Jacks meet NDSU at halfway mark

Friday, April 15

Erv Huether Field

3:00 PM

South Dakota State University

North Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

4/15/2016 1:14:00 PM | Baseball

The Summit League schedule hits the halfway point this weekend as South Dakota State hosts North Dakota State in a key three-game series at Erv Huether Field.
The series opener is slated for a 3 p.m. first pitch on Friday. Games Saturday and Sunday are set to begin at 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast locally on KJJQ?910 AM, with Tyler Merriam calling the play-by-play, and also available for listening through the Jackrabbits All-Access portal at GoJacks.com.
The Jackrabbits, 10-22 overall and 6-6 in The Summit League, hold a one-game lead over NDSU in the league standings for the fourth and final playoff spot. SDSU is coming off a pair of mid-week road losses to major conference foes, falling 7-3 at Minnesota on April 12 and dropping one night later a 6-5, 11-inning decision at Creighton.
NDSU, meanwhile, is on a six-game win streak during which the Bison have improved to 17-13 overall. The Bison are 5-7 in league play after sweeping a three-game home series from Fort Wayne last weekend, which was followed by home non-conference wins against Mary (N.D.) and North Dakota earlier this week.
The two squads are scheduled to play a second three-game series to close out league play May 19-21 in Fargo. The league's postseason tournament is set for May 25-28 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

THE SERIES: Friday's game will mark the 167th meeting on the baseball diamond between SDSU and Bison. In the series that dates back to 1956, the Jackrabbits hold a 107-59 lead.
SDSU controlled the season series a year ago, winning five of the six matchups between the two squads. The Jackrabbits swept a three-game series at Erv Huether Field, April 10-12, 2015, and then won two of three games a month later in Fargo.
Since the two programs joined The Summit League at the start of the 2008 season, the Jackrabbits hold a 19-17 edge in league games. SDSU also has won four of the five games played between the two programs at the Summit League Baseball Championship.

SHORT HOPS: Following are a few notes heading into Wednesday's game at Creighton:
Following are some brief notes regarding the Jackrabbit baseball team heading into today's series opener:
• Matt Johnson carries a 10-game hitting streak into today's game. Johnson is batting .343 (12-for-35) during his current streak.
• Four other Jackrabbits have strung together hitting streaks of at least 10 games this season: Luke Ringhofer (13), Phil Velez (10), Jesse Munsterman (10) and Cody Sharrow (10). Sharrow's streak ended in Wednesday's extra-innings loss at Creighton.
• Luke Ringhofer has reached base safely in 24 consecutive games.
• Ringhofer and Newt Johnson hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning of the March 19 game at Oral Roberts, becoming the first Jackrabbit tandem to hit consecutive round-trippers since Matt Johnson and Newt Johnson in a home game against North Dakota State on April 12, 2015. Ringhofer and Newt Johnson share the team lead with three home runs.
• Sophomore Greg Casper earned saves in a pair of long relief outings last week. Casper held North Dakota scoreless over the final 2 2/3 innings on April 6, then struck out six Omaha batters in a three-inning save April 10.
• Paul Jacobson is a perfect 13-for-13 on stolen-base attempts this season. As a team, the Jackrabbits have been successful on 35-of-38 stolen-base attempts in 2016. SDSU has swiped a base on each of its last 20 attempts dating back to a March 13 game at Northern Colorado.
• After scoring a total of only six runs in the sixth innings of their first 29 games, the Jackrabbits have tallied nine sixth-inning runs over their last three games. SDSU scored six times in the sixth inning of their April 10 win over Omaha, then scored all three of their runs against Minnesota on April 12 in the sixth inning.

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.

BROTHER VERSUS BROTHER: In an April 13 game at TD?Ameritrade Park in Omaha, brothers Henry (SDSU) and Ethan (Creighton) DeCaster faced off against each other on the mound.
A left-hander, Henry DeCaster allowed one run over two innings. Ethan DeCaster, meanwhile, retired all six batters he faced with two strikeouts in two innings. Neither factored in the decision.
The DeCasters are natives of Shoreview, Minnesota, and pitched for the highly successful Mounds View High School program. Henry DeCaster is scheduled to pitch either Saturday or Sunday for the Jackrabbits.

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 59 appearances — 50 of which have been out of the bullpen — in his Jackrabbit career. He needs to pitch in five more games during the 2016 campaign to move into the top 10.
Clemen also stands eighth on the SDSU career charts for strikeouts per nine innings at 8.95, striking out 127 batters in 127 2/3 career innings. Clemen recorded a career-high eight strikeouts in his March 25 start at Western Illinois and has fanned at least five batters in six of his last seven starts.
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.

BUSCH BLANKING OPPONENTS: Since moving to the bullpen at the beginning of March, Landon Busch has been lights out against the opposition.
A junior left-hander, Busch had a string of 14 consecutive innings in which he did not give up a run during a four-game personal winning streak. Over his six relief appearances, Busch has posted a 2.22 earned run average and has struck out 28 batters in 24 1/3 innings.
A Brookings native, Busch is in his first season pitching for the Jackrabbits. He spent his first two seasons (2013-14) at Kansas State before transferring to SDSU in the fall of 2014. He sat out the 2015 campaign due to NCAA?transfer rules.

JACOBSON JOINS TOP 10s: With an appearance in Wednesday's game at Creighton, senior outfielder Paul Jacobson moved into the SDSU career top 10 for games played.
A Dakota Dunes native, Jacobson has played in 190 career games, including 171 starts, and tied Tony Martin (190 games played from 2006-09) for 10th place. With an appearance in all three games this weekend, Jacobson would tie his uncle, Pat Schmidt (1992-95), for seventh in games played at SDSU. 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 32 games this season.
Eric Cain holds the Jackrabbit record of 218 games played from 2009-12.
With a team-best 13 stolen bases so far this season, Jacobson has upped his career total to 37, putting him in 10th place on the Jackrabbit career charts in that category. Jacobson stole 10 bases in both 2013 and 2015, and added four steals as a sophomore in 2014.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: South Dakota State has had a player honored as a Summit League player of the week two times during the 2016 season.
Catcher Luke Ringhofer was honored March 14 as co-Summit League Player of the Week in helping lead the Jackrabbits to a pair of victories at Northern Colorado.
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.
Junior pitcher Landon Busch was named Summit League Pitcher of the Week on March 21 for his efforts in the Jackrabbits' series-opening win at Oral Roberts.
A junior from Brookings, Busch earned the win after tossing three shutout innings March 18 as the Jackrabbits rallied for a 3-2, 12-inning victory. Busch finished his outing with five strikeouts, including striking out the side in the bottom of the 12th to preserve the win.

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 124-131-1 record and
qualified for the Summit League postseason tournament each of the last three seasons.
Schrage enters the weekend with a 720-795-2 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 Phillies) 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.
Schrage has previously found success in building programs at the mid-major level, including a four-year stint at Evansville (Ind.) from 2003-06, during which he guided the Purple Aces to a 130-108 record. Evansville improved its win total each of his four years, from 24 in 2003 to 43 in 2006. Schrage earned Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors for the third time in 2006 as Evansville won both the regular season and tournament conference titles, earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Purple Aces advanced all the way to the finals of the Charlottesville Regional, knocking off host Virginia before falling to South Carolina in the championship.
A Chicago native, Schrage directed a dramatic turnaround in his home state during a three-year run at Northern Illinois from 2000-02. After inheriting a team that was 4-51 the year before he arrived, Schrage's squad turned in a 20-game improvement with a 24-33 record in his first season and then led the Huskies to a winning season in 2001 with a 28-27 overall mark. He was named runner-up for National Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper in 2000.
Schrage began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant under his predecessor at Notre Dame, Paul Mainieri, at St. Thomas University (Fla.) in 1984. He later returned to his alma mater, Creighton University (Neb.), as an assistant coach for two seasons.
From 1986-87, Schrage coached the Queensland Rams club team in Brisbane, Australia, before returning stateside as he gained his first head coaching job at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. From 1988-90 he led the junior college program to a 61-66 mark.
Schrage then spent nine seasons as head coach at the University of Northern Iowa, where he was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997. His teams improved from two league victories in UNI's first season in the MVC in 1992 to 18 during the 1997 campaign.
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 are playing professionally this spring.
Right-handed pitcher Blake Treinen is currently the lone Jackrabbit in the Major Leagues. A member of Jackrabbit teams in 2010 and 2011, Treinen has pitched for the Washington Nationals for three seasons (2014-16) and earned an Opening Day victory last week. Treinen made 60 appearances for the Nationals during the 2015 season, posting a 2-5 record and 3.86 ERA.
Three other Jackrabbits began the 2016 season in the minor leagues.
Layne Somsen (2009-13) is on the 40-man roster for the Cincinnati Reds. A Yankton native, 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 professional seasons since being selected in the 22nd round of the 2013 MLB Draft by the Reds, Somsen has compiled a 9-5 record and 2.57 ERA while averaging nearly a strikeout per inning pitched.
Adam Bray, who was a 33rd round draft choice by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015, has been assigned to the Class A Great Lakes Loons in Midland, Michigan, to start the 2016 season. Bray 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.
Zach Coppola is a Philadelphia Phillies farmhand after being drafted in the 13th round last year. Coppola, who is currently a member of the Class A Lakewood (N.J.) BlueClaws, spent the summer of 2015 at Class A?Williamsport (Pa.), where he batted .271 with 19 steals.
Three other Jackrabbits are slated to pitch in the independent American Association this season. Chris Anderson (2014-15) recently signed with the Winnipeg Goldeyes, while Stephen Bougher (2010-13) is set to return to the Sioux Falls Canaries. Left-hander Caleb Thielbar recently re-signed with the St. Paul Saints. Thielbar pitched for the Minnesota Twins from 2013-15.

THE ROSTER: The 2016 SDSU baseball roster features 36 players from eight different states plus one Canadian province. Of the 37 players, 12 are from South Dakota, 11 are from Minnesota, seven hail 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, eight are seniors, nine are juniors, 11 are sophomores, three are redshirt freshmen and five are true freshmen.

A?LOOK?AHEAD: The Jackrabbits close out the homestand with an April 20 non-conference matchup against Mayville State (N.D.). First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
From there, SDSU returns to Summit League action with a three-game weekend series April 22-24 at Omaha.