Jacks continue road trip at Air Force

GAMES 11-12: South Dakota State (2-8) at Air Force (2-8)

When	2 p.m. Mountain (3 p.m. Central) Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7
Where	Falcon Field \| U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado
TV	None
Radio	None
Live Stats	GoAirForceFalcons.com
Series Notes	South Dakota State \| Air Force
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #EarnIt

Fresh off a series win on the second leg of a nine-game, four-city Spring Break road trip, the South Dakota State University baseball team continues action with a two-game series at Air Force Tuesday and Wednesday.

Both games are slated for 2 p.m. Mountain Time (3 p.m. Central) at Falcon Field on the U.S. Air Force Academy campus near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Live stats will be available through GoAirForceFalcons.com.

SDSU enters the series with a 2-8 overall record. After starting the season with an eight-game losing streak, the Jackrabbits won the final two games of a three-game weekend series at Southeast Missouri State. The Jackrabbits began their road swing with a 1-0 loss Feb. 28 at Minnesota.

Air Force, which will be playing its home opener, also is off to a 2-8 start. The Falcons salvaged the final game of a three-game weekend series at Dallas Baptist, 6-0, behind a combined four-hit shutout.

THE SERIES: This week's games between SDSU and Air Force will mark the 15th and 16th meetings in a series that dates back to 1959. Air Force leads the all-time series, 9-5, which started with an 11-9 Falcon victory in the Jackrabbits' 1959 season opener.

The two squads last met for a three-game series April 11-12, 2014, at Erv Huether Field. After splitting 2-1 contests in the first two games of the series, Air Force claimed the decisive game of the series, 4-2, in the back half of a doubleheader.

SDSU last traveled to Air Force for a four-game series in 2010, winning three of four games. The Jackrabbits scored double figures for runs in all four contests, including posting a 23-9 victory in the series finale.

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, are scheduled to open Summit League play March 16, when they open a three-game series at Oral Roberts. 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.

WEEKEND RECAP: SDSU put together a successful weekend, winning two of three games in nonconference action at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Game 1 Recap
Game 2 Recap
Game 3 Recap

SOLID DEFENSE: The Jackrabbits enter the weekend as the top fielding team in The Summit League with a .986 fielding percentage through 10 games, a mark that also ranks eighth among NCAA Division I teams. SDSU has committed only five errors and went five full games without a miscue before committing an error in the sixth inning of their 6-5 victory at Southeast Missouri State on March 4.

OFFENSIVE WOES: South Dakota State has struggled at the plate in the first three weeks of the 2018 season, posting a team batting average of only .199 and averaging 3.7 runs per game. The Jackrabbits showed signs of breaking out of their offensive funk in their three-game series at Southeast Missouri State over the weekend, averaging seven runs per game and batting .253 (25-for-99) as a team.

Last season, SDSU batted .282 as a team and averaged 5.5 runs per game en route to a 26-24 record. The Jackrabbits tallied 10 or more runs in a game 10 times in 2017.

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: Senior Anthony Schneider made the most of his run-scoring opportunities in the Jackrabbits' weekend series at Southeast Missouri State by driving in seven runs in eight official at-bats. Schneider 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.

In the March 4 series finale, Schneider plated a first-inning run with a double and added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.

For the series, Schneider batted .375 (3-for-8) and slugged 1.000 as all three of his hits went for extra bases — a home run and two doubles.

Schneider's grand slam was the first by a Jackrabbit player since Matt Johnson connected on April 23, 2016, at Omaha.

KJOLSING EXTENDS STREAK: Shortstop Tony Kjolsing brings a streak of reaching base safely by hit or walk in 24 consecutive games into the midweek series at Air Force. A senior from Chaska, Minnesota, Kjolsing reached base safely in the final 14 games of the 2017 season and has been on base in all 10 games thus far in 2018.

Kjolsing also enters the week as the top base stealer in The Summit League with five stolen bases in seven attempts.

HOT START: Outfielder Landon Badger has excelled on Opening Day in each of his two seasons with the Jackrabbits. Both of Badger's career three-hit games have come in a season opener — he was 3-for-5 with two doubles and three runs batted in during his collegiate debut against Northern Illinois in the 2017 season opener, then went 3-for-4 in the 2018 opener against Austin Peay.

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 577-354-1 record (.620 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 28-32 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: The Jackrabbits wrap up their Spring Break trip by playing a three-game weekend series at Northern Colorado Friday through Sunday (March 9-11). First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. Mountain Time (3 p.m. Central) both Friday and Saturday, with Sunday's series finale set for noon Mountain Time (1 p.m. Central).

Further updates will be available through GoJacks.com and Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball).

-GoJacks.com-

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Landon Badger

Bryce Johnson

Tony Kjolsing

Korey Kuhlmann

Alex Marro

Brady Moxham

Mitchell Oehme

Otis Roby

Anthony Schneider

Austin Suhr

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