Softball heads for Kansas City

Gameday Information

Date	Tuesday, April 11
Time	1 / 3 p.m. (DH)
Location	Kansas City, Mo. (Missouri 3&2 Complex)
Live Stats	Game 1 \| Game 2
Live Audio	UMKCKangaroos.com
Live Video	Periscope

First Pitch

South Dakota State travels to Kansas City this week for its final non-conference road game of the 2017 campaign, taking on UMKC Tuesday at Missouri 3&2 Complex. First pitch in the doubleheader is set for 1 p.m., followed by a game two start at approximately 3 p.m.
SDSU and UMKC have faced off every season since 2008, with the Kangaroos holding a 17-8 advantage in the 25 total games played. The Jacks have dropped five straight to the Kangaroos, last claiming a win in 2014 from the Jackrabbit Softball Stadium.
State (14-25, 1-5 Summit League) dropped a doubleheader at North Dakota its last time out and is looking to snap a three-game losing streak.
The Jackrabbits are hitting .257 as a team with 48 doubles, eight triples and 17 home runs. The team is 15 of 20 in stolen base attempts and has scored 141 runs with 133 RBI.
From the circle, SDSU holds a 3.31 combined ERA and has struck out 188 batters in 258.1 total innings. The Jacks have allowed 122 earned runs from the circle and have walked 107 opponents.

UMKC Kangaroos

UMKC (11-27, 4-2 WAC) is coming off a three-game series against Grand Canyon last weekend where the Kangaroos won the second contest. The 'Roos have won four of their last 10 but swept CSU Bakersfield in a three-game set to open the month of April.
The Kangaroos are hitting .249 as a team with 38 doubles, six triples and 16 home runs. UMKC has scored 110 total runs this year with 101 RBI while going 29 of 40 in stolen base attempts.
Kendra Leach leads the team with a .390 average at the plate, racking up 41 hits through 37 starts with seven doubles, four triples and two home runs. Leach is also one of UMKC's top performers in the circle, striking out five with a 2.96 ERA over 17 appearances.
Kelsey Goodwin is just below the .300 mark (.298), going 25 for 84 at the plate with seven doubles and two long balls.
As a team, UMKC has a 6.18 ERA and 60 strikeouts from the circle, allowing 241 total runs in 223 innings pitched.
Lynsey Conner has appeared in 25 games with 16 starts, putting together a 4-10 record and 6.12 ERA with a team-high 30 strikeouts.
Head Coach Meredith Smith Neal is in her 11th year leading the Kangaroos and holds a 217-327 record as a head coach.

Jacks at the Plate

Ali Herdliska's 14 doubles leads the conference and ranks third nationally as of April 10. She is No. 21 in the nation with 0.36 doubles per game.
Lyndsey Crist's three sacrifice flies leads the conference and is 41st best in NCAA Division I as of April 3.
Julia Andersen and Ali Herdliska each have 10 multi-hit games to lead the Jacks. Herdliska has seven multi-RBI performances as well while leading the team with 37 hits. Andersen is second with 32 hits.
Brittney Morse leads the Jacks with six home runs and is second with six doubles, just ahead of Andersen, who has five two-baggers while pacing the Jacks with two triples.
Ali Herdliska is tied for fourth on SDSU's career home run record list with 19 long balls. She is one shy of No. 3 on the list - Ashley Kalina, and six away from the No. 2 spot, held by Steph Kuhl. Devan Larsen holds the school record with 35 for her career.
Ali Herdliska tallied five RBI Feb. 26 against Alabama A&M. That mark is second best for a single game in SDSU's Division I history.
Three Jackrabbits have combined for four four-RBI performances thus far in 2017. Danielle Steffo has driven in four in a game twice this season (Feb. 17 and March 7) while Ali Herdliska did it March 10 and Emily Ensrud reached the mark April 1.
Lyndsey Crist scored four runs in SDSU's win over South Carolina State, a mark that is tied for the school's single game NCAA Division I record.
Danielle Steffo has SDSU's lone four-hit game of the season thus far as she went 4 for 4 against St. Bonaventure March 7. That is tied for third best in the school's NCAA Division I record book.
Emily Ensrud has started 17 of the last 19 games and is hitting .338 for the year, reaching safely in 16 of her 22 total appearances, including a streak of eight straight from March 8 to March 18.
Lyndsey Crist has worked 21 walks this season and is just one shy of joining SDSU's single season record list top 10. The record for single season walks is 34, set last year by Ali Herdliska.
The Jackrabbits are tied for the most doubles as a team in the league and lead the conference with eight triples.
SDSU has the second most hits and runs batted in in the conference.

Jacks in the Circle

Abby Deane set the school's Division I strikeouts mark March 7 against St. Bonaventure, when she sat down 13 opponents in five innings. She also struck out 10 Feb. 11 against Northern Iowa.
Madison Hope has racked up two saves already on the year, which ranks 46th in the NCAA and is one shy of SDSU's single season saves record. Hope is leading the team with a 2.73 ERA over 43.2 innings pitched in 20 appearances.
Abby Deane (8-13) has tossed 124.2 innings to pace the squad with 117 strikeouts on the year. That strikeout tally is 41st in NCAA Division I and third in The Summit League.
Ashlyn Bender has a 2.97 ERA through 22 appearances (including 18 starts) while going 6-9 on the year with 46 strikeouts.
SDSU sits third in the conference with a 3.31 team ERA, showing continued improvement in the circle since the arrival of Krista Wood and Shannon Pivovar three years ago. In 2014, SDSU had a 6.03 combined ERA and lowered it to 4.31 in 2015.
The Jackrabbits are third in the Summit League with 188 strikeouts as a team and have played the second most innings among all league teams. The Jacks also lead the league with only 23 home runs allowed and are third with a 5.09 strikeouts per seven innings mark.

Summit League Players of the Week

Newcomer Brittney Morse made the most of her weekend debut as a Jackrabbit en route to earning Summit League Player of the Week honors Feb. 13. Morse hit .400 (6 of 15) over five starts and blasted four home runs. She posted 1.200 slugging and .471 on base percentages for the weekend and picked up six RBI.
Ali Herdliska picked up her first career Summit League Player of the Week honor March 13. She hit .417 (15 for 35) on the week with six doubles, two triples and a home run, driving in 14 with five multi-hit games and four multi-RBI games.

Jacks picked fifth in Summit League Poll

SDSU was tabbed fifth in the 2017 Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll, released early February by the league office.
The Jacks have earned the No. 5 seed in the previous two Summit League Championships and will look to improve their seeding for the 2017 year-end tournament.
North Dakota State, the three-time defending Summit League Tournament champion, was picked first.

Herdliska named Player to Watch

As part of The Summit League's preseason poll release, league coaches selected eight Players to Watch. SDSU's Ali Herdliska, the 2016 Freshman of the Year was part of the list after earning All-Summit League First Team honors last year.
2016 saw Herdliska match the school's single-season home run record (16) while the first year player broke the single-season records for walks (34), total bases (108) and slugging percentage (.725). She also had 45 runs batted in, the second best performance in Jackrabbit history.

#BackAndBetter

Three All-Conference selections from the 2016 season lead the Jackrabbits into the new campaign as the team looks to continue its upward trend since the arrival of head coach Krista Wood two years ago.
Herdliska, mentioned above as a 2017 Player to Watch, was a First Team pick and the Freshman of the Year after leading the team with a .322 average, 48 hits, 16 home runs and 45 RBI.
Lyndsey Crist appeared in 48 games last year for SDSU and hit .319, racking up seven doubles, five home runs and 22 RBi while posting a .983 fielding percentage. She also went 8 of 9 on steal attempts.
Abbey Murphy started 53 of 55 games for SDSU and hit .280, tallying 10 doubles and three home runs with 21 RBI. Additionally, she walked 14 times, had six stolen bases and recorded a .943 fielding percentage.
Two senior pitchers, Ashlyn Bender and Katie Lang, anchor the staff for SDSU. Bender went 9-18 last year with a team-leading 4.00 ERA over 169.2 innings. Lang made five appearances, threw 9.1 innings and had three strikeouts with a 4.50 ERA.

Anderson Bats Renews Partnership

Anderson Bat Company announced last fall its renewal of a partnership with the South Dakota State Jackrabbit softball program on Thursday as the official softball bat supplier for the 2017 season.
The Jackrabbits will be swinging the Rocketech 2.0 and Supernova 2.0 Fast Pitch Softball Bats in the 2017 season.
Anderson Bat Company is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance softball and baseball bats. Established in 1999, our labor of love has evolved from a private labeling operation into the industry's leading manufacturer of alloy and composite baseball and softball bats, and the best is yet to come.

2016 Season Review

2016 was a year of new heights for the Jackrabbit softball program as head coach Krista Wood completed her second season at the helm. South Dakota State finished the year 23-34, earning the fifth seed in the Summit League Tournament for the second consecutive year.
SDSU won 20 games in consecutive years for the first time in a decade. It was the 12th 20-win season in the program's 46-year history.
Ali Herdliska and Lyndsey Crist were All-Summit League First Team selections while Abbey Murphy earned second team honors.
SDSU tied an NCAA record with four consecutive home runs against Fort Wayne (April 30, 2016) as Lauren Chirnside, Abbey Murphy, Jordyn Sturgeon and Danielle Steffo went back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the fourth inning of a 12-1 win.
Devan Larsen ended her career with a school record 35 home runs, hitting 12 as a senior to finish second on the team.
Ali Herdliska tied Larson's single-season home run record with 16 round-trippers while also setting school records in slugging percentage (.725), total bases (108) and walks (34). Her 45 runs batted in was second most in school history for a season. In terms of single games, Herdliska walked four times against South Dakota on May 7, 2016 to reset the school record.
Christian McKone swiped a school record 29 bases out of 31 steal attempts.
Chirnside set a single-game school record (tying the NCAA mark) with four doubles on March 22, 2016 against Drake.

-GoJacks.com-

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Players Mentioned

Julia Andersen

Ashlyn Bender

Lauren Chirnside

Lyndsey Crist

Abby Deane

Emily Ensrud

Ali Herdliska

Madison Hope

Katie Lang

Devan Larsen

Christian McKone

Brittney Morse

Abbey Murphy

Danielle Steffo

Jordyn Sturgeon

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