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South Dakota State University Athletics
Jackrabbits begin Summit action at ORU
3/17/2016 3:25:00 PM | Baseball
The South Dakota State University baseball team will seek a reversal of its fortunes this weekend as it opens Summit League action with a three-game series at defending league champion Oral Roberts.
Friday's series opener is set for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Saturday's contest is slated for a 2 p.m. start, with Sunday's series finale set for 1 p.m.
The Jackrabbits enter Summit League play with a 2-14 overall record after playing its games across four different time zones so far this season. SDSU ended a 13-game losing streak by winning two of three games last weekend at Northern Colorado.
Oral Roberts, which claimed both the Summit League regular season and postseason crowns in 2015, is off to an 8-8 start to the 2016 campaign and split road games at Jacksonville State (Ala.) (L, 3-8) and Mississippi State (W, 3-1) earlier this week.
Since joining The Summit League for baseball in 2008, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 116-85 record in league games over eight seasons. SDSU has posted a winning record in league play five times and made six appearances in the league's four-team postseason tournament, winning the title in 2013 and reaching the title series three other times.
THE SERIES: This weekend's matchups will mark the 44th, 45th and 46th meetings between SDSU and Oral Roberts on the baseball diamond. ORU holds a 32-11 advantage in the series, which dates back to the 1971 Jackrabbit season opener.
The Golden Eagles won the season series, 4-3, in 2015. The two squads split the regular season series at 3-all, with each team winning two of three games on each others' home field. ORU won the opener and finale of a three-game series played April 3-5 in Brookings. The Jackrabbits returned the favor, becoming the first Summit League team to win a road series at Oral Roberts by taking the first two games of a three-game set April 24-26 in Tulsa.
Oral Roberts won the decisive game in the season series, posting a 9-3 victory over the Jackrabbits in the second round of the Summit League Baseball Championship May 21 in Sioux Falls.
RINGHOFER HONORED: South Dakota State University catcher Luke Ringhofer was honored Monday as co-Summit League Player of the Week in helping lead the Jackrabbits to a pair of victories last week.
A sophomore from Cottage Grove, Minnesota, Ringhofer hit safely in four of the five games in which he had an official at-bat, including a pair of multi-hit games against Northern Colorado as the Jackrabbits claimed the three-game series. For the week, he batted .412 (7-for-17) with a home run, four runs batted in and six runs scored. He also walked six times and remains one of the toughest players in the nation to strike out as he fanned only two times in 65 plate appearances.
Ringhofer shared the weekly award with Omaha shortstop Clayton Taylor. Omaha right-hander Corey Binger was named Summit League Pitcher of the Week.
PRESEASON POLL: The South Dakota State University baseball team has been picked to finish third in the Summit League standings during the upcoming 2016 season, according to a poll among the league's six head coaches that was released Feb. 11.
The Jackrabbits received one first-place vote and tallied a total of 17 points for their third-place showing in the preseason poll. Defending regular season and tournament champion Oral Roberts received the other five first-place votes to be tabbed as the favorite with 25 points. Tournament runner-up Fort Wayne was second with 19 points.
Rounding out the poll were Omaha (15), North Dakota State (8) and Western Illinois (6).
The 30-game Summit League schedule kicks off March 18, when the Jackrabbits open a three-game series at Oral Roberts. ORU will host the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship May 25-28 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
LAST WEEKEND LEFTOVERS: Following are a few notes following last weekend's series win at Northern Colorado:
• The Jackrabbits are 16-for-19 in stolen-base attempts this season, with Anthony Schneider leading the team with six steals in seven tries;
• Paul Jacobson tied a career high with three stolen bases in the March 11 win over Northern Colorado;
• Tony Kjolsing doubled twice and set a career high with four runs batted in against Northern Colorado on March 12
• SDSU committed only one error in the three-game series at Northern Colorado;
• After starting two games and allowing 13 runs (10 earned), junior left-hander Landon Busch made two four-inning relief appearances last week, allowing a combined one run while striking out 11 and walking only two batters;
• The Jackrabbit pitching staff gave up double digits in runs eight times in the team's first 10 games, but has allowed no more than seven runs over the last six contests.
CLEMEN CLIMBS THE CHARTS: Although he has moved into a starting role this season, Jackrabbit pitcher Andrew Clemen could move into the SDSU career top 10 for appearances this season.
A senior from Des Moines, Iowa, Clemen has made 55 appearances — 50 of which have been out of the bullpen — in his Jackrabbit career. He needs to pitch in nine more games during the 2016 campaign to move into the top 10.
Clemen also stands seventh on the SDSU career charts for strikeouts per nine innings at 9.20, striking out 105 batters in 102 2/3 career innings. The SDSU record, with a minimum of 60 innings pitched, is 11.40 by Pete Torgerson during his lone season in a Jackrabbit uniform in 1989. Dick Barnes ranks second with an average of 9.99 strikeouts per nine innings from 1964-66, with Bob Ehrke (1952-54) third at 9.70 K's per nine innings.
During the 2015 season, Clemen posted the fifth-highest single-season ratio in school history with an average of 10.76 strikeouts per nine innings, fanning 47 batters in 39 1/3 innings.
JACOBSON NEARS TOP 10: Senior outfielder Paul Jacobson is in line to move into the SDSU career top 10 for games played midway through the 2016 season.
Jacobson, who has been the team's primary leadoff hitter since early in the 2015 season, enters the weekend having played in 174 career games, including 155 starts, putting him 16 games away from sliding into the 10th spot. Jacobson, who has moved to right field this season after serving as the team's primary left fielder the previous three seasons, is the lone Jackrabbit to start all 16 games this season.
Jacobson's uncle, Pat Schmidt, ranks in a tie for seventh in games played by a Jackrabbits with 193 from 1992-95. Eric Cain holds the Jackrabbit record of 218 games played from 2009-12.
JOHNSON GOES YARD TWICE: Sophomore third baseman Newt Johnson hit a pair of three-run home runs against Virginia Commonwealth on Feb. 27, becoming the first Jackrabbit with a two-home run game in two years.
The last Jackrabbit to hit two home runs in a game was Aaron Machbitz, against Jackson State (Miss.) on Feb. 15, 2014. Johnson's six RBI were the most in a game by a Jackrabbit player since Luke Ringhofer drove in six runs against Western Illinois on May 2, 2015.
COACH SCHRAGE: Veteran baseball coach Dave Schrage (pronounced Schrag) enters his 28th season as a collegiate head coach — and fifth at South Dakota State University — during the 2016 season. Schrage was hired to take over the reins of the Jackrabbit baseball program on Aug. 8, 2011.
After posting an 18-33-1 record in his first season at South Dakota State, including a 7-14 mark in The Summit League, Schrage directed a big turnaround in 2013, leading SDSU its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level. The Jackrabbits, who ended the season with a 35-24 overall record, won four consecutive games to claim their inaugural Summit League postseason tournament title and advance to the Eugene Regional of the NCAA Tournament, where they were edged in a pair of one-run games.
SDSU again earned the top seed for the Summit League Baseball Championship during the 2014 season, finishing with an 11-11 mark in a tightly contested league race. Overall, the Jackrabbits finished with a 28-29 overall record. Six Jackrabbit players earned all-Summit League accolades.
The Jackrabbits again contended for a Summit League title during the 2015 season, posting an overall record of 33-23 and a second-place mark of 18-11 in league play. SDSU put together win streaks of six and eight games midway through the season to move into the upper division of The Summit League.
Under Schrage's leadership, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 116-123-1 record and qualified for the Summit League postseason tournament each of the last three seasons.
Schrage enters the weekend with a 712-787-2 career mark. He recorded his 600th career victory in his first season at SDSU, and tallied career win No. 700, when the Jackrabbits defeated Omaha, 5-1, on April 17, 2015, at Erv Huether Field. Schrage's 100th win at the helm of the SDSU program came on April 11, 2015, in a 5-4 home win over North Dakota State.
In 27-plus seasons as a collegiate head coach, he has averaged more than 25 victories per season, including seven campaigns with 32 or more wins. He has coached players who have earned all-conference honors 75 times and 42 of his former student-athletes have gone on to play professionally, including 2015 draft picks Zach Coppola (Philadelphia Phllies) and Adam Bray (Los Angeles Dodgers).
Prior to South Dakota State, Schrage was head coach at Notre Dame for four seasons, leading the Fighting Irish to a 119-104-1 record from 2007-10. After posting a .500 record (28-28) his first season in South Bend, Schrage put Notre Dame back in contention for postseason play with a 33-21-1 record in 2008 and a 36-23 mark in 2009. The Fighting Irish led the BIG EAST Conference in fielding in both 2008 and 2009, while consistently ranking at or near the top in batting, on-base percentage and earned run average.
As a collegiate player, Schrage was an all-conference outfielder at Creighton, batting .400 as a junior and .433 his senior season. He also was an Academic All-America honoree during his senior campaign in 1983, and graduated that spring with a bachelor of science degree in finance. Schrage was honored on the MVC's Centennial Celebration baseball team and is the only person in league history to earn all-conference honors and be named MVC Coach of the Year in baseball.
JACKS IN THE PROS: Several former Jackrabbit players reported for Spring Training in recent weeks.
Right-handed pitchers Blake Treinen and Layne Somsen are in Major League camps this spring — Treinen with the Washington Nationals and Somsen as a member of the Cincinnati Reds. Treinen made 60 appearances for the Nationals during the 2015 season, posting a 2-5 record and 3.86 ERA in his second year in the Majors.
Somsen was promoted to Triple-A Louisville late midway through the 2015 season, seeing action both as a starter and out of the bullpen. In three seasons in the Reds organization, the Yankton native has compiled a 9-5 record and 2.57 ERA while averaging nearly a strikeout per inning pitched.
Adam Bray and Zach Coppola, who were selected in the 2015 Major League Baseball draft, will be in minor league camps with their respective organizations. Bray was a 33rd round draft choice by the Los Angeles Dodgers and made his professional debut with Ogden (Utah) in Rookie ball last summer, going 2-2 with 33 strikeouts and only four walks in eight starts.
Coppola is a Philadelphia Phillies farmhand after being drafted in the 13th round. Coppola spent the summer of 2015 at Class A Williamsport (Pa.), where he batted .271 with 19 stolen bases.
Former Jackrabbit left-hander Caleb Thielbar, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins from 2013-15, is currently a free agent.
THE ROSTER: The 2016 SDSU baseball roster features 37 players from eight different states plus one Canadian province. Of the 37 players, 12 are from Minnesota and South Dakota, seven are from Iowa, while Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Vermont are represented by one player each. In addition, one player is from the Canadian province of British Columbia.
By class, nine are seniors, nine are juniors, 11 are sophomores, three are redshirt freshmen and five are true freshmen.
A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits resume Summit League play with a three-game series March 25-27 at Western Illinois. The Friday series opener is slated for a 3 p.m. start, with first pitch for the Saturday and Sunday games scheduled for 1 p.m. each day.
SDSU is scheduled to play its home opener March 30, with a doubleheader against Dakota Wesleyan. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at Erv Huether Field.
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