Completed Event: Softball versus Augustana on October 5, 2025 ,
/
FINAL
Softball
vs Augustana
South Dakota State University Athletics
Thursday, May 10
Fargo, N.D.
2:30 p.m.
South Dakota State University
vs
No. 6 seed Fort Wayne
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
Softball begins league championship Thursday
5/8/2018 7:15:00 AM | Softball
| Â Summit League Championships: #2 South Dakota State (32-14) vs #3 Western Illinois / #6 Fort Wayne |
| Â When | Â Thursday, May 10 | 2:30 p.m. | |||
|  Where |  Ellig Sports Complex | Fargo, North Dakota | |||
| Â Live Stats | Â TheSummitLeague.org | |||
| Â Live Video | Â TheSummitLeague.org | |||
| Â Tournament Page | Â TheSummitLeague.org/Championships | |||
| Â Game Notes | Â South Dakota State | |||
| Â Social Media | Â Twitter | Facebook | #GRIT | |||
Gameday Outlook
The Jackrabbit softball team will head to the 2018 Summit League Softball Championships with a first-round bye after earning the No. 2 seed in this week's tournament, held May 9-12 in Fargo, North Dakota. South Dakota State will face either No. 3 seed Western Illinois or No. 6 seed Fort Wayne Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in its first game from Ellig Sports Complex.
SDSU (32-14, 10-4 Summit League) compiled its best record in the program's Division I era and reached the 30-win mark for fourth time in team history. The Jacks won four of their five Summit League series' this year with a split in a weather-shortened set against North Dakota State.
The Fighting Leathernecks and Mastodons play Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. to determine who advances to face the Jacks. No. 4 seed South Dakota and No. 5 seed Omaha meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday, with the winner scheduled to play league-champion North Dakota State on Thursday at Noon.
The losers of Thursday's quarterfinal bouts will square off in an elimination game at 5 p.m. that evening, with the winners advancing to a Friday semifinal at 1 p.m.
A complete bracket can be found on page seven of the game notes, or using the above links to the official tournament page.
SDSU is 11-24 all-time against Western Illinois and picked up a series win this year at Macomb, Illinois, taking the first and third games of the weekend. The Jacks are 16-16 in their series with Fort Wayne, including a three-game sweep in Fort Wayne, Indiana in mid-April.
The Jackrabbits have gone 1-5 all-time in the Summit League Championships and are making their fifth appearance since joining the league in 2008. Krista Wood has led the team to the tournament in all four years of her tenure as head coach.
About the Jacks
South Dakota State has already locked in its best record at the Division I level and earned the second-seed in this week's Summit League Championships.
The Jackrabbits are hitting .330 as a team (sixth in NCAA Division I) with 83 doubles, 10 triples and 44 home runs. SDSU has scored 318 runs in 46 games with 289 RBIs. The Jacks are first nationally with 1.8 doubles per game and lead all of Division I with 6.91 runs per contest. SDSU is also eighth in on-base (.409) and 11th slugging (.512) percentages.
In the circle, SDSU has put together a 3.88 ERA with 169 strikeouts, allowing 164 earned runs in 295.2 innings pitched.
Individually, Brittney Morse leads the Jacks with a .418 average, just ahead of Abbey Murphy's .417 mark. Morse is 66-for-158 in the box this season with 14 doubles and a team-high 10 home runs, driving in a school record 58. Murphy is 65-for-156 at the plate with 13 doubles, four triples and 33 RBIs while working 22 walks. Julia Andersen (.406) has a team-high 67 hits and 17 two-baggers (which ranks 16th in Division I), adding two triples and three home runs with 36 runs batted in.
Megan Rushing (.340) has jacked five home runs this season and has 11 doubles with two triples and 29 runs batted in while Ali Herdliska is even alongside Morse in round-trippers (10) while hitting .321 on the year (45-for-140) with 37 RBIs and a team-best 24 walks.
Madison Hope (3.55 ERA) is second in The Summit League (and 31st nationally) with 19 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 13 complete games in 35 appearances and leads the team in strikeouts (92) and innings pitched (154) while being named The Summit League's Pitcher of the Week twice this season. Taylor Compton (8-7) has a 4.70 ERA in 26 appearances, tossing 92.1 innings with 49 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 split a Senior Day doubleheader at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium Tuesday to wrap up the regular season, topping North Dakota 8-2 in game one before falling in the second contest, 3-1.
SDSU hit .232 in the doubleheader with four doubles, outscoring the Fighting Hawks 9-5. In the circle, the Jacks had a 2.00 ERA and struck out nine.
Brittney Morse was 3-for-7 on the day (.429) with a double and two home runs, while Abbey Murphy went 2-for-5 at the plate and drove in a pair. Megan Rushing (.333) racked up two doubles.
Madison Hope (1.00 ERA) picked up the win in game one, tossing all seven innings with two runs (one earned) allowed, striking out four. Taylor Compton (3.00 ERA) threw well in the finale but was dealt the loss, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out five.
Tournament Outlook (TheSummitLeague.Org)
The 2018 Summit League Softball Championship will be played May 9-12, at Ellig Sports Complex on the campus of North Dakota State University. The championship game(s) will be televised by Midco Sports Network and ESPN3. All games can also be streamed, free of charge, on thesummitleague.org.
North Dakota State (30-17, 10-3) earned the No. 1 seed after sweeping Western Illinois on the last weekend of league play. The Jackrabbits (32-14, 10-4) hold the No. 2 seed and both squads earned a first-round bye.
Wednesday's first game will pit No. 4 South Dakota (17-37, 5-9) and fifth-seeded Omaha (18-29, 5-9) with the first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m. CT. The second game between No. 3 Western Illinois (17-30, 9-6) and No. 6 Fort Wayne (18-33, 3-11) will begin at approximately 5:30 p.m. CT.
North Dakota State will play the winner of USD/UNO in Thursday's winners bracket at noon CT, followed by South Dakota State facing the winner of Western Illinois and Fort Wayne at approximately 2:30 p.m.
The double-elimination tournament concludes with Saturday's championship game at 1 p.m. CT. If necessary, a second championship game would be played immediately following. The winner claims The Summit League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
For complete coverage of The Summit League Softball Championship, visit the official championship website at thesummitleague.org/championships and follow the championship Twitter feed @summitchamps.
Morse Continues to Mash
Brittney Morse has elevated her play in Summit League games, hitting .490 in those contests (20-for-40) with six home runs and 28 RBIs.
For the complete season, Morse leads the league in batting average (.418), total bases (110) and runs batted in (58) and is second in home runs (10), slugging percentage (.696), doubles (14) and hits (66). Her RBI total this season also broke the school's single-season mark, previously held by Alyssa D'Agostino (2015). She currently ranks third nationally with 1.26 runs batted in per game and is 12th in total RBIs.
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
- 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 is in the midst of a 28-game streak and Morse reached safely in the last 20 consecutive contests this year.
SDSU is off to its best start in program history (by winnings percentage) with a 32-14 mark through 46 contests. The previous best start came in 1996 and 1997, when the team was 30-16 at the same time. The best overall season record (by wins) in Jackrabbit history was 1996 when the team went 43-22 with a trip to the NCAA Tournament. - 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.
- Abbey Murphy has been hit by 18 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, Ali Herdliska (12) is fifth and Lyndsey Crist (11th) ranks sixth on the list.
- 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 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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IF
/ SoftballSummit League Tournament Semifinal Highlights (05.09.2025)
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Tuesday, April 29