Home sweet home; Jacks welcome Mastodons - South Dakota State University Athletics

Saturday, April 15

Brookings, S.D.

2 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Fort Wayne (Strike Out Cancer)

Photo by: Jeff Kellum

4/14/2017 10:09:00 AM | Softball

SDSU Game Notes

Gameday Information

April 15	2 pm. (DH1)	Live Stats	Live Video
April 15	4 p.m. (DH2)	Live Stats	Live Video
April 16	11 a.m.	Live Stats	Live Video

First Pitch

South Dakota State welcomes Fort Wayne to Jackrabbit Softball Stadium this weekend, April 15-16, for the 2017 home opener. Due to wet forecasts in the area, the three-game series was pushed back one day and will take play Saturday and Sunday.
First pitch in Saturday's doubleheader is set for 2 and 4 p.m., with a single game to follow Sunday at 11 a.m.
With the schedule change, Saturday's doubleheader will now be promoted as both Strike Out Cancer and Junior Jacks Day games. Prior to Saturday's first game, the Jacks will have a moment of silence and release balloons in honor of those who have battled or are battling cancer. The balloons will represent the different colors that are associated with various cancers. During starting lineups, the Junior Jacks will take the field with South Dakota State players for the national anthem.
In addition to Saturday's pregame ceremony, the Strike Out Cancer weekend will include hair donations for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Members of the community, athletic department and Jackrabbit softball team have pledged to take part in the program, with haircuts taking place Friday at 2:30 p.m., in the Champions Room of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. For those interested, please contact assistant coach Shannon Pivovar at Shannon.Pivovar@sdstate.edu.
SDSU (14-27, 1-5 Summit League) looks to get back on track after losing five straight and will host Fort Wayne (8-29, 1-5 Summit League), who sit tied with the Jackrabbits in league play with less than a month of regular season play remaining.
State and the Mastodons have faced off 26 times prior to this weekend with Fort Wayne holding a 15-11 edge in the all-time series. State, however, have swept FW in three-game sets the last two seasons. In the 2016 series, SDSU outscored the 'Dons, 31-3.
The Jacks are hitting .261 as a team with 53 doubles, eight triples and 18 home runs. The squad is 15 of 21 in stolen base attempts and has scored 146 total runs with 138 RBI and 285 hits.
From the circle, SDSU holds a 3.39 combined ERA and has struck out 195 batters in 270.2 total innings. The Jacks have allowed 131 earned runs and walked 116 batters.

Fort Wayne Mastodons

Fort Wayne has lost seven of its last eight and holds a 2-8 record over the last 10 contests. The Mastodons' lone Summit League victory came last weekend against Western Illinois.
The Dons are hitting .247 as a team with 34 doubles, five triples and 10 home runs while going 23 for 33 in stolen base efforts.
Lauren Watson (.373) and Brooke Imel (.311) lead the team at the plate as Watson has racked up 44 hits with 10 RBI and nine walks. In terms of power numbers, Sierra Miranda (.290) has seven doubles and two home runs while Cailtyn DeLong (.230) has six doubles and four long balls, driving in 16.
FW has a 5.25 combined ERA on the year over 231.2 innings, allowing 247 total runs with 119 strikeouts.
Bailey Benefiel (3-13) leads the team with a 4.90 ERA. She has tossed 105.2 innings and struck out 67 with 64 walks. Elizabeth Snodgrass (2-6, 6.18 ERA) and Olivia White (2-7, 7.00 ERA) have each made 15 appearances. Snodgrass has 11 strikeouts and 22 walks while White has struck out 33 and given 37 free passes.
Head Coach Germaine Fairchild is in her third season with the Mastodons and holds a 22-114 record. In 16 years of head coaching experience, Fairchild has a 314-470-1 record.

Jacks at the Plate

Ali Herdliska's 14 doubles leads the conference and ranks sixth nationally as of April 10. She is No. 32 in the nation with 0.34 doubles per game.
Lyndsey Crist's three sacrifice flies leads the conference and is 51st best in NCAA Division I as of April 13.
Ali Herdliska leads the team with 11 multi-hit games, seven multi-RBI performances and 40 total hits. Julie Andersen has racked up 10 two-hit games while sitting second with 34 hits for the year.
Brittney Morse leads the Jacks with seven home runs and is second with seven doubles, just ahead of Andersen and Lyndsey Crist, who each have six two-baggers.
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.
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.
SDSU leads the conference in total hits (285), doubles (53) and triples (8) while sitting second in runs batted in (138).

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 2.80 ERA over 50 innings pitched in 21 appearances.
Abby Deane (8-13) has tossed 124.2 innings to pace the squad with 117 strikeouts on the year. That strikeout tally is 52nd in NCAA Division I and third in The Summit League.
Ashlyn Bender has a 3.32 ERA through 23 appearances (including 19 starts) while going 6-10 on the year with 47 strikeouts.
South Dakota State leads the conference in innings pitched (270.2), sits second in ERA (3.39) and earned runs allowed and is third in strikeouts (195) and strikeouts per seven innings (5.04).
SDSU's 3.31 team ERA reflects 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.

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.