singled with two outs, stole second and scored on a P.J. Sequeira double for a 2-0 ORU lead. Tyler Saladino followed two batters later with an RBI single and Furmanek next swatted his second home run of the game - a three-run shot - giving ORU a 6-0 lead. The final run scored on a two-out error.

Meanwhile, Furmanek dominated the Bison on the mound. He allowed just three base runners over the first five innings and held NDSU (21-28, 10-14) hitless until Tim Jallen's one-out double in the sixth.

ORU made it an 8-0 game in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Brett Sowers, but the Golden Eagles missed an opportunity to end the game via run rule when NDSU shortstop Max Casper leaped to snag Colby Price's two-out liner with runners at second and third.

NDSU got on the board in the eighth inning when a run scored on an error, but ORU got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a single by Saladino.

Furmanek exited in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and one out. Reliever Jameson Dunn induced a run-scoring grounder then struck out Kenny Beese to end the game.

ORU collected 13 hits as Sequeira, Saladino, Furmanek and Bennett Pickar each had two. Saladino extended his conference-game hitting streak to 25, and Furmanek finished with four RBI.

The Golden Eagles and Bison resume their four-game series with a 2 p.m., Friday doubleheader.

--ORU--