Completed Event: Baseball at Omaha on May 22, 2025 , Loss , 6, to, 7 , 10 inn.
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FINAL
Baseball
6
(10 inn.)
at Omaha
7
South Dakota State University Athletics
Friday, March 17
Omaha, Neb. [Isaacson Field]
4 p.m.
South Dakota State University
at
Omaha
Photo by: Eric Landwehr
Summit slate starts Friday
3/15/2017 10:49:00 AM | Baseball
Summit League play is scheduled to begin on the baseball diamond this weekend with South Dakota State traveling to Omaha for a three-game series.
Friday's series opener is set for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Isaacson Field located in Seymour Smith Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Saturday's second game with slated for a 2 p.m. start, with Sunday's series finale tabbed for a noon start.
The Jackrabbits enter the series with a 6-7 overall record after winning one of three games at nationally ranked Oklahoma State last weekend. Omaha is 1-14 overall under first-year head coach Evan Porter.
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THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Omaha will play for the 150th time, when the two squads meet in Friday's series opener. The Mavericks hold an 80-68-1 lead in the series that dates back to 1949.The two programs were longtime rivals in the North Central Conference before both moving to Division I and The Summit League in the past decade.
Omaha held a 4-3 series advantage during the 2016 season. The Mavericks won two of three games in each of the two regular season series, while the Jackrabbits ended Omaha's season with an 8-0 shutout victory at the 2016 Summit League Baseball Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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SUMMIT HISTORY: South Dakota State has achieved consistent success in The Summit League, since joining the conference at the start of the 2008 season. In the nine previous seasons as a league member, the Jackrabbits have a combined record of 130-103 (.558 winning percentage) and have qualified for the four-team league tournament in seven of eight years of eligibility. SDSU won a regular season league title in 2010 and the Summit postseason tournament championship in 2013.
SDSU has won five of nine Summit League openers, including a 3-2, 12-inning win at Oral Roberts last season. That victory ended a three-game losing streak in league openers from 2013-15.
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PRESEASON POLL: The South Dakota State University baseball team has been picked to finish second in the 2017 Summit League race, according to a poll conducted among league coaches and announced by league officials on Feb. 9.
The Jackrabbits return six position starters from a squad that finished the 2016 season with a 22-35 overall record and fourth-place finish in the league standings with a 13-17 mark.
Defending Summit League champion Oral Roberts received five first-place votes en route to earning the top spot in the poll with 25 points. SDSU received the other first-place vote and 18 points, and was followed by North Dakota State (17), Omaha (13), Western Illinois (9) and Fort Wayne (8).
The 30-game Summit League schedule kicks off March 17, when the Jackrabbits open a three-game series at Omaha. Oral Roberts will host the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship May 24-27 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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LAST WEEK: The Jackrabbits wrapped up the pre-conference portion of their schedule by winning one of three games at nationally ranked Oklahoma State. In turning in a 2-1 victory in the series opener on March 10, SDSU defeated a ranked opponent for the second year in a row.
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POWER SURGE: South Dakota State hit a total of four home runs in its four-game set at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis March 6-8.
Anthony Schneider posted the first two-home-run game by a Jackrabbit this season with a pair of blasts against Minnesota on March 7, while Newt Johnson and Matt Johnson each connected for home runs March 8 against Minnesota-Crookston.
Prior to Schneider, Matt Johnson was last Jackrabbit with a two-home-run game, connecting twice against North Dakota State on April 16, 2016, at Erv Huether Field.
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SMITH SETS THE TABLE: Sophomore utility player Nick Smith took over the team lead in batting average last week after after hitting .462 (12-for-26) in seven games. Smith hit safely in all four games played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to open the week, including recording a three-hit contest against Waldorf to open the slate and a four-hit game versus Minnesota-Crookston. Two of Smith's hits were doubles and he also stole a pair of bases as he posted a .714 clip (10-for-14) in returning to his home state.
A native of Chanhassen, Minnesota, Smith enters the weekend series at Omaha with a team-best .385 batting average for the season and has tallied six multi-hit games.
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JOHNSON OFF TO HOT START: Senior first baseman Matt Johnson has been one of the the Jackrabbits' top hitters through the first month of the season. The Ankeny, Iowa, native is the lone SDSU player to record a hit in each of the first 13 games this season en route to a .375 batting average and team-best 11 runs batted in.
Nine of Johnson's 18 hits have gone for extra bases — six doubles and three home runs — as he has compiled a .688 slugging percentage.
Johnson leads active Jackrabbit players with 17 career home runs as he shares the team lead this season with three round-trippers, the last of which came in the March 12 series finale at Oklahoma State.
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RINGHOFER'S STREAK ENDS: Jackrabbit catcher Luke Ringhofer had his school-record streak of reaching base safely in 52 consecutive games come to an end in the Jackrabbits' loss to Maine on Feb. 25, when he went 0-for-4 at the plate.
Ringhofer's streak began March 4, 2016, when he recorded a hit in the series opener at Sacramento State. A junior from Cotttage Grove, Minnesota, Ringhofer had a hit in 43 games during the streak, and drew at least one base on balls in 30 contests during that same span.
Since his streak was broken, Ringhofer has reached base safely in nine consecutive games and carries a five-game hitting streak into Friday's series opener at Omaha.
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SUMMIT LEAGUE HONORS FROOM: South Dakota State right-hander Ryan Froom was honored Feb. 20 as the first Summit League Pitcher of the Week for the 2017 season.
A senior from Crystal, Minnnesota, Froom hurled seven shutout innings in a 3-1 Jackrabbit victory over Chicago State Feb. 18 in Glendale, Arizona. He limited Chicago State to three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five, including fanning the side in the top of the first inning.
In four starts this season, Froom is 2-1 with a 4.03 earned run average. He has struck out 115 batters in 22 1/3 innings and walked nine.
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FANNING THE SIDE: Three different South Dakota State pitchers struck out the side in order in an inning during the opening weekend of play.
Opening Day starter Austin Kost fanned all three batters he faced in the third inning of the Jackrabbits' Feb. 17 game against Northern Illinois.
Against Chicago State on Feb. 18, both Ryan Froom and Chris Halbur accomplished the feat. Froom struck out the side in the top of the first, while Halbur earned the save with three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth.
Halbur again struck out the side in order in earning the save in the second game of a doubleheader against Waldorf on March 7.
In seven appearances covering nine innings, Halbur has not allowed a run, surrendered only three hits (.107 opponent average) and struck out 11 batters against two walks.
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YOUNG ARMS: Two freshmen are penciled in the Jackrabbit starting rotation for the Summit League-opening series after earning their first collegiate victories last week.
Left-hander Brady Stover is tabbed as the series opening starter after earning the victory over nationally ranked Oklahoma State on March 10. Stover limited the Cowboys to one run on two hits over five innings, while striking out six and walking three.
For the season, Stover has made three starts and struck out 14 batters in 11 innings.
Right-hander Tyler Olmstead, who is the scheduled starter for Sunday's series finale, won his first career decision March 8 against Minnesota-Crookston. In that outing, Olmstead worked the first five innings, struck out seven, did not walk a batter and allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits.
In Olmstead's other appearance, he struck out two in three innings to give him nine strikeouts over eight innings of work.
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COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 500 victories, was named head baseball coach at South Dakota State University on Aug. 1, 2016. Bishop is the ninth head coach in program history and the fourth in the Division I era of Jackrabbit baseball.
Overall, Bishop holds a 555-329-1 record (.628 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 6-7 mark at SDSU. He spent the previous six years at NCAA Division II member Montana State University-Billings, where he led the Yellowjackets to back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season titles in 2015 and 2016, attaining the program's first-ever 30-win season with a 30-20 record in 2016.
His squads also were honored as the top academic team in the GNAC each of his last three seasons.
Previously, Bishop spent 10 years at Miles City Community College in Montana, where his teams won MonDak conference championships every year. His squads also claimed five consecutive junior college region titles and a Northwest District championship in 2007 to advance to the NJCAA Division II College World Series. He also served as athletic director the last five years of his tenure at Miles City.
Bishop served as a graduate assistant at SDSU under head coach Mark Ekeland during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In his first season as a head coach, Bishop led Huron University to the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title in 2000.
A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.
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THE ROSTER: The 2017 SDSU baseball roster features 36 players from five different states. Of the 36 players, 15 are from South Dakota, 10 are from Minnesota and nine hail from Iowa. California and Indiana are represented by one player each.
By class, eight are seniors, 11 are juniors, six are sophomores, two are redshirt freshmen and nine are true freshmen.
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A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits are scheduled to play a midweek game March 22 at in-state program Mount Marty. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Riverside Park in Yankton.
From there, SDSU will return to Summit League action and the state of Oklahoma with a three-game series March 24-26 at Oral Roberts.
-GoJacks.com-
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Friday's series opener is set for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Isaacson Field located in Seymour Smith Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Saturday's second game with slated for a 2 p.m. start, with Sunday's series finale tabbed for a noon start.
The Jackrabbits enter the series with a 6-7 overall record after winning one of three games at nationally ranked Oklahoma State last weekend. Omaha is 1-14 overall under first-year head coach Evan Porter.
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THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Omaha will play for the 150th time, when the two squads meet in Friday's series opener. The Mavericks hold an 80-68-1 lead in the series that dates back to 1949.The two programs were longtime rivals in the North Central Conference before both moving to Division I and The Summit League in the past decade.
Omaha held a 4-3 series advantage during the 2016 season. The Mavericks won two of three games in each of the two regular season series, while the Jackrabbits ended Omaha's season with an 8-0 shutout victory at the 2016 Summit League Baseball Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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SUMMIT HISTORY: South Dakota State has achieved consistent success in The Summit League, since joining the conference at the start of the 2008 season. In the nine previous seasons as a league member, the Jackrabbits have a combined record of 130-103 (.558 winning percentage) and have qualified for the four-team league tournament in seven of eight years of eligibility. SDSU won a regular season league title in 2010 and the Summit postseason tournament championship in 2013.
SDSU has won five of nine Summit League openers, including a 3-2, 12-inning win at Oral Roberts last season. That victory ended a three-game losing streak in league openers from 2013-15.
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PRESEASON POLL: The South Dakota State University baseball team has been picked to finish second in the 2017 Summit League race, according to a poll conducted among league coaches and announced by league officials on Feb. 9.
The Jackrabbits return six position starters from a squad that finished the 2016 season with a 22-35 overall record and fourth-place finish in the league standings with a 13-17 mark.
Defending Summit League champion Oral Roberts received five first-place votes en route to earning the top spot in the poll with 25 points. SDSU received the other first-place vote and 18 points, and was followed by North Dakota State (17), Omaha (13), Western Illinois (9) and Fort Wayne (8).
The 30-game Summit League schedule kicks off March 17, when the Jackrabbits open a three-game series at Omaha. Oral Roberts will host the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship May 24-27 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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LAST WEEK: The Jackrabbits wrapped up the pre-conference portion of their schedule by winning one of three games at nationally ranked Oklahoma State. In turning in a 2-1 victory in the series opener on March 10, SDSU defeated a ranked opponent for the second year in a row.
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POWER SURGE: South Dakota State hit a total of four home runs in its four-game set at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis March 6-8.
Anthony Schneider posted the first two-home-run game by a Jackrabbit this season with a pair of blasts against Minnesota on March 7, while Newt Johnson and Matt Johnson each connected for home runs March 8 against Minnesota-Crookston.
Prior to Schneider, Matt Johnson was last Jackrabbit with a two-home-run game, connecting twice against North Dakota State on April 16, 2016, at Erv Huether Field.
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SMITH SETS THE TABLE: Sophomore utility player Nick Smith took over the team lead in batting average last week after after hitting .462 (12-for-26) in seven games. Smith hit safely in all four games played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to open the week, including recording a three-hit contest against Waldorf to open the slate and a four-hit game versus Minnesota-Crookston. Two of Smith's hits were doubles and he also stole a pair of bases as he posted a .714 clip (10-for-14) in returning to his home state.
A native of Chanhassen, Minnesota, Smith enters the weekend series at Omaha with a team-best .385 batting average for the season and has tallied six multi-hit games.
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JOHNSON OFF TO HOT START: Senior first baseman Matt Johnson has been one of the the Jackrabbits' top hitters through the first month of the season. The Ankeny, Iowa, native is the lone SDSU player to record a hit in each of the first 13 games this season en route to a .375 batting average and team-best 11 runs batted in.
Nine of Johnson's 18 hits have gone for extra bases — six doubles and three home runs — as he has compiled a .688 slugging percentage.
Johnson leads active Jackrabbit players with 17 career home runs as he shares the team lead this season with three round-trippers, the last of which came in the March 12 series finale at Oklahoma State.
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RINGHOFER'S STREAK ENDS: Jackrabbit catcher Luke Ringhofer had his school-record streak of reaching base safely in 52 consecutive games come to an end in the Jackrabbits' loss to Maine on Feb. 25, when he went 0-for-4 at the plate.
Ringhofer's streak began March 4, 2016, when he recorded a hit in the series opener at Sacramento State. A junior from Cotttage Grove, Minnesota, Ringhofer had a hit in 43 games during the streak, and drew at least one base on balls in 30 contests during that same span.
Since his streak was broken, Ringhofer has reached base safely in nine consecutive games and carries a five-game hitting streak into Friday's series opener at Omaha.
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SUMMIT LEAGUE HONORS FROOM: South Dakota State right-hander Ryan Froom was honored Feb. 20 as the first Summit League Pitcher of the Week for the 2017 season.
A senior from Crystal, Minnnesota, Froom hurled seven shutout innings in a 3-1 Jackrabbit victory over Chicago State Feb. 18 in Glendale, Arizona. He limited Chicago State to three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five, including fanning the side in the top of the first inning.
In four starts this season, Froom is 2-1 with a 4.03 earned run average. He has struck out 115 batters in 22 1/3 innings and walked nine.
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FANNING THE SIDE: Three different South Dakota State pitchers struck out the side in order in an inning during the opening weekend of play.
Opening Day starter Austin Kost fanned all three batters he faced in the third inning of the Jackrabbits' Feb. 17 game against Northern Illinois.
Against Chicago State on Feb. 18, both Ryan Froom and Chris Halbur accomplished the feat. Froom struck out the side in the top of the first, while Halbur earned the save with three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth.
Halbur again struck out the side in order in earning the save in the second game of a doubleheader against Waldorf on March 7.
In seven appearances covering nine innings, Halbur has not allowed a run, surrendered only three hits (.107 opponent average) and struck out 11 batters against two walks.
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YOUNG ARMS: Two freshmen are penciled in the Jackrabbit starting rotation for the Summit League-opening series after earning their first collegiate victories last week.
Left-hander Brady Stover is tabbed as the series opening starter after earning the victory over nationally ranked Oklahoma State on March 10. Stover limited the Cowboys to one run on two hits over five innings, while striking out six and walking three.
For the season, Stover has made three starts and struck out 14 batters in 11 innings.
Right-hander Tyler Olmstead, who is the scheduled starter for Sunday's series finale, won his first career decision March 8 against Minnesota-Crookston. In that outing, Olmstead worked the first five innings, struck out seven, did not walk a batter and allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits.
In Olmstead's other appearance, he struck out two in three innings to give him nine strikeouts over eight innings of work.
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COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 500 victories, was named head baseball coach at South Dakota State University on Aug. 1, 2016. Bishop is the ninth head coach in program history and the fourth in the Division I era of Jackrabbit baseball.
Overall, Bishop holds a 555-329-1 record (.628 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 6-7 mark at SDSU. He spent the previous six years at NCAA Division II member Montana State University-Billings, where he led the Yellowjackets to back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season titles in 2015 and 2016, attaining the program's first-ever 30-win season with a 30-20 record in 2016.
His squads also were honored as the top academic team in the GNAC each of his last three seasons.
Previously, Bishop spent 10 years at Miles City Community College in Montana, where his teams won MonDak conference championships every year. His squads also claimed five consecutive junior college region titles and a Northwest District championship in 2007 to advance to the NJCAA Division II College World Series. He also served as athletic director the last five years of his tenure at Miles City.
Bishop served as a graduate assistant at SDSU under head coach Mark Ekeland during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In his first season as a head coach, Bishop led Huron University to the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title in 2000.
A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.
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THE ROSTER: The 2017 SDSU baseball roster features 36 players from five different states. Of the 36 players, 15 are from South Dakota, 10 are from Minnesota and nine hail from Iowa. California and Indiana are represented by one player each.
By class, eight are seniors, 11 are juniors, six are sophomores, two are redshirt freshmen and nine are true freshmen.
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A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits are scheduled to play a midweek game March 22 at in-state program Mount Marty. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Riverside Park in Yankton.
From there, SDSU will return to Summit League action and the state of Oklahoma with a three-game series March 24-26 at Oral Roberts.
-GoJacks.com-
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