Jackrabbits to play four in Florida

Friday, February 22

Port Charlotte, Fla.

2 p.m. ET

South Dakota State University

Florida International

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

2/20/2019 11:59:00 AM | Baseball

Games 4-7: South Dakota State (2-1) at Snowbird Invitational

When	vs. Florida International: Friday, Feb. 22 (2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT) \| Saturday, Feb. 23 (noon ET/11 a.m. CT) vs. Northeastern: Saturday, Feb. 23 (3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT) \| Sunday, Feb. 24 (10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT)
Where	North Charlotte Regional Park (Field 10) \| Port Charlotte, Florida
TV	None
Radio	None
Live Stats	To be determined
Series Notes	South Dakota State \| FIU \| Northeastern \| Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #RAB5

Following a successful opening weekend in Arkansas, the South Dakota State University baseball team will travel farther south for four games this weekend in Florida.

The Jackrabbits, 2-1 overall, are slated to play two games each against Florida International and Northeastern in Port Charlotte, Florida, as part of the Snowbird Invitational.

The weekend schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 22
• SDSU vs. Florida International, 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central)
Saturday, Feb. 23
• SDSU vs. Florida International, noon ET (11 a.m. CT)
• SDSU vs. Northeastern, 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT)
Sunday, Feb. 24
• SDSU vs. Northeastern, 10 a.m. ET (9 a.m. CT)
All games will be played at North Charlotte Regional Park – Field 10.

Florida International entered the week with a 2-2 overall record. The Panthers dropped the first two games of a home weekend series to Stony Brook by scores of 13-7 and 7-6 before salvaging the finale, 13-2. FIU also defeated Bethune-Cookman, 9-2, on Tuesday.

Northeastern, an NCAA regional qualifier a year ago with a 36-21 overall record, started the 2019 season with a 1-2 mark by dropping two of three games at Houston Baptist Feb. 15-17. The Huskies are scheduled to face Missouri Thursday night in Fort Myers, Florida, followed by an exhibition game against the hometown Boston Red Sox on Friday before heading up the Gulf Coast to meet the Jackrabbits.

THE SERIES: The Jackrabbits will be playing first-time opponents during their trip to Florida. SDSU last played a Conference USA opponent on the opening weekend of 2016, when the Jacks dropped a pair of games against Florida Atlantic in Starkville, Mississippi.

SDSU also last met a Colonial Athletic Association opponent on the diamond in 2016, falling 15-5 at UNC-Wilmington.

LAST WEEK: The Jackrabbits won a pair of games in its season-opening three-game set against UT Martin. The series was moved to Russellville, Arkansas, due to expected inclement weather in Tennessee.

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

STOVER HONORED: South Dakota State University left-hander Brady Stover was honored Feb. 18 as the first Summit League Pitcher of the Week for the 2019 season.

A junior from Huxley, Iowa, Stover pitched five shutout innings en route to the win in the Jackrabbits' 15-3 season-opening victory over UT Martin on Feb. 15. He racked up nine strikeouts — fanning at least one batter in every inning — while walking two and surrendering only two hits.

A CALL TO ARMS: South Dakota State pitchers combined to strike out 34 UT Martin batters in 26 innings and post a 2.42 team earned run average during their season-opening three-game series.

Brady Stover led the way with nine strikeouts over five innings in the Feb. 15 season opener, while freshman Nic McCay posted eight strikeouts in five innings during his collegiate debut Feb. 17.

Out of the bullpen, Tyler Olmstead tallied five strikeouts in three innings of work in the Feb. 16 matchup, while Cody Carlson fanned four batters in three shutout frames in the opener.

All three Jackrabbit starters — Stover, McCay and Ryan Froom — completed five innings in their initial appearance of the season.

FROOM MAKES COMEBACK: Ryan Froom completed the long road back from injury by making his first appearance in nearly two years in the Feb. 16 game against UT Martin.

A sixth-year senior, Froom struck out five, walked four and surrendered three hits over five innings in finishing with a no-decision. Froom's last appearance was March 25, 2017, at Oral Roberts, when he suffered an arm injury. He missed the remainder of the 2017 season and was granted an injury hardship. Froom also sat out the entire 2018 campaign before rejoining the team this past fall.

The Crystal, Minnesota, native was a mainstay in the Jackrabbit rotation starting with his sophomore season in 2015. He currently ranks sixth in program history with 35 games started and also ranks ninth on the SDSU career charts with 198 2/3 innings pitched.

POWER SURGE: The Jackrabbits ended the opening weekend of action tied for fourth among NCAA Division I programs for home runs with an average of two per game. SDSU hit a total of six home runs, highlighted by a three-home run performance in the Feb. 15 opener against UT Martin.

Six different players accounted for the Jackrabbit home runs, including Derek Hackman and Braeden Brown, who each hit their first round-trippers in an SDSU uniform, in the opener. Josh Falk added a two-run shot in the opener for his seventh career home run, which stands as the most by a current Jackrabbit player.

Logan Holtz and Ryan McDonald connected on back-to-back homers in the fifth inning of the Feb. 16 game. It was the first career home run for each and marked the second time in five games dating back to last season that the Jackrabbits hit consecutive home runs. Anthony Schneider and Tony Kjolsing led off a May 24 Summit League Baseball Championship game against Western Illinois with back-to-back homers.

Gus Steiger closed out the power display with a two-run opposite-field home run in the Feb. 17 series finale to begin the Jackrabbit scoring in a 7-1 SDSU victory.

YOUTH MOVEMENT: Four first-year players filled spots in the starting lineup in the Jackrabbits' Feb. 16 game against UT Martin. Drew Beazley batted out of the leadoff spot as the designated hitter, while Luke Ira (third base), Ryan McDonald (catcher) and Jamie Berg (center field) also were on the lineup card. McDonald led SDSU at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a home run.

Ira was the team's top hitter during the opening weekend, compiling a .462 average (6-for-13) and .769 slugging percentage in three starts. Three of his hits went for extra bases — two doubles and a triple.

PRESEASON POLL: South Dakota State has been picked to finish second in the upcoming Summit League baseball race, according to a poll conducted among conference coaches that was announced Feb. 7 by league officials.

The Jackrabbits received one first-place vote, finishing with 21 points. Defending league champion Oral Roberts again paced the six-team race with five first-place votes and 25 points. North Dakota State completed the upper half of the poll with 17 points.

Rounding out the poll were: Western Illinois, 12 points; Omaha, 9 points, and Purdue Fort Wayne, 6 points.

In addition, the Jackrabbits' Nick Smith and Brady Stover were recognized among the Summit League's top players to watch.

A two-time all-Summit League honoree, Smith has posted a batting average of better than .300 each of the past two seasons. Smith, a senior from Chanhassen, Minnesota, hit at a .303 clip with 18 runs batted in en route to first-team honors as a utility player during the 2018 campaign.

Stover, a junior from Huxley, Iowa, posted a 3-2 record in 2018 with a 4.57 earned run average in 10 appearances, including nine starts. The left-hander struck out 63 batters in only 43.1 innings, setting an SDSU single-season record with an average of 13.09 strikeouts per nine innings. He also limited the opposition to a .203 batting average.

Summit League play is slated to begin March 15, when SDSU opens a three-game series at Western Illinois.

The top four teams during the regular season will advance to the 2019 Summit League Baseball Championship, which is scheduled for May 22-25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to nearly 600 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.

Now in his third season with the Jackrabbits, Bishop holds a 46-57 record at SDSU. In his first season, Bishop's 2017 squad returned to the winning side of the ledger with a 26-24 overall mark, including an 18-12 record for a third-place finish in The Summit League standings. SDSU won its opening-round game in the Summit League Baseball Championship, 6-5, over second-seeded North Dakota State.

In 2018, SDSU overcame a slow start to post a winning record in Summit League play at 14-13 and went on to reach the title game of the Summit League Baseball Championship. The Jackrabbits finished with an 18-32 overall record during a campaign in which they played only six home games.

Overall, Bishop holds a 595-379-1 record (.611 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach.

Individually, Jackrabbit players have been honored as all-Summit League performers 10 times during his brief tenure, including six all-league selections in 2018. Utility player Nick Smith and third baseman Newt Johnson received all-Summit League recognition in both 2017 and 2018.

Prior to becoming head coach at SDSU, Bishop 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. Bishop's teams won at least 30 games each of his 10 seasons, including four 40-win seasons. He ended his tenure at Miles City with a 377-151 overall record. He also served as athletic director his last five years 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 with a 38-18 record.

A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.

THE ROSTER: The 2019 SDSU baseball roster features 33 players from seven different states and one Canadian province. Of the 33 players, 11 are from Iowa, nine are from South Dakota and eight hail from Minnesota. Arizona, Nebraska, Washington and Wisconsin are represented by one player each, as is Manitoba.

By class, 10 are seniors, nine are juniors, five are sophomores, two are redshirt freshmen and seven are incoming freshmen.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits will make a return trip to the state of Arkansas to open the month of March, again playing four games over a three-day period. All games will be played in Conway, Arkansas, with SDSU playing three games against host Central Arkansas along with a single game versus Missouri.
Friday, March 1
• SDSU at Central Arkansas, 3 p.m.
Saturday, March 2
• SDSU vs. Missouri, 3 p.m.
• SDSU at Central Arkansas, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 3
• SDSU at Central Arkansas, 1 p.m.

-GoJacks.com-