Softball plays Nebraska Wednesday

GAMES 22-23: South Dakota State (14-7) at Nebraska (15-7)

When	Wednesday, March 14 \| 3/5 p.m.
Where	Bowlin Stadium \| Lincoln, Neb.
Live Video	Big Ten Plus / FloSoftball
Live Audio	Huskers.com
Live Stats	Game 1 \| Game 2
Game Notes	South Dakota State
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #GRIT

Gameday Outlook
After a successful trip to the Sunshine State last week to close early-season invitational play, the Jackrabbits stay on the road for a doubleheader Wednesday at Nebraska. First pitch from Bowlin Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska is set for 3 p.m. with game two following at approximately 5 p.m.

About the Jacks
Off to its best start at the Division I level, South Dakota State is 14-7 for the first time in 21 years midway through the second month of the 2018 campaign. The Jackrabbits are hitting .333 as a team and has tallied 43 doubles, five triples and 11 home runs with an 135 runs scored through 21 games. In the circle, State holds a 3.84 ERA and has 70 strikeouts over 136.2 combined innings.

Erin Mullen is hitting .455 through 10 appearances, while Abbey Murphy has started all 21 games and posted a .446 batting average, leading the team with 33 total hits. She had a team-high 20 runs batted in as well with six doubles, third among Jacks behind Julia Andersen (.372) and Brittney Morse (.371), who have nine and seven two-baggers, respectively. Megan Rushing is hitting .324 through 16 appearances and leads the Jacks with two doubles. Ali Herdliska (.313) and Mallory McQuistan (.300) both have three home runs, with Herdliska sitting third on the team in RBIs (17) behind Murphy and Morse (18).

Madison Hope (3.06 ERA) is 8-1 on the year and appeared in 15 games, starting 10. She leads the team with 66.1 innings pitched and 36 strikeouts, holding opponents to a .290 average against. Taylor Compton (5-6) has tossed 56.2 frames with a 4.94 ERA in her first collegiate season. Compton has struck out 27 and has two saves. Both Hope and Compton have thrown four complete games. Kendra Conard (3.07 ERA) picked up her first win last weekend and has thrown 13.2 innings on the season with seven strikeouts.

Weekend Recap
The Jackrabbit softball program turned in an 8-2 run over its spring break trip to Clearwater, Florida last weekend, going 5-1 to close the venture over six games at the USF-Under Armour Showcase. The Jacks hit .349 for the week with 20 doubles and five home runs, outscoring their opponents 67-38.

Individually, Erin Mullen led all starters with a .533 average over seven appearances with two doubles and a home run. Abbey Murphy went 16-for-36 (.444) at the plate and Brittney Morse (.406) drove in a team-best 11 runs with a .531 slugging percentage. Ali Herdliska (.379) was 11-for-29 at the plate with a double and a team-best two home runs, driving in eight while posting .621 slugging and .514 on-base percentages, drawing seven walks.

Madison Hope went 5-0 last week with a sub-2.00 ERA (1.94), pitching 36 innings with 21 strikeouts and four complete games. Kendra Conard appeared in two contests and struck out two over 2.2 innings for a 2.62 ERA. Taylor Compton (4.25 ERA) went 2-2 for the week over 28 innings pitched, striking out 12 with three complete games.

As a staff, State posted a 2.94 ERA and struck out 35 opponents, allowing 28 earned runs in 66.2 innings.

Opponent Outlook
Nebraska (15-7) is receiving votes in the latest NFCA Top 25 and has won four straight, last playing March 9-10 at the Jayhawk Invitational in Lawrence, Kansas. The Cornhuskers are hitting .261 as a team with 29 doubles, three triples and 16 home runs, outscoring opponents 87-74 on the season so far. The UNL pitching staff has a 3.23 ERA over 145 innings, striking out 90.

Kaylan Jablonski (.348) has started all 22 games for the Huskers and has four doubles and four home runs. She is tied for third on the team in RBIs (10) alongside Taylor Otte (.250), who has three doubles and three long balls. Tristen Edwards (.347) leads Nebraska with 16 RBIs and six doubles while matching Jablonski's home run total of four. Madi Unzicker (.215) and three doubles, three home runs and a triple and is second on the team with 11 runs driven in.

Olivia Ferrell (2.53 ERA) is 6-1 over 16 appearances, striking out 34 in 55.1 innings. Jablonski (2.87 ERA) is 8-5 and leads the team in appearances (seven), innings (70.2) and strikeouts (43).

Nebraska's Rhonda Revelle is in her 26th season leading the program and boasts a 952-521 records at the helm.

Hope named Summit League Pitcher of the Week
The Jackrabbits' Madison Hope was named the Summit League's Softball Pitcher of the Week, announced March 12 by the league office.

Hope went 5-0 over seven appearances last week, leading the team with a 1.94 ERA and 36 innings pitched. The senior tallied 21 strikeouts on the week and pitched four complete games, earning a save in the weekend finale against Delaware State.

From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hope had three games with four or more strikeouts, including six against Quinnipiac Sunday. She did not allow a run against QU or Central Michigan in a pair of Jackrabbit wins.

This is Hope's first career weekly honor, and signifies a stepping stone for the program as the first pitcher of the week honor for the Jackrabbits since head coach Krista Wood's arrival and a first for SDSU since Kori Seidlitz won it in 2010.

Janssen earns Summit League Player of the Week honors
South Dakota State's Baily Janssen was honored as the Summit League's Softball Player of the Week, released Feb. 26 by the league office.

Though the Jackrabbits played just two games in the award's time frame, Janssen hit .500 and slugged 1.000 with a .500 on-base percentage over two starts. The Missouri Valley, Iowa went 3-for-6 at the plate with three RBIs, two walks and an inside-the-park home run.

Janssen went 1-for-3 against Stephen F. Austin Sunday with her first career home run, driving in three runs in the fifth when her inside-the-park round tripper cleared the Ladyjacks defense. In Sunday's finale, Janssen was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Herdliska Chasing Records

Ali Herdliska moved into the top 10 in career doubles late-February and now has 29 in her career. She is seven shy of Shelly Brandel's school record (36) set from 1995-98
Ali Herdliska sits tied for second in school history with 25 career home runs, even with Steph Kuhl. The record is 35, set by Devan Larsen between 2013-16.
Herdliska ranks seventh in Jackrabbit history with 98 RBIs. Next up is Devan Larsen (105). Kuhl's record of 131 is within reach for the season.
Herdliska ranks third at SDSU with 65 career walks. She is even with Stacey Evans (2005-06, 08-09) and Larsen and within within six free passes of the school record (Stacey Warner, 1995-98)
Herdliska is also fourth in school history with 872 career putouts early in her third year as a Jackrabbit.

Quick Hits

SDSU is off to its best start since the 1997 season when the team opened the year 19-7.
South Dakota State has put up four or more runs in an inning 10 times this year, last doing it March 11 with four runs in the seventh against Delaware State
The Jacks have scored five or more in an inning six times this season and put together a double-digit run inning twice.
Abbey Murphy became the first Jackrabbit to drive in five runs in a game since Ali Herdliska did it last Feb. 26 against Alabama A&M when Murphy went for five against Austin Peay Feb. 25.
SDSU's 19-12 win over Green Bay on Feb. 11 was the first time the Jacks had surpassed the 15-run mark since April 30, 2016 in a 16-2 win over Fort Wayne.
The Jackrabbits racked up 18 hits against Delaware State, one shy of the school's record. The Jacks have tied or surpassed the 15-hit mark three times this season already and have 10 or more hits in nine games.
Julia Anderson and Mallory McQuistan both set career highs in runs batted (four) Feb. 11, 2018 against Green Bay.
Abbey Murphy has now been hit by 16 pitches in her career and is alone in second place at SDSU. She trails only Jessica Markanich (2012-15), who was hit 20 times.
The Jackrabbits are now 25-24 all-time in season openers and 6-9 at the Division I level (since 2004). State's win over UMKC was its first opening day win since 2015

Jacks Picked Fourth in Summit League Poll
South Dakota State was picked fourth in the 2018 Summit League Preseason Coaches Poll, released early February by the league office. The Jacks earned the No. 6 seed in the 2017 Summit League Championships and carry an experienced lineup into the 2018 season.

State has with 13 returners on the roster, including eight position starters and a starting pitcher. The Jacks will blend 14 upperclassman (five seniors, nine juniors) with a promising group of underclassman.

SDSU received 14 votes in the poll, three behind South Dakota, who had 17 points and one first-place vote. Atop the poll, reigning league champion North Dakota State is first with five first-place votes and 25 points, while Western Illinois garnered 20 tallies for second.

Herdliska Named a Player to Watch
For the second consecutive season, Ali Herdliska was named a Player to Watch for The Summit League, announced preseason alongside the coaches poll.

Herdliska, an All-Summit League performer from 2017, is back for her junior campaign after leading the Jackrabbits with a .338 average last year, starting all 54 games. The infielder racked up 18 doubles, six home runs and 36 RBIs while drawing 18 walks on the season.

Smarty Jacks
South Dakota State was one of 149 Division I softball programs to earn a spot on the 2017 Easton / National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Academic Teams award list. The rankings recognize the academic prowess of softball teams across seven membership divisions within the NFCA.

The Jackrabbits had a 2016-17 team grade point average of 3.016 with 11 team members boasting GPAs above the 3.00 mark.

For the 2017 fall semester, State posted a 3.47 combined GPA with 18 of 20 student-athletes logging a plus-3.0 grade point average.

New Face in the Dugout
While head coach Krista Wood and assistant Shannon Pivovar are in their fourth season leading the Jacks, a new face has joined the coaching ranks for the 2018 season. Kristi Villar was added as an assistant coach of the summer and brings more than nine years of collegiate coaching experience to the program. She spent the last seven years at Northern State, where she won over 160 games while building a program that had previously never won more than 20 games before her arrival. The Oakdale, Minnesota native won 20 or more games four times, and helped the team to its first 30-win season while earning 2015 NSIC Coach of the Year honors.

Prior to NSU, she worked for two seasons (2007-09) as a graduate assistant coach at Southwest Minnesota State, where she helped the Mustangs to consecutive NSIC championships and worked with one All-American, three All-Region players and seven All-NSIC picks.

She played collegiate ball at Augustana (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), where she earned All-North Central Conference honors four times in her career and led the team in hitting as a junior and senior.

Nine Sign NLIs with Jackrabbit Softball
South Dakota State softball coach Krista Wood announced nine additions to the Jackrabbit softball program as part of this week's National Signing Day activities.

Olivia Douglas, part of the group, enrolled early and has joined SDSU for the upcoming season, while the other eight newcomers will come to campus fall 2018. Those signees are Caelyn Christiancy (Lincoln, Nebraska), Peyton Daugherty (Ankeny, Iowa), Morgan DeMarais (Buffalo, Minnesota), Emma Hardin (Brookings, South Dakota), Jadelyn Johnson (Battle Ground, Indiana), Kelsey Lenox (Chesterfield, Missouri), Olivia Pfeifer (Hannibal, Missouri) and Allison Yoder (Urbandale, Iowa).

-GoJacks.com-

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Players Mentioned

Julia Andersen

Taylor Compton

Kendra Conard

Olivia Douglas

Ali Herdliska

Madison Hope

Baily Janssen

Mallory McQuistan

Brittney Morse

Erin Mullen

Abbey Murphy

Megan Rushing

Completed Event: Softball versus Augustana on October 5, 2025 ,

Completed Event: Softball versus Minnesota Crookston on September 28, 2025 ,

Completed Event: Softball versus Sioux Falls / Morningside on September 21, 2025 ,

Completed Event: Softball versus SMSU on September 14, 2025 ,

Completed Event: Softball versus #3 South Dakota on May 9, 2025 , Loss , 2, to, 3 , 8 Inn.

Completed Event: Softball versus #1 Omaha on May 9, 2025 , Loss , 6, to, 8 , 9 Inn.

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