Completed Event: Softball versus Augustana on October 5, 2025 ,
/
FINAL
Softball
vs Augustana
South Dakota State University Athletics
Wednesday, May 16
Greeley, Colo.
4 p.m.
South Dakota State University
vs
Colorado State
Photo by: Nick Nelson
Jacks head for NISC Regional
5/14/2018 11:40:00 AM | Softball
| Â NISC Regional: South Dakota State (34-16) vs. Colorado State (26-21) |
| Â When | Â Wednesday, May 16 | 3 p.m. MT / 4 p.m. CT | |||
|  Where |  Gloria Rodriguez Field | Greeley, Colorado | |||
| Â Live Stats | Â SideArm Sports (UNCBears.com) | |||
| Â Live Video | Â PlutoTV | |||
| Â Game Notes | Â South Dakota State | |||
| Â Social Media | Â Twitter | Facebook | #GRIT | |||
Gameday Outlook
For the first time in 22 years, South Dakota State softball is headed for the postseason. After reaching the Summit League Championship finals last weekend, the Jackrabbits were announced May 13 as a part of a 17-team field in the 2018 National Invitational Softball Championship.
The Jackrabbits (34-16) earned the automatic bid from The Summit League and are part of a four-team, double-elimination regional May 16-18 in Greeley, Colorado. SDSU will take on Colorado State Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT in a first-round game. Host Northern Colorado and Loyola Marymount meet Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. CT.
The losers of Wednesday's first-round bouts will square off in an elimination game at 1 p.m. CT Thursday, with the winners advancing to a Thursday semifinal at 4 p.m CT.
The regional champion, determined Friday, will advance to a final double-elimination event played May 23-26 at a to-be-determined host site.
South Dakota State compiled its best record in the program's Division I era and reached the 30-win mark for fourth time in team history while earning a spot in the league tournament title game for the first time.
SDSU is 0-2 all-time against Colorado State, last meeting in 2010 at the CSU Classic in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Jacks have met up with Northern Colorado 19 times prior and are 6-13 against the Bears after splitting a pair of matchups in 2013. South Dakota State and Loyola Marymount have never met.
The Jacks are making their first postseason appearance under head coach Krista Wood and second all-time, last hosting the 1996 Division II Central Regional.
The National Invitational Softball Championship is operated, supervised and directed by Triple Crown Sports, a sports event company based in Fort Collins, Colorado, in collaboration with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. This marks the second year of the tournament, which features eight teams that have won 30 games or more during the 2018 season and six teams that finished second or better during the regular season in their respective conferences.
Tickets for the game are $10 for adults, while UNC students and youth (3-12,) tickets are $5 (children 2 and under are free). All tickets will be released at 12 p.m. MT Monday and are general admission. Tickets can be purchased online at UNCBears.com, by phone at 970-351-4849 or by visiting the Nottingham Field ticket office Tuesday-Friday from 12-5 p.m.
About the Jacks
The Jackrabbits are hitting .322 as a team (eighth in NCAA Division I) with 87 doubles, 11 triples and 47 home runs. SDSU has scored 331 runs in 50 games with 302 RBIs. The Jacks are second nationally with 1.74 doubles per game and are third in all of Division I with 6.62 runs per contest. SDSU is also 14th in on-base (.402) and slugging (.501) percentages.
In the circle, SDSU has put together a 3.74 ERA with 184 strikeouts, allowing 172 earned runs in 321.2 innings pitched.
Individually, Abbey Murphy leads the Jacks with a .413 average, just ahead of Julia Andersen's .404 mark and Brittney Morse's .402 average. Murphy is 69-for-167 on the season with 13 doubles, four triples and two home runs with 37 runs batted in and 24 walks.
Andersen leads the team with 72 hits (out of 178 at-bats) and matched the school's career-record with 19 doubles. She has three home runs and three triples this season, driving in 37 runs. Morse, the 2018 Summit League Player of the Year, has 14 doubles, 10 home runs and a school-record 47 runs batted in.
Megan Rushing (.321) has jacked six home runs this season and has 11 doubles with two triples and 33 runs batted in while Ali Herdliska is even alongside Morse in round-trippers (10) while hitting .318 on the year (49-for-154) with 39 RBIs. She is tied with Murphy for the team-lead in walks (24).
Madison Hope (3.41 ERA) is second in The Summit League (and 27th nationally) with 21 wins and has four saves. She broke the school's career saves record earlier this season and now has six in a Jackrabbit uniform. Hope has tossed 15 complete games in 39 appearances and leads the team in strikeouts (103) and innings pitched (174.2) while being named The Summit League's Pitcher of the Week twice this season. Taylor Compton (8-7) has a 4.52 ERA in 28 appearances, tossing 97.2 innings with 53 strikeouts.
Olivia Douglas (4.67 ERA) picked up her first collegiate win in March at UMKC in a complete game performance and now has 10 strikeouts over 18 innings pitched. Kendra Conard (2.68 ERA) has made 14 appearances and boasts a 4-0 record over 31.1 innings pitched, striking out 18.
Jackrabbits' Last Time Out
The Jackrabbit softball program saw its historic run at the 2018 Summit League Championship come to an end in the title game Saturday, finishing the tournament with a 2-2 mark.
The Jacks opened the tournament with an 8-0 run-rule victory over Fort Wayne Thursday before a 4-0 Friday semifinal loss to North Dakota State. SDSU rebounded with a 4-3 comeback victory in an elimination game thanks to a dramatic home run from Abbey Murphy. Saturday's championship game saw the Jacks lead 1-0 after another Murphy home run, but a pair of three-run shots for the Bison was too much for SDSU to overcome in a 6-1 defeat.
SDSU hit .219 for the week with four doubles, a triple and three home runs, scoring 13 runs (all of them as RBIs).
Julia Andersen, Ali Herdliska, Madison Hope and Murphy were named to the Summit League's All-Tournament Team. Andersen racked up five hits (.385) with a pair of doubles and a triple, while Abbey Murphy had two home runs and four RBIs. Herdliska was 4-for-14 (.286) at the plate and had a pair of home runs, recording 29 putouts without committing an error in 30 chances.
Hope was 2-2 in the circle with a 2.37 ERA, allowing 12 runs (seven earned) over 20.2 innings with 11 strikeouts. Taylor Compton appeared in two games and had a 1.31 ERA over 5.1 innings pitched, striking out four.
Six Honored by Summit League
South Dakota State's Brittney Morse was named The Summit League Player of the Year, Krista Wood earned Coach of the Year honors and six Jackrabbits picked up All-Summit League nods May 8 at the league's championship banquet.
Morse joins Madison Hope and Julia Andersen on the first team while Abbey Murphy, Ali Herdliska and Megan Rushing were named to the second team.
Morse became the first-ever Jackrabbit to earn Summit League Player of the Year honors after leading the conference in batting average and runs batted in, setting a school single-season record in RBIs.
Since 2008, 17 Jackrabbits have garnered 23 All-Summit League nods.
Jackrabbits Rake in Weekly Honors
Four Jackrabbits have combined for five Summit League Player or Pitcher of the Week honors from the league this season.
- Megan Rushing was named Player of the Week April 30. Rushing started all five games for SDSU last week, hitting .571 (8-for-14) with four doubles, two home runs, four walks and 10 runs batted in. The West Des Moines, Iowa native reached safely in every contest and posted three multi-hit performances.
- 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.
Quick Hits
- SDSU has put together its best season in program history (in terms of winning percentage) with a 34-16 mark through 50 contests. The best overall season (by wins) was in 1996, when the team finished 43-22 with a trip to the Division II NCAA Tournament.
- Abbey Murphy, Julia Andersen and Brittney Morse own three of the top four spots in SDSU's Division I history for consecutive games of reaching base safely. Murphy did it in 38 straight games between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, while Andersen had a 29-game streak in 2018 and Morse reached safely in 20 consecutive contests this year.
- South Dakota State has put up four or more runs in an inning 31 times this year, last doing it May 1 when the Jacks scored six runs in the second against North Dakota.
- The Jacks have scored five or more in an inning 18 times this season and have put together a double-digit run inning three times.
- 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 four times this season already and have 10 or more hits in 17 games.
- Julia Andersen (3/30 at Omaha, 4/21 at Fort Wayne) and Brittney Morse (3/24 at UMKC) have tallied four-hit games for the Jackrabbits this season. Andersen also scored four runs at Omaha (3/30) when she had two home runs. That scoring total was matched by Abbey Murphy on April 21 at Fort Wayne.
- 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.
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 2018 season, while the other eight newcomers will come to campus next fall. 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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IF
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Thursday, May 08
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Tuesday, April 29