JACKS AIM TO EXTEND RECORD-SETTING STREAK

Saturday, April 17

Grand Forks, N.D.

noon

South Dakota State University

North Dakota

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

4/15/2021 2:40:00 PM | Softball

Games 32-35: South Dakota State (27-4, 12-0 Summit) at North Dakota (13-24, 5-7 Summit)

When	Noon doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday (April 17-18)
Where	Apollo Park \| Grand Forks, North Dakota
TV	MidcoSN2 \| Midco Sports Plus (subscription required)
Radio	None
Live Stats	FightingHawks.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| North Dakota \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #GRIT

The South Dakota State University softball team will be in search of a school-record 15th win in a row when it opens a four-game Summit League series Saturday afternoon at North Dakota.

The Jackrabbits, 27-4 overall and 12-0 in league play, have won 14 consecutive games to match the all-time SDSU winning streak put together by the 1996 squad that went on to host the NCAA Division II Central Regional later that season.

SDSU opened the home portion of its schedule last weekend by sweeping a four-game series from Omaha. The Jackrabbits' 12 Summit League victories so far this season are the most in program history; the 2019 squad won 11 league games when playing three-game series.

This weekend's series will consist of doubleheaders both Saturday and Sunday at Apollo Park in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Start time each day is noon, with television coverage available on MidcoSN2, as well as the Midco Sports Plus streaming app (subscription required).

North Dakota enters the weekend with a 13-24 overall record, including a 5-7 mark in The Summit League. The Fighting Hawks split a four-game home series against Western Illinois last weekend in which hitting was at a premium as all four games featured a combined three or fewer runs scored.

THE SERIES: Saturday's series opener will mark the 86th meeting between South Dakota State and North Dakota on the softball diamond, with SDSU holding a 54-31 series edge. The Jackrabbits and Fighting Hawks were first rivals in the North Central Conference at the NCAA Division II level before moving to Division I and The Summit League.

The two squads last played during the 2019 campaign and split a four-game season series. UND won two of the three regular season matchups before the Jackrabbits evened the series with a 4-2 victory in the opening round of the Summit League Softball Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.

In that last matchup, the Jackrabbits scored two first-inning runs on a sacrifice fly by Megan Rushing and a wild pitch and built the lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning on a two-run double by Paige Gerdes. Kendra Conard kept UND off the board until the fifth inning, but kept the Fighting Hawks off the board the rest of the way in a complete-game effort in which she struck out four and allowed only two hits.

SHORT HOPS: Following are some quick notes regarding the South Dakota State softball team so far this season:

SDSU played its first home games of the season last weekend (April 10-11), sweeping a four-game series from Omaha;
The Jackrabbits have hit 43 home runs as a team in 31 games, and have homered in eight games in a row and 11 of 12 Summit League games;
SDSU ranks 21st among Division I programs with an average of 1.39 home runs per game;
Eleven different Jackrabbit players have hit a home run this season;
The Jackrabbits tied a Division I-era (since 2005) single-game record with five home runs in Game 1 of the April 2 doubleheader at Western Illinois and went on to hit 13 homers in the four-game series;
SDSU ranks 15th nationally with a .564 team slugging percentage;
With an average of 6.68 runs scored per game, the Jackrabbits rank 18th among Division I squads, while their .319 team batting average ranks 25th;
Seven Jackrabbit starters enter the week hitting .300 or better, led by freshman Emma Osmundson, who ranks 29th among Division I players by hitting at a .449 (35-for-78) clip;
SDSU has yet to lose back-to-back games this season;
In Summit League play, Jackrabbit opponents have scored runs in 14 separate innings, but SDSU has answered with at least one run of their own in the next half-inning 10 times;
The Jackrabbits put together a streak of nine consecutive errorless games from March 6-12 and rank 13th nationally with a .979 team fielding percentage;
SDSU is 6-0 in one-run games this season, winning five of those games in its last at-bat;
Jackrabbit pitchers have turned in complete games in 21 of 31 games, including six shutouts.

NEARING 30 WINS: South Dakota State is in position to reach the 30-win plateau for the season this weekend. It would mark the sixth time in program history and third time in the last four seasons under head coach Krista Wood that the Jackrabbits would reach that milestone.

SDSU first reached the 30-win mark in 1996, recording a school-record 43 wins against 22 losses. The Jackrabbits went 31-19 in 1997 and then went without a 30-win season until posting a 30-29 record in 2005.

The Jackrabbits tallied back-to-back 37-win seasons in 2018 (37-18) and 2019 (37-19) in making consecutive appearances in the National Invitational Softball Championship.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: South Dakota State's Kelsey Lenox was named Summit League Player of the Week in leading the Jackrabbit softball team to a sweep of Omaha last weekend.

A junior from Chesterfield, Missouri, Lenox drove in 14 runs on four home runs and a pair of doubles in the four-game series at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium. She homered in both games of an April 10 doubleheader, hitting a pair of two-run shots in the opener before driving in five more runs on a three-run homer and two-run double in Game 2.

She capped her weekend with a grand slam in the April 11 series finale.

For the week, Lenox batted .583 (7-for-12) and recorded a 1.750 slugging percentage as the Jackrabbits ran their winning streak to 14 games to match a school record, as well as remained unbeaten in The Summit League at 12-0.

Lenox is the fourth SDSU position player to be named Summit League Player of the Week so far this season, joining Rozelyn Carrillo (March 8), Emma Osmundson (March 15) and Lindsey Culver (April 5). Culver was later honored as D-I Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week.

PRESEASON POLL: South Dakota State has been picked to finish second in the upcoming Summit League softball race, according to a preseason poll conducted among the league's seven head coaches that was announced in mid-February.

North Dakota State, which has won the last six Summit League championships, claimed the top spot with six first-place votes and 36 points. The Jackrabbits claimed the other first-place vote to finish second with 31 points. South Dakota was third with 25 points, followed by Omaha with 19 points. Rounding out the preseason poll were Kansas City (16), North Dakota (12) and Western Illinois (8).

The Jackrabbits compiled a 15-8 record in an abbreviated 2020 season that was canceled before the start of league play and return a solid nucleus led by Summit League Players to Watch Grace Glanzer and Cylie Halvorson.

A native of Sioux Falls, Glanzer burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2020, leading the league with 74 strikeouts and a 12-2 record. She finished with a 1.73 earned run average and held opponents to a .215 batting average.

Halvorson, also a Sioux Falls native, paced the Summit League with seven doubles while hitting .406 with 19 runs batted in in 22 games. She notched eight multi-hit games and recorded a .641 slugging percentage in 2020.

The Summit League Softball Championship is set for May 12-15 in Fargo, North Dakota.

NO-HITTER HISTORY: Grace Glanzer's no-hitter against Oregon State on March 5 in Greeley, Colorado, marked the second year in a row an SDSU pitcher accomplished the feat.

Morgan DeMarais hurled a no-hitter March 8, 2020, against Merrimack, in a game played in Madeira Beach, Florida. DeMarais struck out seven and did not walk a batter, missing out on a perfect game due to two hit batters and a Jackrabbit error.

Glanzer's no-hitter is the sixth on record in program history; the others:

Jessica Jones, April 24, 1990, versus Nebraska-Omaha (W, 1-0);
Melissa Alleven, March 29, 2002, versus Northern State (W, 17-1; 5 inn.);
Meggan Staton, March 3, 2003, vs. Rollins (W, 1-0; 8 inn.);
Meggan Staton, March 6, 2003, vs. Lynn (W, 5-0);
Morgan DeMarais, March 8, 2020, vs. Merrimack (W, 12-0).

A returning freshman from Sioux Falls, Glanzer nearly duplicated her feat March 19 against Northern Colorado, taking a no-hit bid into the fifth — and final — inning. She allowed a one-out infield single in the fifth and ended with a one-hit shutout as the Jackrabbits posted an 11-0 victory.

Glanzer has posted a complete game in 13 of her 15 starts this season with four shutouts.

KNIESCHE IMPRESSING EARLY: South Dakota State freshman Tori Kniesche got off to a quick start to her collegiate career and has continued to impress throughout the 2021 season.

A right-hander from Wayne, Nebraska, Kniesche posted a 2-0 record with a 1.00 earned run average and 23 strikeouts in a pair of seven-inning complete-game efforts for the Jackrabbits at the season-opening Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Classic in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

In her collegiate debut against Drake on Feb. 12, Kniesche struck out 12 and walked four, allowing one run on three hits. The next day, Kniesche fanned 11 Northern Iowa hitters, once again giving up only one run and three hits.

Kniesche matched her season high with 12 strikeouts in consecutive shutous April 2 and 3 at Western Illinois. She pitched a two-hitter in her first outing of the weekend, followed by a one-hitter, en route to earning Summit League Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time this season and being named Freshman of the Week by D1Softball.com.

For the season, Kniesche is 14-1 with a 1.92 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 80 innings. She was the winning pitcher in each of the last three games of the Omaha series, recording two wins in starts and one in relief. The opposition is batting .160 against her this year.

DAUGHERTY SETS THE TABLE: Jackrabbit outfielder Peyton Daugherty has paced the SDSU offense throughout the season and reached a pair of milestones during the four-game sweep of Kansas City March 27-28.

A junior from Ankeny, Iowa, Daugherty played in her 100th career game in the first game of the March 28 doubleheader and also recorded her 100th career hit in the same contest. She also has moved into seventh place in career stolen bases at SDSU with 41 after tallying one steal in last weekend's series against Omaha.

For her career, Daugherty is 41-of-43 in stolen-base attempts, including a team-best 15-for-16 in that department so far this season.

Daugherty currently leads the team with 30 runs runs scored and shares the team lead with 39 hits. She has notched a 13 multi-hit games and ranks third on the squad with a .351 batting average.

GOOD THINGS HAPPEN IN THREES: South Dakota State accomplished a rare feat in the sixth inning of its Feb. 12 season opener against Iowa State — hitting three triples in the same inning. Jocelyn Carrillo started the parade of three-baggers with a leadoff triple and pinch-hitter Emma Osmundson followed two batters later with a triple in her first collegiate at-bat. Peyton Daugherty then stepped to the plate and made it three triples in four at-bats in the inning, lining one to the right-center gap to plate Osmundson with what was then the tying run.

Osmundson has taken over the team lead with five triples to rank in a tie for fifth nationally in that category, while Lindsey Culver is tied for 15th with four triples.

As a team, the Jackrabbits have combined for 22 triples so far this year and currently lead all Division I teams with an average of 0.71 triples per game.

HALVORSON HEATING UP: Overshadowed by a pair of teammates putting up huge numbers each of the past two weekends, Jackrabbit first baseman Cylie Halvorson has been on a tear of her own.

The Sioux Falls native carries an eight-game hitting streak into this weekend, during which she has recorded seven multi-hit games to take over the team lead in that category with 14. Halvorson continued her streak by going 4-for-4 with a double and her team-leading 11th home run in the April 11 series finale versus Omaha.

During her eight-game hot streak, Halvorson is batting .586 (17-for-29) with three home runs and 14 runs batted in. Nine of her hits have gone for extra bases as she has compiled a 1.138 slugging percentage.

TWO-HOME RUN GAMES: Kelsey Lenox's two-home run game to open the weekend series against Omaha marked the third time in a five-game span that a Jackrabbit player hit multiple round-trippers in a game.

A week earlier, in both games of an April 2 doubleheader at Western Illinois, SDSU second baseman Lindsey Culver homered twice. At that point, Culver owned each of the last three multi-home run games by a Jackrabbit player; she was the lone SDSU player with a two-homer game during the abbreviated 2020 season, accomplishing the feat March 8 of that year against Merrimack.

BACK-TO-BACK JACKS: South Dakota State hit consecutive home runs on two occasions as part of a 13-homer weekend in its four-game series at Western Illinois April 2-3.

Both times, the back-to-back home runs came in the third inning of the first game of that day's doubleheader, and each time the Jackrabbits hit another home run in the inning. In the April 2 opener, Lindsey Culver and Allison Beaudry hit consecutive home runs before Cylie Halvorson hit a three-run shot to cap a six-run inning.

On April 3, Emma Osmundson and Halvorson went back-to-back after fellow freshman Cheyanne Masterson hit a solo homer earlier in the frame.

SISTER ACT: Sisters and Palmdale, California, natives Rozelyn and Jocelyn Carrillo have both put up impressive numbers so far this season in solidifying spots in the Jackrabbit starting lineup.

Jocelyn, the team's starting center fielder, is batting .350 and has driven in 17 runs. Eleven of her 28 hits so far this season have gone for extra bases, including a pair of go-ahead home runs: in the top of the 10th inning of the Jackrabbits' 15-11 victory at Kansas on March 10 and in the top of the seventh inning of SDSU's 3-2 win in the first game of an April 3 doubleheader at Western Illinois.

Rozelyn ranks fourth on the squad with four home runs and is hitting at a .259 clip, while tied for fourth on the team with 17 runs batted in. She also has performed well at the shortstop position, committing only two errors in 90 total chances.

LEADING THE SUMMIT: Not only are the Jackrabbits atop the Summit League standings at the halfway point of the conference season, but they lead the seven-team league in nearly every major offensive category.

SDSU also holds the best team earned run average (2.29) and fielding percentage (.979).

Individually, Cylie Halvorson shares the league lead with 11 home runs, while pacing the Summit in both runs batted in (37), total bases (82) and slugging percentage (.788).

Freshman Emma Osmundson currently holds the top spot in batting average (.449), triples (5) and on-base percentage (.551), while ranking second in slugging percentage (.744), with Lindsey Culver third in slugging percentage at .705.

Peyton Daugherty shares the league lead in runs scored with 30 and is tied for second in hits with Halvorson with 39. Daugherty's 15 stolen bases also rank second in the Summit.

In the pitching department, freshman Tori Kniesche leads the league in wins (14), earned run average (1.92) and opposing batting average (.160). Teammate and returning freshman Grace Glanzer is right behind in second place in all three categories: 11 wins, 2.31 ERA and .202 opposing batting average.

COACH WOOD: Krista Wood begins her seventh season as head coach at South Dakota State in 2021.

Already the program's winningest coach with a 181-147 record after being hired to lead the program in August of 2014, Wood boasts a 451-301 overall career record after eight successful seasons at Wayne State College.

She has coached five NFCA All-Midwest Region selections (the first four in SDSU's Division I era) and 18 All-Summit League selections in her time at SDSU, including the 2016 Summit League Freshman of the Year (Ali Herdliska) and 2018 Player of the Year (Brittney Morse). Herdliska is the only Jackrabbit to earn All-Summit League honors four times in her career, and twice picked up an NFCA All-Midwest Region nod.

The Jackrabbits have won 20 or more games five times under coach Wood, and prior to the cancellation of the 2020 Summit League Championships had reached the league's year-end tournament in each of her first five seasons, including a championship series run in 2018.

SDSU won 37 games in back-to-back 2018 and 2019 seasons, earning berths in the National Invitational Softball Championship both seasons. Wood was named the Summit League's Coach of the Year in 2018 while guiding her team to a program-record .673 winning percentage, breaking the 35-win mark for the second time in history.

Her 2020 squad won 15 games and posted a Summit League-best.652 winning percentage before COVID-19 precautions ended the NCAA's Division I softball season nationwide.

Wood put together a 270-154 mark at Wayne State, turning the Wildcat program into a winner after inheriting a 10-win squad when she was hired before the 2007 season. She brought WSC to three consecutive NCAA Division II National Tournaments between 2009-11, including a 2010 NCAA Central Region crown. The Wildcats won a school-record 43 games during that season and claimed the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament title.

Wood coached internationally during the summer of 2009, leading a United States team (sponsored by USA Athletes International) at the Oldenzaal Invitational in Holland.

A native of Missouri Valley, Iowa, Wood spent two seasons as an assistant coach at St. Cloud State University after a stellar playing career at Nebraska-Omaha from 1999-2003. She helped the Mavericks to the NCAA Division II national championship in 2001 as a sophomore and finished her career as the all-time winningest pitcher in Maverick softball history with 106 wins and 530 career strikeouts.

Wood was named to Omaha's athletic hall of fame in 2020.

In the 2001 national championship game, Wood tossed a two-hit shutout with five strikeouts in a 4-0 win over Lewis University. She also ranks second in career shutouts at UNO with 43, and earned numerous honors as a player at UNO, earning First Team All-NCC honors three times, while also collecting three All-NCC Academic Team awards. She earned NFCA All-Region First Team honors in 2002 and a Second Team All-Region selection in 2001. Wood also earned North Central Conference Freshman of the Year in 2000.

Wood also coached at the high school level, serving as the pitching coach at Omaha Gross High School in the fall of 2003 and at state-qualifying Omaha Westside High School in 2004.

Wood earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education K-12 with an endorsement in coaching from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2004 and received a master's degree in sport management in 2006 from St. Cloud State University.

THE ROSTER: The 2021 SDSU softball roster features 24 players from six different states and one foreign country. Of the 24 players, eight are from South Dakota, four hail from Iowa and California and three are Nebraska natives. Two players call Minnesota and Missouri home. The international player hails from Italy.

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

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits are scheduled to open a 10-game homestand by hosting in-state rival South Dakota in a four-game series. Doubleheaders are slated to begin at noon both April 24 and 25 at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium.

-GoJacks.com-