Completed Event: Softball versus Augustana on October 5, 2025 ,
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FINAL
Softball
vs Augustana
South Dakota State University Athletics
Thursday, April 12
Sioux Falls, S.D.. (Bowden Field)
2 p.m.
South Dakota State University
vs
North Dakota State
Photo by: Laura Mullen
Softball hosts NDSU in Sioux Falls
4/11/2018 10:47:00 AM | Softball
| Â GAMES 35-37: South Dakota State (23-11, 4-2) vs North Dakota State (21-13, 1-1) |
| Â When | Â Thursday, April 12 | 2 & 4 p.m. | Â Friday, April 13 | TBD | ||
|  Where |  Bowden Field | Sioux Falls, S.D. |  TBD | ||
|  Live Stats |  Thursday (2 p.m.) | Thursday (4 p.m.) | Friday | |||
|  Game Notes |  South Dakota State | North Dakota State | |||
| Â Social Media | Â Twitter | Facebook | #GRIT | |||
Gameday Outlook
More changes to the Jackrabbit softball schedule have been announced as wintry weather continues to loom in the Brookings area. South Dakota State is headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the second-straight week to host North Dakota State in a three-game series.
The Jackrabbits and Bison will now meet at Bowden Field on Augustana University's campus in a Thursday doubleheader at 2 p.m. with Friday's schedule still up in the air with uncertain forecasts.
As a result of moving this weekend's games, the previously scheduled Senior Day celebrations will now take place before Friday's to-be-determined first pitch.
The Jackrabbits (23-11, 4-2 Summit League) are off to their best start at the Division I level and has won eight of its last 10 games.
The Bison (21-13, 1-1 Summit League) played only two games last weekend as weather wreaked havoc on their schedule as well, splitting a doubleheader April 5 at Omaha. The Bison are 4-6 in their last 10 games but have a win over No. 10/11 LSU in that time.
The Jackrabbits are 45-68 all-time against North Dakota State.
About the Jacks
South Dakota State has already locked in its best non-conference record at the Division I level and sits second in Summit League play through two weekends of action. The Jackrabbits are hitting .316 combined (19th in Division I) with 60 doubles, nine triples and 26 home runs. SDSU has scored 211 runs in 34 games with 195 runs batted in. The Jacks are fifth nationally with 1.76 doubles per game and rank 17th with 6.21 runs per contest.
In the circle, SDSU has put together a 3.87 ERA with 132 strikeouts, allowing 123 earned runs in 222.2 total innings.
Individually, Abbey Murphy is hitting .440 to lead the Jacks and has started all 34 games. She has 51 total hits, including 11 doubles and four triples and has driven in 23 while working 16 walks. Brittney Morse (.402) is coming off a stellar week that saw her earn league recognition and has 11 doubles and five home runs for the season, leading the team with 42 RBIs. Julia Andersen (.379), Erin Mullen (.378) and Ali Herdliska (.307) round out the hitters above the .300 mark for SDSU. Andersen is even with Murphy and Morse with 11 doubles on the season and has two triples and two home runs. She has driven in 22 on the season and has 12 walks. Mullen has appeared in 18 games and has a pair of doubles, while Herdliska has a team-high 20 walks and six home runs, driving in 27 with five doubles.
Madison Hope (3.33 ERA) boasts a 14-4 record on the season with two saves. She has nine complete games and has pitched three shutouts over 115.2 total innings. The senior leads SDSU with 76 strikeouts on the season and has allowed 55 earned runs while earning Pitcher of the Week honors twice in 2018. Taylor Compton (5.11 ERA) holds a 6-6 record with two saves in 20 appearances, striking out 32 in 64.1 innings pitched. Olivia Douglas (5.25 ERA) picked up her first collegiate win in March at UMKC in a complete game performance and now has 10 strikeouts over 16 innings pitched. Kendra Conard (2.36 ERA) has made 11 appearances and boasts a 2-0 record over 26.2 innings pitched, striking out 14.
Jackrabbits' Last Time Out
The Jackrabbit softball program picked up a series win over South Dakota last weekend, playing at two different sites. SDSU split a doubleheader Thursday in Omaha, winning 5-4 before a 7-0 loss, and the finale Saturday was played in Sioux Falls. The Jacks won that game to seal the series, 7-0.
SDSU hit .295 as a team with five players at or above the .375 mark. The Jackrabbits had four doubles, a triple and a home run and outscored USD 12-11 for the weekend. In the circle, SDSU had 13 strikeouts and a 3.33 ERA in 21 total innings.
Brittney Morse (.600) was 6-for-10 with a home run and eight RBIs. Erin Mullen appeared in two games and was 2-for-4, while Abbey Murphy (.455) went 5-for-11 with two doubles and a triple. Julia Andersen (.400) and Yanney Ponce (.375) rounded out the top hitters, as Ponce had a pair of doubles.
Madison Hope went 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA on the weekend, tossing two complete games. She threw 14 total innings and had 10 strikeouts. Olivia Douglas (0-1) started game two and threw four innings, allowing five runs. Kendra Conard threw the other three innings in game two and allowed two runs (one earned).
Opponent Outlook
North Dakota State has a 2.72 team ERA on the year while the offense is hitting .251 combined. The Bison have 10 home runs and 50 doubles on the season, batting in 108 runs with 125 total runs scored. In the circle, NDSU has struck out 263 in 229 innings.
The Bison are led offensively by Bre Beatty, who is hitting .358 over 34 games with 12 doubles and three home runs. Beatty has driven in a team-high 22 runs while drawing 14 walks. Stephanie Soriano (20-for-73) has a ..274 average in 26 appearances and has four doubles. Vanessa Anderson (.263) has started 33 games and is second on the team with nine doubles and two home runs, even with Beatty in the walks column (14). Maddie Hansen (.241) has six doubles and leads the Bison with 18 RBIs and 18 walks.
Jacquelyn Sertic (1.95 ERA) is 16-7 over 23 appearances for NDSU with 19 complete games. She has tossed 143.1 total innings and has 189 strikeouts. She is a four-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week this season. KK Leddy (3.35 ERA) is 4-5 with 71 strikeouts over 75.1 innings pitched and Kara O'Bryne (8.81) is 1-1.
Jackrabbits Rake in Weekly Honors
Three Jackrabbits have combined for four Summit League Player or Pitcher of the Week honors from the league this season.
- Brittney Morse was named the Player of the Week April 9. She led the Jackrabbits with a .600 average and .900 slugging percentage, helping SDSU claim its series over rival South Dakota. Morse reached safely in all three games, including two multi-hit and multi-RBI performances. She finished the week with eight runs batted in while hitting her sixth home run of the season.
- Madison Hope was named the Pitcher of the Week March 26 after posting a 2-0 record with a save in three appearances. She started the week with a complete-game win at Iowa Wednesday, striking out five while allowing just one unearned run. She helped the Jacks secure their first sweep of a power five opponent at the Division I level in the doubleheader's finale, pitching the final two innings of a 5-2 win for her second save of the season in shutout fashion. Hope concluded the week with another complete-game victory, tossing all seven innings of a 6-4 win at UMKC on Friday.
- Hope earned Pitcher of the Week honors March 12 after going 5-0 over seven appearances, 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. 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.
- Baily Janssen was honored as the Summit League's Softball Player of the Week, released Feb. 26. 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.
Miss Consistent
Abbey Murphy has established herself as one of the more consistent players in Jackrabbit history, reaching base safely in 38 consecutive games between last season and the April 5 finale against USD. That streak is the longest in SDSU's Division I history, with a list available on page three of the notes.
Quick Hits
- SDSU is off to its best start since the 1997 season when the team opened the year 19-7. Through 34 games that season the Jackrabbits were 23-11 and pushed their record to 24-13 after 37 games. The best record in Jackrabbit history came in 1996 when the team went 43-22. That season, SDSU was 25-9 through 34 games and 26-11 at the 37-game mark.
- South Dakota State has put up four or more runs in an inning 17 times this year, last doing it April 7 when the Jacks had four runs in the fifth against South Dakota.
- The Jacks have scored five or more in an inning nine 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. Brittney Morse matched her total April 7 against South Dakota when she was 3-for-4 with a three-run home run and a two-RBI single.
- 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 Jacks matched the 15-run total on March 11 against Delaware State.
- 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 13 games.
- Julia Anderson and Mallory McQuistan both set career highs in runs batted (four) Feb. 11, 2018 against Green Bay.
- Abbey Murphy has been hit by 17 pitches in her career and is alone in second place at SDSU. She trails only Jessica Markanich (2012-15), who was hit 20 times. Mallory McQuistan (13) is tied for third, Herdliska (12) is fifth and Crist (11th) ranks sixth on the list.
- Madison Hope has four career saves, second-most in school history. She trails Kim Westendorf's five saves between 2005-07. Taylor Compton is already into eighth in school history with two saves.
- Julia Andersen (3/30 at Omaha) and Brittney Morse (3/24 at UMKC) have tallied four-hit games for the Jackrabbits this season. Andersen has the only four-run performance for SDSU, doing it in the same game at Omaha (3/30) when she had two home runs, the most in a game this season alongside Ali Herdliska (3/24 at UMKC).
- 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
Herdliska Chasing Records
In her third season as a Jackrabbit, Ali Herdliska has already moved into the top 10 of several offensive record lists. She is also fourth in defensive chances and putouts, less than 500 from each defensive record. A list of records can be found on page three of the game notes.
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.
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).
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Players Mentioned
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P/UT
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IF
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C/UT
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IF
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IF
/ SoftballSummit League Tournament Semifinal Highlights (05.09.2025)
Saturday, May 10
Softball Highlights vs South Dakota (05.08.2025)
Thursday, May 08
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Tuesday, May 06
Softball Weekly Update (04.29.2025)
Tuesday, April 29