Softball set for weather-shortened weekend

Sunday, February 24

Conway, Ark.

2:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Jackson State

Photo by: Laura Mullen

2/21/2019 9:23:00 AM | Softball

GAMES 11-14: South Dakota State (6-4) at Michelle Short Memorial Classic

When	Sunday, Feb. 24 \| vs. Jackson State (2:30 p.m.); at Central Arkansas (4:45 p.m.) Monday, Feb. 25 \| vs. North Alabama (9 a.m.); vs. Jackson State (11 a.m.)
Where	Farris Field \| Conway, Arkansas
Live Video	Central Arkansas (other games will not be streamed)
Live Stats	UCASports.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #GRIT

Game Day Outlook
South Dakota State heads for Conway, Arkansas this weekend for the 2019 Michelle Short Memorial Classic, hosted by Central Arkansas. The Jackrabbits' original schedule was adjusted due to wet weather in the area, as the event will move to a two-day format on Sunday and Monday (Feb. 24-25). SDSU will play two games each day.

The Jackrabbits will take on Jackson State and Central Arkansas Sunday at 2:30 and 4:45 p.m., respectively. Monday pits SDSU against North Alabama at 9 a.m. before an 11 a.m. rematch with Jackson State. All games will be played at Farris Field on UCA's campus

Recapping the Weekend
The Jacks went 3-2 at the UNF/Dolphin Invitational in Jacksonville, Florida with a pair of wins over Colgate and a 9-4 victory against College of Charleston. SDSU saw all nine of its offensive starters record hits in the weekend opener and finale.

The Jackrabbits opened the event with a 9-7 shootout victory over Colgate, using a program-record seven stolen bases to run away with the win. SDSU dropped a 10-8 heartbreaker in Friday's finale to North Florida as the Osprey's tied it in the seventh and walked off with a win in the eighth. The Jacks bounced back with a 1-0 shutout victory over Colgate on Saturday, helped by Olivia Douglas' five-strikeout complete game performance in the circle. SDSU fell to Jacksonville in a close 1-2 contest in game two Saturday before closing the weekend with the Charleston victory.

Ali Herdliska hit .462 (6-of-13) over the weekend with a pair of home runs, blasting her first career grand slam while racking up six RBIs. She added five walks and did not commit an error in 34 chances.

Baily Janssen and Yanney Ponce each had six hits and two RBIs, while Lyndsey Crist added a double and home run amid her five hits.

Oliva Douglas (1-0) did not allow a run in her lone appearance, scattering five hits and a pair of walks while strikeout out five. Taylor Compton took a pair of losses and threw a team-high 17 innings over the weekend, striking out eight. Kendra Conard and Morgan DeMarais had SDSU's other wins in the circle, as Conard posted a 2.45 ERA and DeMarais allowed three runs in 4.1 frames. Both pitches had two strikeouts.

Scouting the Jackrabbits
South Dakota State sits at 6-4 on the season, matching last year's record through 10 games for the program's best start at the Division I level.

Ali Herdliska leads the Jackrabbits with a slash line of .480/1.000/.629 on the season while posting a Summit League-best 1.629 OPS through two weekends. The senior has 12 hits in 25 at-bats with four home runs and 10 walks. She has driven in 13 and struck out just four times.

Baily Janssen is hitting .333 for the year with nine hits and two RBIs, while Yanney Ponce (.33) is 10-of-32 at the plate with a double and triple. Lyndsey Crist (.292) has hit two long balls for SDSU in the early season, while Mallory McQuistan (.273) and Allison Beaudry (.267) have each hit one home run. Julia Andersen (.318) has appeared in six of 10 games for SDSU and has four doubles, four RBIs and seven hits in 22 at-bats.

In the circle, Taylor Compton is 2-3 on the year with a 4.83 ERA over 33.1 innings. She has 16 strikeouts and has held opponents to a .252 average against. Emma Hardin (1-1, 7.70 ERA) has tossed 10 innings. Olivia Douglas (1-0, five strikeouts) and Morgan DeMarais (1-0, 1.75 ERA) have each appeared in two games while Kendra Conard (1-0, 3.94) has logged three relief appearances and tossed 5.1 innings.

Opponent Capsules

Jackson State (0-12) is winless on the season, but led by Kelsey Smith's seven hits and four RBIs. The Tigers are averaging two runs per contest and have hit five doubles with 27 walks. In the circle, Leah Hopson has a 1.76 WHIP, 5.07 ERA and four strikeouts over nine appearances. Kayla Owens has made five starts and leads the team with 13 strikeouts.
Central Arkansas (8-4) picked up three wins last weekend at the Madeira Beach Invitational and swept a midweek doubleheader over Arkansas-Pine Bluff Wednesday. The Bears are hitting .336 as a team with two individuals over the .400 mark, as Cylia Hill has 18 hits, six doubles and seven RBIs while Libby Morris (.400) has 16 hits, four doubles, four home runs and 15 RBIs. UCA has a 2.70 combined ERA, as Rachel Haberman (0.91 ERA) is 3-1 over 15.1 innings pitched with 12 stirkeouts and Kailla Searcy (1-0) has thrown 7.1 innings with one earned run allowed. Jordan Johnson (2-0, 2.30 ERA) leads the team in innings pitched (24.1) and strikeouts (18).
North Alabama (6-2) started the season with five consecutive wins, but went 1-2 last week at the Alabama State Black and Gold Tournament, including an 8-6 setback to the Summit League's Purdue Fort Wayne. Vernoica Westfall (.429) leads the team in hits (nine) and Harley Stokes has hit three round-trippers. Megan Garst (0.65 ERA) is 2-1 in the circle over four appearances and has tossed 21.2 innings. She has 25 strikeouts to lead the team.

Jackrabbit Quick Hits

South Dakota State worked 32 total walks in the opening weekend, averaging 6.4 per contest. The Jackrabbits have 45 total walks for the season (4.5 per contest).
SDSU swiped seven bags in a 9-7 win over Colgate (Feb. 15), tying the school's Division I single-game record. It was the sixth occurence of the record and first since the 2014 season.
Julia Andersen moved into a tie for fourth in SDSU's record books with 33 career doubles. She is three away from tying Shelly Brandel's school record of 36, set between 1995-98.
Ali Herdliska became the school's all-time leader in career home runs with her solo shot in the first inning against Colgate (Feb. 16). She broke a tie with Devan Larsen after drawing even with the top spot on Feb. 15.
The Jacks worked 10 free passes against Drake matching the second-most in a game for South Dakota State. The record of 11 walks has occurred four times in SDSU's history.
Taylor Compton took a no-hitter late into the sixth inning of the season opener against Saint Louis, striking out six in the performance and going 5.2 frames before allowing a hit.

Triple Crown Chaser
Jackrabbit senior Ali Herdliska broke the school's career home run, runs batted in and total base records during SDSU's stay in Jacksonville, Florida (Feb. 15-17). Additionally, she already held the program's career walks record and is closing in on doubles and runs scored.

Should Herdliska match her season average in hits from the last two seasons (54 in both), she would end up with 210 total hits as a Jackrabbit, placing her fourth in SDSU history.

A look at the latest Jackrabbit records to watch is on page five of the game notes.

2018 Season Recap
South Dakota State is coming off a historic season that saw the program reach the postseason for the first time in its Division I history, earning an automatic bid to the 2018 National Invitational Softball Championship, where the team reached the championship round and forced a winner-take-all at the regional in Greeley, Colorado.

The Jackrabbits finished second in the 2018 Summit League standings and broke the 35-win mark for the second time in history and won all four of their three-game Summit League series' a year ago, splitting a two-game, weather-shortened set with NDSU.

SDSU hit .322 as a team last season and set new school records for doubles (94), runs batted in (324) and runs scored (356).

In the circle, the Jackrabbits put together a 3.89 team ERA with 194 strikeouts over 352.2 total innings.

This year's South Dakota State softball program brings a roster of nine seniors, 14 total returners and nine newcomers into the 2019 campaign with high hopes of building on the achievements.

Jacks Tabbed Second in Summit League Poll
The Jackrabbit softball program earned three first-place votes and sat second in the 2019 Summit League Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll, released Feb. 1 by the league office.

The Jackrabbits received 33 votes in the poll, just one tally behind North Dakota State, who had 34 points and four first-place votes. Western Illinois sat third in the poll with 25 points, while the next four featured South Dakota (19 points), Omaha (14), North Dakota (11) and Purdue Fort Wayne (nine).

Andersen, Compton Named to League Watch Lists
Julia Andersen and Taylor Compton were announced as a Player and Pitcher to Watch, respectively, by The Summit League for the 2019 season, announced in February alongside the coaches' poll.

A 2018 NFCA All-Midwest Region Second Team performer, Andersen is back after starting all 55 games for the Jackrabbits a year ago. She finished second on the team with a .397 average, tying the school's single-season hits (77) and doubles (19) records en route to being named an All-Summit League First Team pick.

Compton started 20 games last year and posted a 9-8 record, tossing 111.2 total innings with a 4.51 ERA. She threw six perfect innings of relief in the National Invitational Softball Championship to help the Jacks reach the title game.

Smarty Jacks
South Dakota State was one of 107 Division I softball programs to earn a spot on the 2018 Easton / National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Academic Teams award list, announced this fall. The rankings recognize the academic prowess of softball teams within the NFCA.

The Jackrabbits had a 2017-18 team grade point average of 3.478 with 17 team members boasting grand point averages above the 3.00 mark, finishing 39th nationally in team GPA. Julia Andersen, Taylor Compton, Lyndsey Crist, Olivia Douglas, Ali Herdliska, Madison Hope, Mallory McQuistan, Erin Mullen, Abbey Murphy, Danielle Steffo and Kerigan Torres earned 3.50 or above GPAs and were honored as NFCA scholar-athletes in the same release. Herdliska (who was also named to the Academic All-Summit League team in 2017 and 2018), Mullen, Murphy and Steffo are repeat selections from the 2017 team.

SDSU posted a 3.44 team GPA this fall with six student-athletes achieving 4.0 GPAs, nine at or above a 3.7 and 19 with a 3.0 GPA or higher.

A Look in the Dugout
Krista Wood returns for her fifth season as head coach of the Jackrabbits alongside second-year assistant Kristi Villar, rookie assistant Kiki Stokes and volunteer coach Jeff Lewis.

Wood holds a 105-118 record at South Dakota State and a 375-272 mark in her 13th season of overall head coaching experience. She won her 100th game at SDSU during the 2018 National Invitational Softball Championship last year and is 38 victories shy of becoming the winningest coach in Jackrabbit softball history.

Villar came to SDSU in the summer of 2017 after seven years as head coach at Northern State University. In her first season as the primary hitting coach for the Jackrabbits, Villar helped the team reset season records in total bases, runs and doubles while tallying the second-highest totals in home runs, at-bats and wins. All told, Villar helped the Jacks raise their team batting average by sixty points (.322) in her first season at State.

Stokes was hired in August of 2018 after a standout career at Nebraska. The former Husker had a career .350 average, was a two-time All-American (2015, 2016) and holds the school record in runs scored (200). From Olathe, Kansas, Stokes was the No. 6 overall pick by the Houston Scrap Yard Dawgs in the 2016 National Pro Fastpitch league and led the team to its first NPF Championship in 2017. She recently completed her third season with the professional franchise.

Jeff Lewis in his second season as volunteer assistant coach for the Jackrabbit softball program, joining them in the fall of 2018. He is a member of the USA Junior Men's National Fastpitch Softball team, competing in the WBSC in 2016 and 2018 and received an invitation to try out for the USA Men's National Fastpitch Softball team in January 2019.

Six Sign NLIs with Jackrabbit Softball
South Dakota State softball coach Krista Wood announced six signees to the Jackrabbit softball program as part of November's national signing day: Jocelyn Carrillo (Palmdale, California), Lindsey Culver (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Mia Elliot (Des Moines, Iowa), Grace Glanzer (Sioux Falls), Cyle Halvorson (Sioux Falls) and Isabel Martinez (Oak Lawn, Illinois).

All six additions will enroll at SDSU for the 2019-20 school year as incoming freshman and be eligible to play immediately for the Jacks.