Jacks move on to Fort Wayne for three

GAMES 34-36: South Dakota State (10-23, 8-7 Summit) at Fort Wayne (9-25, 5-13 Summit)

When	3 p.m. Eastern Time (2 p.m. Central) Friday \| 2 p.m. ET Saturday (1 p.m. CT) \| 1 p.m. ET (noon CT) Sunday
Where	Mastodon Field; Fort Wayne, Ind.
TV	GoMastodons.com/Watch (subscription required)
Radio	None
Live Stats	C lick Here
Series Notes	South Dakota State \| Fort Wayne
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #EarnIt

The South Dakota State University baseball team plays what it hopes will be its last road contests before an official home opener as it travels this weekend to Fort Wayne for a three-game Summit League series.

The series kicks off Friday with a 3 p.m. Eastern Time (2 p.m. Central) game at Mastodon Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The middle game of the series is set for 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central) on Saturday, with the series finale slated for 1 p.m. Eastern (noon Central) on Sunday.

Video and live stats will be available through GoMastodons.com.

SDSU enters the week with a 10-23 overall record and is tied for second in the Summit League standings with an 8-7 mark in league play. SDSU won the opener of a weekend series against Oral Roberts before dropping the final two contests of the three-game set, which was moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. SDSU has yet to play a true home game this season due to the extended wintry weather in the region.

Fort Wayne, meanwhile, is coming off a three-game home sweep of Omaha in which they outscored the Mavericks by a combined 27-2 to improve to 5-13 in league play. Overall, the Mastodons are 9-25.

Both teams dropped mid-week games prior to their weekend series; SDSU fell 6-2 at 23rd-ranked Minnesota on Wednesday, while Fort Wayne dropped an 18-5 home decision to Dayton that same day.

THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Fort Wayne will play for the 64th time, when the two squads meet in Friday's series opener. The Jackrabbits hold a 50-13 advantage in the series that dates back to 2006, when both schools competed as Division I independents.

SDSU extended its winning streak over the Mastodons to nine games by sweeping a three-game series April 7-8 in Joplin, Missouri. The Jackrabbits swept an April 7 doubleheader by scores of 10-0 and 7-2, before closing out the series with a wild 13-9 victory on April 8.

Game 1 Recap | Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Recap | Game 2 Box Score
Game 3 Recap | Game 3 Box Score

PRESEASON POLL: The Jackrabbit baseball team was picked to finish second in the 2018 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 156-122 (.561 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 TIME OUT: Minnesota broke open a tie game with a three-run sixth inning and went on to defeat South Dakota State, 6-2, in nonconference baseball action Wednesday night at Siebert Field in Minneapolis.

Recap | Box Score

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: South Dakota State has featured the Summit League Player of the Week in its lineup twice during the month of April.

Sophomore first baseman Josh Falk was named Summit League Player of the Week on April 16 after helping lead the Jackrabbits to a doubleheader sweep of North Dakota State with an impressive day at the plate.

In the April 12 twinbill in Sioux Falls, Falk went a combined 7-for-10 and homered in each game. In the opener, he tallied three hits with two runs batted in and a pair of runs scored. A sophomore from Minnetonka, Minnesota, Falk was 4-for-5 in Game 2, belting the go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth inning en route to a 12-9 Jackrabbit victory.

Falk's totals included a 1.300 slugging percentage as he recorded his team-best ninth and 10th multi-hit games of the season and extended his hitting streak to six games.

Outfielder Phil Velez was the first Jackrabbit honored as Summit League Baseball Player of the Week, earning the award April 9 after helping lead the Jackrabbits to a weekend sweep of Fort Wayne.

In two games, Velez batted .857 (6-for-7) and drove in seven runs, highlighted by a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning of the series finale April 8 in Joplin, Missouri. A senior from Des Moines, Iowa, Velez went 4-for-4 in the second game of an April 7 doubleheader, then was 2-for-3 with a career-high six runs batted in the next day. He also tallied a 1.429 slugging percentage, scored four times and threw out a runner at home plate during the series.

LET'S PLAY TWO: When the 2018 Jackrabbit baseball schedule was first put together, SDSU had one true doubleheader — March 10 at Northern Colorado — on the docket.

Fast forward to late April and the Jackrabbits played their seventh doubleheader of the season April 20 against Oral Roberts thanks to inclement weather that has followed them wherever they have gone. The Jackrabbits have played a doubleheader in each of the five Summit League series in which they have played more than one game.

In those seven previous doubleheaders the squad has played, the Jackrabbits have turned in a 5-9 record. SDSU was swept in each of its first four doubleheaders, then turned the tables with sweeps of Fort Wayne (April 7) and North Dakota State (April 12). The Jacks and Oral Roberts split an April 20 doubleheader in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

SDSU has yet to play a true home game this season due to the extended wintry weather that has affected the Upper Midwest this spring. Instead, the Jacks have been forced to move home series to Joplin, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Sioux Falls.

K ZONE: Two of the three pitchers who are scheduled to start games for the Jackrabbits this weekend are averaging better than a strikeout an inning.

Sophomore left-hander Brady Stover has recorded 50 strikeouts in only 33 2/3 innings pitched. In an April 7 start versus Fort Wayne, Stover set a new Jackrabbit single-game mark in the Division I era with 13 strikeouts. He allowed only one hit — an infield single — over 6 1/3 innings.

Two starts later, Stover fanned 10 Oral Roberts batters in 6 2/3 shutout innings.

Stover's current pace of 13.37 strikeouts per nine innings pitched ranks 11th in NCAA Division I this season and is ahead of the SDSU single-season record of 12.86 set by Bob Ehrke in 1953.

Sophomore right-hander Tyler Olmstead also has more strikeouts than innings pitched. Olmstead, who fanned a career-high 10 batters in a March 31 start at Omaha, upped his season strikeout total to 41 in 39 1/3 innings with six strikeouts in a losing effort April 21 against Oral Roberts.

SDSU's other weekend starter, Brady Moxham, is just off the pace with 49 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings pitched.

Out of the bullpen, senior Derek Feige has struck out 22 batters in only 16 1/3 innings. Austin Suhr (22 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings) and Otis Roby (12 K's in 12 1/3 IP) also are averaging nearly one strikeout per inning pitched.

ELITE COMPANY: Prior to Brady Stover's 13-strikeout performance April 7 against Fort Wayne, the SDSU record for strikeouts in a Division I game was 12, and was shared by Robby Apo (2006), Caleb Thielbar (twice in 2009), Blake Treinen (2010) and Layne Somsen (2013). Thielbar, Treinen and Somsen all have since gone on to pitch in the Major Leagues.

SMITH HEATING UP: Nick Smith has made the most of his return to the Jackrabbit lineup after battling through injuries the first two months of the season.

Filling the designated hitter role out of the No. 3 spot in the lineup, Smith is working on a team-best 12-game hitting streak that included a streak of seven consecutive multi-hit games from April 7-20. During his current 12-game hitting streak, Smith is batting .449 (22-for-49) with seven runs batted in and 12 runs scored, raising his season average to a team-best .351.

A junior from Chanhassen, Minnesota, Smith earned second-team all-Summit League honors in 2017 as a utility player after leading the team with a .340 batting average and sharing the team lead with two triples.

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.

The Rapid City native is tied for third in The Summit League with five home runs — all of which have come against left-handed pitchers. Johnson also leads the Jackrabbits and ranks fourth in The Summit League with 26 runs batted in.

Johnson has reached base safely in 26 consecutive games, which is the longest streak by a Jackrabbit this season.

GRAND OLD TIME: Phil Velez's game-winning grand slam against Fort Wayne on April 8 was the second grand slam hit by a Jackrabbit this season.

Anthony Schneider connected on a pinch-hit grand slam in SDSU's March 2 game at Southeast Missouri State.

CALL TO ARMS: The Jackrabbits have made frequent pitching changes in recent games in an attempt to exploit matchups and end opposing teams' threats.

In four of the last seven games, including each of the last three games, SDSU used a season-high seven pitchers in a game. The Jackrabbits first sent seven different hurlers to the mound in an April 10 game at Creighton.

In the April 21 series finale with Oral Roberts, five different Jackrabbit pitchers faced at least one batter in the sixth inning alone.

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 585-369-1 record (.612 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 36-47 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 will make another attempt to play their first home game(s) of the season as they are scheduled to host Omaha in a three-game series May 4-6 at Erv Huether Field. The series opener is set for a 3 p.m. first pitch, with the other two games slated for 1 p.m. starts.

Schedule updates regarding Jackrabbit baseball will be posted to GoJacks.com and available on Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball).

-GoJacks.com-

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Josh Falk

Derek Feige

Newt Johnson

Tony Kjolsing

Brady Moxham

Tyler Olmstead

Otis Roby

Anthony Schneider

Nick Smith

Brady Stover

Austin Suhr

Phil Velez

Completed Event: Baseball at Omaha on May 22, 2025 , Loss , 6, to, 7 , 10 inn.

Completed Event: Baseball versus Oral Roberts on May 21, 2025 , Loss , 2, to, 11

Completed Event: Baseball versus Oral Roberts on May 17, 2025 , Loss , 2, to, 9

Completed Event: Baseball versus Oral Roberts on May 16, 2025 , Loss , 11, to, 13

Completed Event: Baseball versus Oral Roberts on May 15, 2025 , Loss , 11, to, 14

Completed Event: Baseball versus Oral Roberts on May 15, 2025 , Loss , 4, to, 11

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