Jacks end long road trip at Northern Colorado

Friday, March 9

Greeley, Colo.

3 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

3/8/2018 10:21:00 AM | Baseball

By: Jason Hove

GAMES 13-16: South Dakota State (2-10) at Northern Colorado (6-5)

When	1 p.m. Mountain (2 p.m. Central) Friday, March 9 noon Mountain (1 p.m. Central) Saturday, March 10 [Doubleheader] noon Mountain (1 p.m. Central) Sunday, March 11
Where	Jackson Field \| Greeley, Colorado
TV	None
Radio	None
Live Stats	UNCBears.com
Series Notes	South Dakota State \| Northern Colorado
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #EarnIt

The South Dakota State University baseball team concludes a 10-game, four-city Spring Break road trip by playing a four-game weekend series at Northern Colorado.

The series opener is slated for 1 p.m. Mountain Time (2 p.m. Central) Friday at Jackson Field in Greeley, Colorado. A doubleheader is scheduled for noon Mountain (1 p.m. Central) on Saturday, with the series finale set for noon Mountain (1 p.m. Central) on Sunday.

Live stats will be available through UNCBears.com.

SDSU enters the series with a 2-10 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 March 2-4 at Southeast Missouri State before dropping a pair of midweek games at Air Force March 6-7. The Jackrabbits began their road swing with a 1-0 loss Feb. 28 at Minnesota.

Northern Colorado comes into the weekend with a 6-5 overall record. The Bears split a four-game home series last weekend against North Dakota State.

THE SERIES: Friday's game between SDSU and Northern Colorado will mark the 52nd meeting in a series that dates back to 1973. The Jackrabbits lead the all-time series, 31-20.

Since both teams moved from NCAA Division II and the North Central Conference to Division I in the mid-2000s, SDSU has held the upper hand in the series by winning 21 of 30 contests. The Jackrabbits swept season series in 2007 (6-0) and 2011 (4-0).

The two programs last met March 11-13, 2016, in Greeley, with SDSU winning two of three games. The Jackrabbits claimed the first two games of the series by scores of 8-3 and 11-3 before UNC salvaged the final game of the series by rallying for a 7-6 victory.

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.

EARLIER THIS WEEK: SDSU let a pair of leads slip away in being swept in a two-game midweek series at Air Force.

Game 1 Recap
Game 2 Recap

SOLID DEFENSE: The Jackrabbits enter the weekend as the top fielding team in The Summit League with a .986 fielding percentage through 12 games, a mark that also ranks sixth among NCAA Division I teams. SDSU has committed only seven 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.

BATS HEATING UP: South Dakota State struggled at the plate early in the 2018 season, posting a team batting average of only .176 and averaging 2.3 runs per game through the first seven games.

The Jackrabbits have shown signs of breaking out of their offensive funk over their last five games, averaging seven runs per game and batting .272 (46-for-169) 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 26 consecutive games into this weekend's series at Northern Colorado. 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 12 games thus far in 2018.

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

FALK LEADS OFFENSE: Sophomore first baseman Josh Falk has been the top hitter for the Jackrabbits through the first quarter of the season. The Minnetonka, Minnesota, native brings an eight-game hitting streak into this weekend's series at Northern Colorado. He has posted four two-hit games during his hitting streak and is batting .429 (12-for-29) over the last eight 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.

STEIGER IN THE CLUTCH: Freshman Gus Steiger notched game-winning RBIs in back-to-back victories at Southeast Missouri State last weekend.

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, Steiger delivered a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth that gave SDSU the lead in a 6-5 victory.

A native of Minnetonka, Minnesota, Steiger has batted leadoff and started each of the Jackrabbits' last seven games at second base. He is batting .300 (12-for-40) this season and ranks third on the team in both runs batted in (6) and runs scored (6).

KUHLMANN IN CONTROL: Junior left-handed pitcher Korey Kuhlmann has pitched a team-high 15 1/3 innings so far this season and has yet to issue a walk. Kuhlmann has made four appearances, including three starts, and recorded nine strikeouts to rank in a tie for third among Jackrabbit pitchers.

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 577-356-1 record (.618 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 28-34 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 are scheduled to open the Summit League portion of its schedule by traveling to defending league champion Oral Roberts. The series opener is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 16 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The final two games of the series are slated for respective 2 p.m. and 1 p.m. starts on March 17 and 18.

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

-GoJacks.com-