Completed Event: Baseball versus Arizona State on May 30, 2026 , Loss , 0, to, 17
/
FINAL
Baseball
0
vs Arizona State
17
South Dakota State University Athletics
SDSU, ORU meet for four games
5/6/2010 4:00:00 PM | Baseball
The South Dakota State University baseball team closes out a season-long 10-game homestand with a four-game weekend series against Summit League leader Oral Roberts.
The series is slated to open Friday with a 3 p.m. matchup at Erv Huether Field on the SDSU campus. A doubleheader is set for a noon start on Saturday, with the series finale scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
ORU, which has claimed the last 12 Summit League (formerly Mid-Continent Conference) titles, enters the weekend atop the league standings at 13-3 after winning three of four games last weekend at IPFW. The Golden Eagles are 26-18 overall.
The Jackrabbits, meanwhile, are in third place in the league standing at 10-6 following a split of a four-game home series with Centenary (La.) April 30-May 2. SDSU is 27-15, already exceeding its win total (26) from a season ago.
WEEKEND PROMOTIONS: A pair of promotions are planned in conjunction with this weekend's baseball series between South Dakota State and Oral Roberts.
Saturday is Feed the Fans Day at Erv Huether Field. Fans attending the first game of the doubleheader will receive a free hamburger courtesy of Burger King.
On Sunday, SDSU will observe Mother's Day with all mothers receiving free admission when accompanied by a child. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students (grades K-12).
JACKRABBITS ONLINE: Audio webcasts of all four games of the series are scheduled to be available through the Jackrabbit Extra subscription service at GoJacks.com — the official website of South Dakota State University Athletics. Coverage, with Tyler Merriam calling the play-by-play, begins 15 minutes prior to first pitch each day.
Please note that all broadcasts of select Jackrabbit baseball games this season will be available only through the Jackrabbit Extra, which costs $9.95 per month for both video and audio content, or $4.95 per month for audio-only broadcasts.
Live statistics of all Jackrabbit home games will also be available at GoJacks.com.
THE SERIES: Friday's game marks the 21st meeting between South Dakota State and Oral Roberts in baseball, a series that began in 1971, with ORU holding 17-3 advantage.
Since SDSU joined The Summit League at the start of the 2008 season, Oral Roberts holds a 7-1 advantage, including a 6-2 win in the championship of the 2009 Summit League postseason tournament. ORU swept the series last season, 4-0, winning the first three regular season games before the series finale was rained out.
The Jackrabbits' lone victory against ORU since joining The Summit League came in the 2008 series finale in Brookings. Erik DeJong and Nick Adams each homered as SDSU salvaged Game 4 of the series, 12-8.
SUMMIT LEAGUE RACE: SDSU has been picked to finish third in the eight-team Summit League race, according to a preseason poll conducted by the league's coaches.
Oral Roberts, the winner of the last 12 Summit League titles, received seven of eight first-place votes to earn the top spot in the poll with 49 points. Centenary (La.) was picked second with 39 points, followed by SDSU with 36 points, including one first-place vote.
Rounding out the poll were: Southern Utah (30), North Dakota State (27), Oakland (16), IPFW (14) and Western Illinois (13).
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION: South Dakota State has positioned itself atop the Summit League standings in most offensive categories heading into the second half of league play.
The Jackrabbits entered the week with a league-best .347 team batting average, 26 points ahead of the next-closest team (Oral Roberts, .321). Nine SDSU players with 100 or more at-bats are hitting better than .300, including a pair who are at or near the .400 mark: John Lee, .411, and Eric Cain, .398.
SDSU enters this weekend's series averaging 9.81 runs per game, a figure that not only leads The Summit League but ranks fourth nationally. The Jackrabbits also rank eighth in total runs scored (412) and are ninth in team batting average.
The Jackrabbits have reached double digits for runs scored 18 times. Three times this season, the Jackrabbits have scored 10 or more runs in an inning.
SDSU has registered double figures in the hit column in 27 of 42 games so far this season, including games of 26 at Air Force on March 7 and 25 at Dallas Baptist in the first game of a doubleheader on April 3. In the Dallas Baptist game, SDSU hit nine home runs — the most by a Jackrabbit team in a game during the Division I era that began during the 2005 season. Three different Jackrabbit players — Jesse Sawyer, Eric Cain and Zach Rhodes — each hit two round-trippers in the game.
NEW ROTATION: None of the four Jackrabbit scheduled starting pitchers for this weekend's series threw a pitch for SDSU last season.
True freshmen Stephen Bougher and Shane Kraemer are expected to book-end the rotation this week, with Bougher drawing the series-opener assignment on Friday and Kraemer scheduled to pitch the series finale on Sunday.
Blake Treinen, who is scheduled to pitch Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader, is off to a 5-0 start in his first season pitching for the Jackrabbits. Game 2 starter Jared Koch was a member of the SDSU rotation in 2008, but sat out the entire 2009 season due to injury. Koch has started five games this season, but none in Summit League play.
CANADIAN CONNECTION: The Jackrabbits have received strong performances from a group of Canadian imports so far this season.
Three products of the Prairie Baseball Academy have been mainstays in the batting order so far this season.
Joel Blake, who has split time between first base, left field and catcher this season, is batting .368 so far in 2010. Blake tallied a school-record 21 doubles in 2009 and already has tied that mark this season. After tying for the school record with 80 hits in 2009, Blake has upped his career hits total to 148 in only 96 career games.
Returning all-conference third baseman Jesse Sawyer leads the team with 13 home runs and a .679 slugging percentage, while standing third on the team with 48 runs batted in. Sawyer, who hit a single-season school-record 19 home runs in 2009, has 32 home runs in 98 career games.
Newcomer Zach Rhodes is hitting .339 (39-of-115) with four home runs, 27 runs batted in and 34 runs scored, while playing mostly as the team's designated hitter. He tied a Division I-era individual record with three doubles in the second game of an April 28
doubleheader against North Dakota.
Redshirt freshman Daniel Telford has contributed as a top pinch-hitter and spot starter in left field and at designated hitter this season. He is hitting .330 and has added three home runs and 30 RBI in 100 at-bats.
Left-handed pitcher Shane Kraemer has solidified the Jackrabbit starting rotation, posting a 3-2 record and 5.40 earned run average in 14 appearances, including seven starts. He was the winning pitcher in relief in the Jackrabbits' first victory of the season, Feb. 27 against Murray State (Ky.), and made his first career start March 6 at Air Force.
Infielder Daniel Marra is sidelined by a hand injury that has prevented him from playing this season.
LIGHTS OUT: The SDSU bullpen set the tone for the season with a strong collective effort in the first series of the season, Feb. 26-28 at Murray State (Ky.).
The Jackrabbits allowed only one earned run in 12 1/3 innings during the three-game series, including seven innings of one-run baseball in the middle game of the series.
So far this season, the Jackrabbits are 22-1 when leading after six innings and a perfect 16-0 when leading after eight.
Junior Trever Vermeulen has been the anchor of the bullpen so far this season. The reigning Summit League Pitcher of the Week, Vermeulen currently leads the nation with a microscopic 0.82 earned run average. A three-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week this season, Vermeulen has not allowed an earned run in his last 10 appearances (19.1 innings), nor has he allowed any run — earned or unearned — in Summit League play (seven appearances, 14 innings).
In addition, Vermeulen leads The Summit League with nine saves, while limiting opponentsto a .211 batting average. In seven of the nine games he has recorded a save, Vermeulen has pitched more than one full inning.
Also out of the bullpen, junior transfer Alex Oberle has picked up six of his team-high seven victories in relief. Oberle's lone victory as a starter came in the Jackrabbits' win at nationally ranked Arkansas on March 9.
RAISING CAIN: Sophomore shortstop Eric Cain has emerged as a top threat in the SDSU lineup this season.
A native of Littleton, Colo., Cain has been honored as Summit League Player of the Week on two occasions this season. He set a career high with seven runs batted in March 20 at Northern Colorado and became the first Jackrabbit in the Division I era to record six hits in a game, accomplishing the feat in the first game of an April 3 doubleheader at Dallas Baptist (Texas). Cain had an 11-game hitting streak earlier this season.
Overall, Cain leads The Summit League with 60 runs batted in, while also tallying 70 hits, 11 home runs and 114 total bases.
STITZ IN BUNCHES: Jackrabbit center fielder Billy Stitz has collected hits in bunches throughout the 2010 season.
A junior from Burnsville, Minn., Stitz has turned in 28 multi-hit games to post a league-best 76 hits so far this season. With his hot hitting, Stitz has upped his career hit total to 199, putting him on the verge of becoming the 13th player in Jackrabbit baseball history to record 200 hits.
In addition, Stitz has run his consecutive games started streak to 102, dating back to the 2008 season. Stitz has started 100 games in center field, while drawing two starts at second base.
LEE HONORED ACADEMICALLY: South Dakota State University outfielder John Lee has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII Baseball Team.
A senior from Mason City, Iowa, Lee earned a spot on the 10-member University Division first team with a 3.89 grade-point average while majoring in chemistry. He will advance to the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration later this month.
A two-year starter in right field for the Jackrabbits, Lee currently leads the team with a .411 batting average and 56 runs scored. He also has tallied seven home runs, 45 runs batted in and five stolen bases in 39 games.
Selections to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII Team are based on votes by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America from South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Student-athletes must be at least a sophomore in athletic standing, maintain a minimum grade-point average of 3.3 and be a starter or key reserve.
COACH PRICE: Ritchie Price returns for his second season as head coach of the South Dakota State University baseball team in 2010.
The youngest head baseball coach at the Division I level, Price has compiled a 53-45 coaching record. In 2009, he directed a dramatic mid-season turnaround during his inaugural season with the Jackrabbits. After starting the 2009 campaign with a 5-22 overall record and 1-6 mark in Summit League play, the Jackrabbits went 19-6 over the final five weeks of the regular season to earn the third seed in the Currington Mortgage Summit League Championship.
At the league tournament, the Jackrabbits dropped their opening game to Southern Utah but came back to defeat both Centenary (La.) and Southern Utah the next day to advance to the title series, where they lost to perennial Summit League champion Oral Roberts.
Overall, SDSU finished the 2009 season with a 26-30 record, including a 17-10 slate in Summit League regular season games.
Price began his association with the Jackrabbit baseball program by serving as infield and third base coach in 2008, and was elevated to interim head coach following the resignation of Reggie Christiansen in June 2008.
A native of San Luis Obispo, Calif., Price comes from a baseball family. His two brothers – Ryne and Robby – have played at the University of Kansas, where their father, Ritch, is currently the head baseball coach.
Ritchie Price also played at Kansas, setting Jayhawk career records for games played (255), at bats (1,022), hits (312), runs scored (204), sacrifices (35) and hit by pitches (53). Price's graduating class owns the most wins of any class in Kansas baseball history.
In 2006, Price helped lead the Jayhawks to a Big 12 Conterence championship, as Kansas went 4-0 to win the conference title. After earning an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, Price's squad went 1-2, earning a win over Hawaii in the opening game.
Price was one of the ironmen of college baseball, starting 252 consecutive games at shortstop. Although no official records are kept by the NCAA, this is most certainly among the best in college baseball history.
He was a four-time all-Big 12 selection, and was named the conference's best defensive shortstop in 2004 by Baseball America.
Following his highly successful career with the Jayhawks, Price was an 18th round draft pick of the New York Mets in Major League Baseball's first-year player draft. Not only did Price play rookie ball with the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League, but he also spent a week in Class A, playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League.
Price graduated from Kansas in 2007 with a degree in communication studies. He received his master's degree in health, physical education and recreation with an emphasis in sports pedagogy from South Dakota State in the summer of 2009.
THE ROSTER: The 2010 SDSU baseball roster features 28 players from 11 different states plus Canada. Of the 30 players, six are from South Dakota, while three are from each of the states of Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota. Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington are represented by one player each. In addition, six players are from Canada. By class, six are seniors, nine are juniors, eight are sophomores, one is a redshirt freshmen and six are incoming freshmen.
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Baseball
UTIL
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballSunday, May 31
Saturday, May 30
Saturday, May 30
Thursday, May 28