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South Dakota State University Athletics
Jacks move on to Creighton
3/10/2011 4:59:00 PM | Baseball
The South Dakota State University baseball team will conclude its spring break trip with a three-game weekend series at Creighton (Neb.).
Games are scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday at the CU Sports Complex on the Creighton campus in Omaha, Neb.
The Jackrabbits have posted a 3-2 record thus far on its trip, winning two of three games at Tennessee-Martin and splitting a two-game series at Austin Peay (Tenn.). Overall, SDSU is 3-5 so far this season.
Creighton, meanwhile, is off to a 9-3 start as it prepares for its home opener. Most recently, the Bluejays dropped an 8-7 decision at Central Arkanas on March 9.
RABBITS ONLINE: Audio coverage of this weekend's games will be available online 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, will begin 15 minutes prior to first pitch each day.
Subscriptions to the Jackrabbit Extra are $4.95 per month for audio-only coverage. Nearly 30 games during the 2011 season will be carried as part of the Jackrabbit Extra.
Links to live stats from each game in the Creighton series also will be available through GoJacks.com.
THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Creighton have played 20 times since the series began in 1958, with the Bluejays holding a 13-7 advantage. The two squads have every year since 2005, when the Jackrabbits moved to the Division I ranks, with the exception of the 2006 season.
In their lone meeting last season, Creighton recorded a 4-2 victory in a game played at the University of Minnesota's Metrodome Tournament on March 12.
A senior from Osage City, Kan., Treinen struck out 11 and did not walk a batter over eight innings in the Jackrabbits 2-0 win at Tennessee-Martin. With the victory, Treinen evened his record at 1-1 and improved to 8-2 in his two seasons in a Jackrabbit uniform.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: South Dakota State University seniors Trever Vermeulen and Jesse Sawyer have each been honored on the preseason All-America baseball team selected by College Baseball Lineup.
A second-team selection as a relief pitcher, Vermeulen was named to his third preseason All-America team. A Mitchell native, Vermeulen was a first-team all-Summit League selection in 2010 after leading the league with single-season school records of 10 saves and 35 appearances. He compiled a 9-1 record, struck out 62 batters in 68 1/3 innings and posted a league-leading 1.45 earned run average.
Earlier in the preseason, Vermeulen was named to the 2011 Proline Athletic National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-America Second Team and the Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America Third Team, as chosen by Collegiate Baseball.
Sawyer was a third-team selection as a third baseman to the College Baseball Lineup Preseason All-America Team. A native of Calgary, Alberta, Sawyer holds the Jackrabbits' single-season home run record of 19 - accomplishing the feat in both 2009 and 2010. A two-time all-Summit League performer, Sawyer hit .359 with 73 runs batted in last season, while drawing a single-season school-record 50 bases on balls. .
RECORD WATCH: Four Jackrabbit seniors - Joel Blake, Jesse Sawyer, Billy Stitz and Trever Vermeuelen - are on pace to further rewrite the SDSU record book this season.
Following is a look at where the SDSU quartet currently stand in a number of career categories:
Joel Blake
• Doubles: First with 56 (previous record: 54 Greg Geary, 2002-05)
Jesse Sawyer
• Bases on Balls: 10th with 81 (record: 123, by Dave Lane, 1983-86);
• Home Runs: Third with 41 (record: 43, by Greg Geary, 2002-05);
• Runs Batted In: outside top 10 with 136 (record: 192, by Billy McMacken, 1987-90);
• Slugging Percentage: Third at .688 (record: .713 by Billy McMacken, 1987-90)
Billy Stitz
• At-Bats: Tied for third with 705 (record: 779, by Nick Adams, 2005-08);
• Doubles: Third with 51 (record: 56, by Joel Blake, 2009-present);
• Games Played: outside top 10 with 170 (record: 207, by Nick Adams, 2005-08)
• Hits: Tied for second with 244 (record: 256, by Greg Geary, 2002-05);
• Runs Batted In: outside top 10 with 138 (record: 192, by Billy McMacken, 1987-90);
• Runs Scored: tied for 10th with 150 (record: 173, by Korby Mintken, 2005-08);
• Total Bases: Fourth with 372 (record: 439, by Greg Geary (2002-05)
Trever Vermeulen
• Appearances: Tied for fourth with 64 (record: 71, by Gary Olechoski, 2003-06);
• Earned Run Average: Fifth at 2.53 (record: 2.09 by Bob Ehrke, 1954-56);
• Saves: Tied for first with 14 (shares record with Gary Olechoski, 2003-06)
COMPLETE GAMES GALORE: Jackrabbit pitchers have made a habit of finishing what they started in the early part of the 2011 season. SDSU has received three nine-inning complete-game performances from three different starters so far this season, the latest being a four-hit, three-strikeout performance from freshman Kolton Emery in his first collegiate start.
In 2010, SDSU had only one complete game - a nine-inning performance in the Summit League postseason tournament by Alex Oberle versus Oakland (Mich.) in the
second-to-last game of the season.
COACH PRICE: Ritchie Price is in his third season as head coach of the South Dakota State University baseball team in 2011.
The youngest head baseball coach at the Division I level, Price has compiled a 68-56 career record (.548 winning percentage) with the Jackrabbits, including a breakthrough 39-21 season in 2010 as he was named Summit League Coach of the Year. SDSU tied a school record for most wins in a season, shared the regular season league title and earned the No. 1 seed for the Summit League Championship after becoming the first league team to win a four-game regular season series from perennial conference champion Oral Roberts. Also included in the record-tying 39 victories were a win at nationally ranked and returning College World Series qualifier Arkansas, a three-game season sweep of Big Ten Conference champion Minnesota and a win over the third-place team in the Big Ten, Iowa.
En route to their second consecutive appearance in the Summit League title series, the Jackrabbits re-wrote the record book in 2010, establishing new standards in eight different offensive categories, including batting average (.350), hits (769), runs scored (578), home runs (84) and runs batted in (549). SDSU was far from one-dimensional, however, as the Jackrabbits also set a new single-season record for fielding percentage at .972 and relief pitcher Trever Vermeulen became the first player in the Division I era to earn All-America recognition. The Jackrabbits' eight all-league honorees led The Summit League.
In 2009, Price 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, SDSU 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 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. During his tenure, two SDSU players have been drafted by Major League teams: left-handed pitcher Caleb Thielbar in the 18th round of the 2009 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and right-handed pitcher Blake Treinen in the 23rd round of the 2010 draft by the Florida Marlins.
A native of San Luis Obispo, Calif., Price comes from a baseball family. His two brothers - Ryne and Robby - also 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 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. Price started with the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League, but also spent a week in Class A, playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League.
THE ROSTER: The 2011 SDSU baseball roster features 29 players from 10 different states plus Canada. Of the 28 players, six are from South Dakota, while four are from each of the states of Colorado and Texas. Minnesota is represented by three players, while California, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington feature one player each. In addition, six players are from Canada. By class, nine are seniors, seven are juniors, seven are sophomores, two are redshirt freshmen and four are incoming freshmen.
A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits will return to the state of Nebraska, taking on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in action March 15 in Lincoln. First pitch is slated for 1:35 p.m. at Hawks Field.
To view this weekend's complete preview, access the document at the top of the page.
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