Home at last, Jacks host Omaha

Friday, May 4

Brookings, S.D.

3 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Omaha

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

5/2/2018 1:55:00 PM | Baseball

By: Jason Hove

GAMES 37-39: Omaha (14-25, 9-9 Summit) at South Dakota State (12-24, 10-8)

When	3 p.m. Friday \| 1 p.m. Saturday \| 1 p.m. Sunday
Where	Erv Huether Field; Brookings, South Dakota
TV	None
Radio	KJJQ 910 AM \| Jackrabbits All-Access
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Series Notes	South Dakota State \| Omaha
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #EarnIt

After having its schedule altered several times due to inclement weather and playing its first 36 games of the season outside of Brookings, the South Dakota State University baseball team will play its first official home games of the 2018 campaign this weekend by hosting Omaha in a three-game Summit League series.

The series opener is slated for 3 p.m. Friday at Erv Huether Field. Games Saturday and Sunday are set for 1 p.m. starts. All three games will be broadcast locally on KJJQ 910 AM with Tyler Merriam calling the play-by-play, and also available for listening through the Jackrabbits All-Access media portal at GoJacks.com. Radio coverage begins 15 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch each day. Live stats can be viewed at GoJacksLive.com.

The Jackrabbits enter the week in second place in the Summit League standings with a 10-8 mark in conference play. SDSU has won nine of its last 12 Summit contests, including winning two of three games at Fort Wayne last weekend.

Omaha, meanwhile, is a game behind the Jackrabbits at 9-9 in league play. The Mavericks, 14-25 overall, dropped two of three games last weekend at North Dakota State to fall out of a tie with SDSU.

THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Omaha will play for the 159th time, when the two squads meet in Friday's series opener. The Mavericks hold an 82-75-1 lead in the series that dates back to 1949.The two programs were longtime rivals in the North Central Conference before both moved to Division I and The Summit League.

SDSU won all six meetings last season and have claimed nine of the last 12 meetings dating back to 2016. However, the Mavericks claimed the first series of this season by winning two of three games March 30-31 in Omaha. The Mavericks swept a March 30 twinbill by scores of 5-3 and 8-5 before SDSU claimed the series finale, 6-2, behind a 10-strikeout performance by Tyler Olmstead.

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 158-123 (.562 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 WEEKEND: The Jackrabbits moved into sole possession of second place in the Summit League standings by winning two of three games in a road series April 27-29 at Fort Wayne.

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

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: South Dakota State 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 seemingly followed them wherever they went over the first two months of the 2018 campaign. SDSU played a doubleheader in each of the first five Summit League series in which it managed to play more than one game.

In those seven 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 were forced to move home series to Joplin, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Sioux Falls.

K ZONE: Two of the three pitchers who have held starting roles for the Jackrabbits in Summit League play are averaging better than a strikeout an inning.

Sophomore left-hander Brady Stover has recorded 58 strikeouts in only 38 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 13.50 strikeouts per nine innings pitched ranks seventh 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, has since upped his season strikeout total to 44 in 41 1/3 innings.

SDSU's other weekend starter, Brady Moxham, is just off the pace with 49 strikeouts in 55 2/3 innings pitched.

Out of the bullpen, senior Derek Feige has struck out 24 batters in only 19 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 put together a team-best 14-game hitting streak that was snapped in the April 29 series finale at Fort Wayne. During his 14-game streak, Smith batted .431 (25-for-58) with seven runs batted in and 13 runs scored, raising his season average to a team-best .344.

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 fourth in The Summit League with five home runs — all of which have come against left-handed pitchers. Johnson also leads the Jackrabbits and ranks third in The Summit League with 32 runs batted in.

Johnson has reached base safely in 29 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.

MARRO IN THE NINTH: Junior right-hander Alex Marro has taken over the closer's role in the Jackrabbit bullpen in recent weeks.

Marro has not allowed a run over his last five appearances, covering 6 1/3 innings. He has recorded three of his team-high four saves over that span, during which he has given up only one hit and one walk, while striking out eight.

His streak began by pitching a combined three scoreless innings in an April 12 doubleheader against North Dakota State in Sioux Falls. He pitched one scoreless inning in the opener, then earned the save by striking out four in two innings in the nightcap.

Marro also notched saves April 20 versus Oral Roberts and April 27 at Fort Wayne.

PRESSING THE ISSUE: South Dakota State enters this weekend's series against Omaha as the Summit League leader in stolen bases. The Jackrabbits took over the league lead with 51 stolen bases after swiping a combined 11 bases in a three-game series last weekend at Fort Wayne. SDSU matched a Division I-era single-game high with seven stolen bases in the April 29 series finale.

Individually, Tony Kjolsing ranks second among Summit League players with 15 stolen bases (in 19 attempts). Newt Johnson ranks second on the team with nine steals, while Landon Badger and Anthony Schneider each have tallied seven stolen bases.

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 587-370-1 record (.613 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 38-48 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 play their final nonconference game of the regular season May 9 at Wichita State. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.

SDSU returns home to complete the home season with a three-game Summit League series May 11-13 versus Western Illinois. The seven-member Jackrabbit senior class will be honored prior to the May 12 contest.

In addition, the May 11-13 series will feature Alumni Weekend festivities for Jackrabbit baseball.

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

-GoJacks.com-