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, April 7
Fargo, N.D.
6:30 p.m.
South Dakota State University
at
North Dakota State
Photo by: Eric Landwehr
Jacks move on to NDSU for series
4/6/2017 2:14:00 PM | Baseball
BROOKINGS, S.D. — The South Dakota State University baseball team returns to Summit League action this weekend, traveling to North Dakota State for a three-game series.
Friday's series opener is scheduled for first pitch at 6:30 p.m. at Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, N.D. Games Saturday and Sunday are slated for 1 p.m. starts. Radio coverage of all three games begins 15 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch each day on Brookings-based KJJQ 910 AM, as well as through the Jackrabbits All-Access media portal at GoJacks.com.
Midco Sports Network will televise Friday's game. Video coverage of all three games will be available at GoBison.com.
The Jackrabbits enter the weekend second in the Summit League standings with a 6-3 mark and are 13-11 overall. Thus far in Summit League play for SDSU, it has been a case of sweep or be swept. The Jackrabbits opened Summit League play with a three-game sweep at Omaha March 17-19 before being swept a week later at Oral Roberts. SDSU opened the home season last weekend by winning all three games against Fort Wayne, starting with a 1-0, 11-inning victory on March 31 at Erv Huether Field.
NDSU, meanwhile, is part of a three-way tie for third place in the league race with a 4-5 record after winning two of three games last weekend at Omaha. The Bison enter their first Summit League homestand with a 12-16 overall mark after splitting games against Minnesota (L, 1-7) and Minot State (W, 7-4) earlier this week.
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THE SERIES: Friday's game will mark the 173rd meeting on the baseball diamond between SDSU and North Dakota State. In the series that dates back to 1956, the Jackrabbits hold a 111-61 lead.
Since the two programs joined The Summit League at the start of the 2008 season, the Jackrabbits hold a 23-19 edge in league regular season games. SDSU held a 4-2 series advantage last season, which included a three-game sweep in the first series between the two squads April 15-17 at Erv Huether Field in Brookings. The Jackrabbits outscored NDSU 30-12 in the three-game sweep and hit eight home runs, including three each by Paul Jacobson and Matt Johnson and two by Anthony Schneider.
The two squads played their second series of the 2016 season in Fargo on the final weekend of league play, May 19-21. NDSU won the first two matchups to force a winner-take-all final game of the regular season to determine the last of four spots in the Summit League postseason tournament. The Jackrabbits led 4-0 through five and a half innings before NDSU?rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. SDSU countered with three runs in the top of the ninth and held on for a 7-4 victory to claim its seventh conference postseason tournament berth in eight seasons.
SDSU also has won four of the five games played between the two programs at the Summit League Baseball Championship.
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 at 13-17.
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).
 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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JOHNSON AND JOHNSON: Starting corner infielders Matt Johnson and Newt Johnson have been two of the most consistent offensive players for the Jackrabbits during the 2017 season.
A senior first baseman, Matt Johnson recorded a hit in each of the team's first 17 games of the season and has reached base safely in all 24 games in 2017. The Ankeny, Iowa, native leads the Jackrabbits in all three triple crown categories with a .341 batting average, five home runs and 19 runs batted in (shares team lead). He also ranks first on the squad with a .602 slugging percentage and .449 on-base percentage.
A second-team all-Summit League honoree in 2016, he matched the program best of 19 consecutive games with a hit last season. He also leads active Jackrabbit players with 19 career home runs, the last of which came in an April 4 game at Iowa.
A junior third baseman from Rapid City, Newt Johnson currently leads the team with nine doubles and shares the team lead with 19 runs batted in. He has hit safely in 18 of the 23 games in which he has played and has driven in three runs in a game three times thus far in 2017.
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RINGHOFER STREAK ENDS, STARTS ANOTHER: 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.
Since his streak was broken, Ringhofer has reached base safely in 20 consecutive games and carries a 16-game hitting streak into Friday's series opener at North Dakota State. Ringhofer has put together a hitting streak of at least 13 games in each of his three seasons at SDSU.
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YOUNG ARMS: Three freshman pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout and struck out 12 batters as South Dakota State opened the home portion of its schedule with a 1-0 victory over Dakota Wesleyan March 29 at Erv Huether Field.
Right-hander Hunter Even pitched the first five innings and limited DWU to five hits. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter.
Brett Mogen followed Even's performance with three shutout innings in which he struck out four, walked one and gave up one hit. Quinn Reimers pitched a perfect ninth inning, which included a strikeout, to earn his first career save.
The combined shutout was part of a string of 26 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings hurled by the Jackrabbits. The string started with 2 1/3 scoreless innings in the March 26 series finale at Oral Roberts and ended in the fifth inning of the Jackrabbits' April 1 contest against Fort Wayne.
Another freshman, left-hander Brady Stover, has been tabbed as the Friday starter after earning two victories last month. On March 10, Stover limited nationally ranked Oklahoma State to one run on two hits over five innings, while striking out six and walking three as the Jackrabbits won, 2-1.
Stover followed that performance with a career-high eight strikeouts in six shutout innings March 17 at Omaha. He leads the Jackrabbits with 32 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.
In his last outing, Stover hurled 6 2/3 shutout innings against Fort Wayne on March 31, lowering his ERA?to 2.93.
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BACK-TO-BACK SHUTOUTS: With consecutive 1-0 wins against Dakota Wesleyan on March 29 and Fort Wayne on March 31, South Dakota State hurled back-to-back shutouts for the first time in four years.
The last time the Jackrabbits posted consecutive shutout wins was May 26, 2013, when SDSU blanked North Dakota State by scores of 2-0 and 1-0 in the championship series of the Summit League postseason tournament in Rochester, Michigan.
SDSU has posted three shutouts so far in 2017.
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LIGHTS OUT: Three relievers have solidified the Jackrabbit pitching staff in the first two months of the 2017 season.
Leading the way is closer Chris Halbur. A senior right-hander from Manning, Iowa, Halbur has not allowed a run in 12 appearances, covering 17 innings. He has given up only five hits (.096 opponent average) and struck out 22 batters against five walks. His four saves currently are tied for the Summit League lead, while his six career saves at SDSU rank 10th in program history.
Halbur earned the win after pitching the final three innings in SDSU's 1-0, 11-inning victory over Fort Wayne on March 31. He also pitched in the April 2 series finale, striking out two batters in an inning of work.
Left-hander Bryce Hanson has pitched effectively as a long reliever and spot starter. A sophomore from Dakota Dunes, Hanson is 2-0 in 10 appearances with a 1.45 earned run average. He has struck out 18 batters in 18 2/3 innings.
Junior setup man Derek Feige also has pitched well out of the bullpen and ranks third on the team with 11 appearances. A junior from Sioux Falls, Feige has posted a 2-2 record with a 2.45 ERA, while striking out 16 in 18 1/3 innings.
SOLID DEFENSE: The Jackrabbits have improved defensively since the start of Summit League play, posting a .979 team fielding percentage with only six errors in nine league contests.
SDSU is working on a streak of 10 consecutive games overall with either zero or one error. The last time the Jackrabbits committed more than one error in a game was the Summit League opener March 17 at Omaha.
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TURNING TWO: South Dakota State played solid defense in their series sweep of Omaha to open Summit League play. The Jackrabbits turned eight double plays, including a Division I-era-best four in the opening game of the series on March 17.
Second baseman Nick Smith was part of all eight double plays, seven of which came on ground balls, with the other on a lineout.
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INJURY BUG: The Jackrabbits went into last weekend's series against Fort Wayne short-handed. Two-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week Ryan Froom is out indefinitely with an arm injury and fellow hurler Tyler Olmstead missed his last scheduled start and is expected to miss another couple weeks.
Starting shortstop Tony Kjolsing, who had been sidelined by injury since the opening weekend of the season, made his return to the starting lineup in the April 1 game versus Fort Wayne.
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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 562-333-1 record (.628 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 13-11 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.
A LOOK AHEAD: SDSU will make a one-day trip to Omaha, Nebraska, on April 11 for a non-conference game against Creighton. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park.
From there, the Jackrabbits will return to Summit League play at Western Illinois over the Easter holiday weekend. The series will consist of a single game April 14, followed by a doubleheader on April 15 in Macomb, Illinois.
-GoJacks.com-
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Friday's series opener is scheduled for first pitch at 6:30 p.m. at Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, N.D. Games Saturday and Sunday are slated for 1 p.m. starts. Radio coverage of all three games begins 15 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch each day on Brookings-based KJJQ 910 AM, as well as through the Jackrabbits All-Access media portal at GoJacks.com.
Midco Sports Network will televise Friday's game. Video coverage of all three games will be available at GoBison.com.
The Jackrabbits enter the weekend second in the Summit League standings with a 6-3 mark and are 13-11 overall. Thus far in Summit League play for SDSU, it has been a case of sweep or be swept. The Jackrabbits opened Summit League play with a three-game sweep at Omaha March 17-19 before being swept a week later at Oral Roberts. SDSU opened the home season last weekend by winning all three games against Fort Wayne, starting with a 1-0, 11-inning victory on March 31 at Erv Huether Field.
NDSU, meanwhile, is part of a three-way tie for third place in the league race with a 4-5 record after winning two of three games last weekend at Omaha. The Bison enter their first Summit League homestand with a 12-16 overall mark after splitting games against Minnesota (L, 1-7) and Minot State (W, 7-4) earlier this week.
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THE SERIES: Friday's game will mark the 173rd meeting on the baseball diamond between SDSU and North Dakota State. In the series that dates back to 1956, the Jackrabbits hold a 111-61 lead.
Since the two programs joined The Summit League at the start of the 2008 season, the Jackrabbits hold a 23-19 edge in league regular season games. SDSU held a 4-2 series advantage last season, which included a three-game sweep in the first series between the two squads April 15-17 at Erv Huether Field in Brookings. The Jackrabbits outscored NDSU 30-12 in the three-game sweep and hit eight home runs, including three each by Paul Jacobson and Matt Johnson and two by Anthony Schneider.
The two squads played their second series of the 2016 season in Fargo on the final weekend of league play, May 19-21. NDSU won the first two matchups to force a winner-take-all final game of the regular season to determine the last of four spots in the Summit League postseason tournament. The Jackrabbits led 4-0 through five and a half innings before NDSU?rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. SDSU countered with three runs in the top of the ninth and held on for a 7-4 victory to claim its seventh conference postseason tournament berth in eight seasons.
SDSU also has won four of the five games played between the two programs at the Summit League Baseball Championship.
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 at 13-17.
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).
 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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JOHNSON AND JOHNSON: Starting corner infielders Matt Johnson and Newt Johnson have been two of the most consistent offensive players for the Jackrabbits during the 2017 season.
A senior first baseman, Matt Johnson recorded a hit in each of the team's first 17 games of the season and has reached base safely in all 24 games in 2017. The Ankeny, Iowa, native leads the Jackrabbits in all three triple crown categories with a .341 batting average, five home runs and 19 runs batted in (shares team lead). He also ranks first on the squad with a .602 slugging percentage and .449 on-base percentage.
A second-team all-Summit League honoree in 2016, he matched the program best of 19 consecutive games with a hit last season. He also leads active Jackrabbit players with 19 career home runs, the last of which came in an April 4 game at Iowa.
A junior third baseman from Rapid City, Newt Johnson currently leads the team with nine doubles and shares the team lead with 19 runs batted in. He has hit safely in 18 of the 23 games in which he has played and has driven in three runs in a game three times thus far in 2017.
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RINGHOFER STREAK ENDS, STARTS ANOTHER: 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.
Since his streak was broken, Ringhofer has reached base safely in 20 consecutive games and carries a 16-game hitting streak into Friday's series opener at North Dakota State. Ringhofer has put together a hitting streak of at least 13 games in each of his three seasons at SDSU.
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YOUNG ARMS: Three freshman pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout and struck out 12 batters as South Dakota State opened the home portion of its schedule with a 1-0 victory over Dakota Wesleyan March 29 at Erv Huether Field.
Right-hander Hunter Even pitched the first five innings and limited DWU to five hits. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter.
Brett Mogen followed Even's performance with three shutout innings in which he struck out four, walked one and gave up one hit. Quinn Reimers pitched a perfect ninth inning, which included a strikeout, to earn his first career save.
The combined shutout was part of a string of 26 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings hurled by the Jackrabbits. The string started with 2 1/3 scoreless innings in the March 26 series finale at Oral Roberts and ended in the fifth inning of the Jackrabbits' April 1 contest against Fort Wayne.
Another freshman, left-hander Brady Stover, has been tabbed as the Friday starter after earning two victories last month. On March 10, Stover limited nationally ranked Oklahoma State to one run on two hits over five innings, while striking out six and walking three as the Jackrabbits won, 2-1.
Stover followed that performance with a career-high eight strikeouts in six shutout innings March 17 at Omaha. He leads the Jackrabbits with 32 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.
In his last outing, Stover hurled 6 2/3 shutout innings against Fort Wayne on March 31, lowering his ERA?to 2.93.
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BACK-TO-BACK SHUTOUTS: With consecutive 1-0 wins against Dakota Wesleyan on March 29 and Fort Wayne on March 31, South Dakota State hurled back-to-back shutouts for the first time in four years.
The last time the Jackrabbits posted consecutive shutout wins was May 26, 2013, when SDSU blanked North Dakota State by scores of 2-0 and 1-0 in the championship series of the Summit League postseason tournament in Rochester, Michigan.
SDSU has posted three shutouts so far in 2017.
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LIGHTS OUT: Three relievers have solidified the Jackrabbit pitching staff in the first two months of the 2017 season.
Leading the way is closer Chris Halbur. A senior right-hander from Manning, Iowa, Halbur has not allowed a run in 12 appearances, covering 17 innings. He has given up only five hits (.096 opponent average) and struck out 22 batters against five walks. His four saves currently are tied for the Summit League lead, while his six career saves at SDSU rank 10th in program history.
Halbur earned the win after pitching the final three innings in SDSU's 1-0, 11-inning victory over Fort Wayne on March 31. He also pitched in the April 2 series finale, striking out two batters in an inning of work.
Left-hander Bryce Hanson has pitched effectively as a long reliever and spot starter. A sophomore from Dakota Dunes, Hanson is 2-0 in 10 appearances with a 1.45 earned run average. He has struck out 18 batters in 18 2/3 innings.
Junior setup man Derek Feige also has pitched well out of the bullpen and ranks third on the team with 11 appearances. A junior from Sioux Falls, Feige has posted a 2-2 record with a 2.45 ERA, while striking out 16 in 18 1/3 innings.
SOLID DEFENSE: The Jackrabbits have improved defensively since the start of Summit League play, posting a .979 team fielding percentage with only six errors in nine league contests.
SDSU is working on a streak of 10 consecutive games overall with either zero or one error. The last time the Jackrabbits committed more than one error in a game was the Summit League opener March 17 at Omaha.
Â
TURNING TWO: South Dakota State played solid defense in their series sweep of Omaha to open Summit League play. The Jackrabbits turned eight double plays, including a Division I-era-best four in the opening game of the series on March 17.
Second baseman Nick Smith was part of all eight double plays, seven of which came on ground balls, with the other on a lineout.
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INJURY BUG: The Jackrabbits went into last weekend's series against Fort Wayne short-handed. Two-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week Ryan Froom is out indefinitely with an arm injury and fellow hurler Tyler Olmstead missed his last scheduled start and is expected to miss another couple weeks.
Starting shortstop Tony Kjolsing, who had been sidelined by injury since the opening weekend of the season, made his return to the starting lineup in the April 1 game versus Fort Wayne.
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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 562-333-1 record (.628 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 13-11 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.
A LOOK AHEAD: SDSU will make a one-day trip to Omaha, Nebraska, on April 11 for a non-conference game against Creighton. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park.
From there, the Jackrabbits will return to Summit League play at Western Illinois over the Easter holiday weekend. The series will consist of a single game April 14, followed by a doubleheader on April 15 in Macomb, Illinois.
-GoJacks.com-
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