Upcoming Event: Baseball versus North Dakota State on March 20, 2026 at 3 p.m.
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3 p.m.
Baseball
vs North Dakota State
South Dakota State University Athletics
Friday, March 30
Omaha, Neb.
1 p.m.
South Dakota State University
at
Omaha
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
Jacks face league-leading Omaha
3/29/2018 2:29:00 PM | Baseball
| GAMES 21-23: South Dakota State (3-17, 1-3 Summit) at Omaha (9-14, 5-1 Summit) |
| When | 4 p.m. Friday, March 30 | 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31 | noon Sunday, April 1 | |
| Where | Issacson Field (Seymour Smith Park) | Omaha, Nebraska | |
| TV | None | |
| Radio | KJJQ 910 AM | Jackrabbits All-Access | |
| Live Stats | GoJacksLive.com | |
| Series Notes | South Dakota State | Omaha | |
| Social Media | Twitter | Facebook | #EarnIt | |
The South Dakota State University baseball team wraps up a long string of games outside the state of South Dakota by traveling to Summit League-leading Omaha for a three-game weekend series.
The series opener is set for 4 p.m. Friday at Isaacson Field located in Omaha's Seymour Smith Park. First pitch Saturday is slated for 2 p.m., with Sunday's series finale scheduled for a noon start.
Radio broadcasts of all three games will be aired on Brookings-based KJJQ 910 AM, with Tyler Merriam calling the play-by-play. Broadcasts also can be heard via the Jackrabbits All-Access media portal at GoJacks.com, with the pre-game show scheduled to begin 15 minutes prior to first pitch each day.
SDSU enters the weekend with a 3-17 overall record, including a 1-3 mark in Summit League play. The Jackrabbits ended a nine-game losing streak with a 6-3, 12-inning victory at Western Illinois on March 23. The other two games of the series were canceled due to inclement weather and unplayable field conditions.
Omaha, meanwhile, has raced out to a 5-1 record in Summit League play and holds a 9-14 overall record. The Mavericks swept a three-game series from Fort Wayne to open league play March 16-18, then won two of three games against defending Summit League champion Oral Roberts last weekend. Omaha will be playing its third consecutive home series.
THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Omaha will play for the 156th time, when the two squads meet in Friday's series opener. The Mavericks hold an 80-74-1 lead in the series that dates back to 1949.The two programs were longtime rivals in the North Central Conference before both moved to Division I and The Summit League in the past decade.
SDSU won all six meetings last season and have claimed eight of the last nine meetings dating back to the 2016 season.
The Jackrabbits opened Summit League play last season by sweeping a three-game series in Omaha March 17-19, 2017. SDSU won the opener, 5-2, before cruising to victories of 15-0 and 13-4. Besides outscoring Omaha, 33-6, in the three-game series, the Jackrabbits held a 44-21 advantage in hits as the Jackrabbits batted .355 as a team.
The two squads also closed out the Summit League regular season with a three-game set May 18-19 at Erv Huether Field in Brookings. SDSU won the opener, 5-3, before sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 7-2 and 6-4.Omaha scored first in all three games of the series, but the Jackrabbits quickly responded with multiple-run innings to gain control in each contest.
SDSU reliever Chris Halbur recorded saves in the first and third games of the series en route to earning first-team all-Summit League recognition.
PRESEASON POLL: The Jackrabbit baseball team has been picked to finish second in the upcoming Summit League race, according to a poll of league coaches released Feb. 8.
SDSU received 20 points and one first-place vote, finishing behind defending champion Oral Roberts, which received the other five first-place votes and 25 total points. North Dakota State completed the top half of the poll with 17 points.
Rounding out the second half of the poll were Western Illinois (14 points), Omaha (9) and Fort Wayne (5).
The Jackrabbits, who return six position starters, will attempt to qualify for the Summit League postseason tournament for the ninth time in 10 years. The 2018 Summit League Baseball Championship is slated for May 23-26 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In addition, SDSU shortstop Tony Kjolsing was selected as a Summit League Player to Watch. A senior from Chaska, Minnesota, Kjolsing batted .291 with four home runs and 21 runs batted in while playing in 32 games during the 2017 season.
SUMMIT LEAGUE SUCCESS: South Dakota State has been a consistent winner in The Summit League since it became a league member a decade ago. In 10-plus seasons as a member of The Summit League, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 149-118 (.558 winning percentage) in conference games. SDSU has posted a .500 or better record in league play seven times and has made eight appearances in the four-team postseason tournament out of the nine years it has been eligible.
The Jackrabbits shared a Summit League regular season title in 2010 and won the Summit postseason tournament in 2013.
LAST WEEKEND: The Jackrabbits cracked the win column for the first time in Summit League play, recovering for a 6-3, 12-inning victory at Western Illinois on March 23. The last two games of the series were canceled due to inclement weather and unplayable field conditions.
Game Recap
CREIGHTON GAME POSTPONED: The Jackrabbits' game originally scheduled for March 20 at Creighton was postponed and has been rescheduled for next month. The two programs have agreed to rescheduled the game to Tuesday, April 10, with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park in downtown Omaha.
NEW ARMS: Seven Jackrabbit pitchers made their SDSU debuts on the opening weekend of play in Missouri and Illinois. Brady Moxham and Korey Kuhlmann each started games for SDSU, while Otis Roby, Austin Suhr, Alex Marro, Bryce Johnson and Mitchell Oehme made appearances in relief.
SCHNEIDER CLEARS THE BASES: Anthony Schneider has made the most of his run-scoring opportunities during the month of March.
A senior from Altoona, Iowa, Schneider has collected only eight hits this month, but has driven in 11 runs in eight games.
In a March 2-4 weekend series at Southeast Missouri State, Schneider plated seven runs in eight official at-bats. He began the weekend by hitting a pinch-hit grand slam in the March 2 series opener, then went 1-for-4 with a run-scoring double the next day. His grand slam was the first by a Jackrabbit player since Matt Johnson connected on April 23, 2016, at Omaha.
In the March 4 series finale, Schneider plated a first-inning run with a double and added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.
Schneider added to his total with four RBIs in the March 15 series opener against Oral Roberts. He connected on a three-run home run to give SDSU?a momentary 4-2 lead in the third inning, then drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning to give him his second four-RBI game of the month.
KJOLSING STREAK ENDS: Shortstop Tony Kjolsing had his streak of reaching base safely by hit or walk end at 26 consecutive games in the March 9 series opener at Northern Colorado. A senior from Chaska, Minnesota, Kjolsing reached base safely in the final 14 games of the 2017 season and was on base in the first 12 games of 2018 before going 0-for-5 in an extra-innings loss to the Bears.
Kjolsing enters the weekend tied for second among base stealers in The Summit League with eight stolen bases in 10 attempts, and has again reached base safely in the last five games.
FALK LEADS OFFENSE: Sophomore first baseman Josh Falk has been the top hitter for the Jackrabbits during the first month of the season. The Minnetonka, Minnesota, native has hit safely in 12 of the last 16 games. He is batting .286 (18-for-63) over that span with a team-best seven multi-hit games.
Falk connected on his first home run as a Jackrabbit March 6 at Air Force, a game in which he also collected a season-high three runs batted in. He added a home run in the March 11 series finale at Northern Colorado.
STEIGER IN THE CLUTCH: Freshman Gus Steiger notched game-winning RBIs in back-to-back victories at Southeast Missouri State to open the month of March.
In a March 3 game, Steiger hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to break a 2-all tie as the Jackrabbits went on to post their first win of the season, 7-4. The next day, he delivered a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth that gave SDSU the lead in a 6-5 victory.
Steiger also plated the tying run in the top of the ninth in the March 9 series opener at Northern Colorado with a two-out single. The Jackrabbits went on to fall, 3-2, in 11 innings in their first extra-innings contest of the season.
A native of Minnetonka, Minnesota, Steiger has started 14 of the Jackrabbits' last 15 games at second base and batted leadoff in 11 of those contests.
JOHNSON CONNECTS TWICE: Senior infielder Newt Johnson became the first SDSU player this season to homer twice in the same game as he connected on a pair of round-trippers in the first game of a doubleheader March 17 at Oral Roberts. It was the second two-homer game of Johnson's career, with the first coming on Feb. 27, 2016, versus Virginia Commonwealth in a game played in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Prior to Johnson's two-homer game, Anthony Schneider was the last Jackrabbit to homer twice in a game — March 7, 2017, at Minnesota.
KUHLMANN IN CONTROL: Junior left-handed pitcher Korey Kuhlmann ranks third on the team with 19 2/3 innings pitched so far this season and has yet to issue a walk. Kuhlmann has made seven appearances, including three starts, and recorded 13 strikeouts, including a season-high four in his Jackrabbit debut Feb. 18 versus Illinois.
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 578-363-1 record (.614 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 29-41 mark with the Jackrabbits. Prior to coming to SDSU, he spent 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.
THE ROSTER: The 2018 SDSU baseball roster features 33 players from six different states and one Canadian province. Of the 33 players, 12 are from South Dakota, 10 are from Iowa and seven hail from Minnesota. Arizona, Washington and Wisconsin are represented by one player each, as is Manitoba.
By class, seven are seniors, 11 are juniors, eight are sophomores and seven are incoming freshmen.
A LOOK AHEAD: Extended wintry weather and poor field conditions have prompted the Jackrabbits to alter what was to be their opening week of home action. The April 4 contest against Dakota Wesleyan, originally scheduled as the home opener, has been moved to April 23.
In addition, the Jackrabbits' Summit League series against Fort Wayne slated for April 6-8 will now be played in Sioux Falls at Augustana University's Karras Park Home of Ronken Field. The April 6 series opener is slated for a 3 p.m. start, while first pitch on April 7 is set for 5 p.m. The April 8 series finale begins at 1 p.m.
Further updates will be available through GoJacks.com and Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball).
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