HOME SEASON BEGINS SATURDAY FOR SOFTBALL

Saturday, April 10

Brookings, S.D.

noon

South Dakota State University

Omaha

Photo by: Mark Kuhlmann

4/8/2021 4:25:00 PM | Softball

Games 28-31: Omaha (7-16, 2-2 Summit) at South Dakota State (23-4, 8-0 Summit)

When	Noon doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday (April 10-11)
Where	Jackrabbit Softball Stadium \| Brookings, S.D.
TV	GoJacks.com/watch (subscription required)
Radio	None
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| Omaha \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #GRIT

After playing its first 27 games of the 2021 season across six states, the South Dakota State softball team is set to begin the home portion of its schedule this weekend with a four-game Summit League series against Omaha.

Doubleheader action is slated for a noon start both Saturday and Sunday at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium. All four games will be available for viewing online at GoJacks.com/watch (subscription required).

SDSU enters the week with a 23-4 overall record after sweeping a four-game series April 2-3 at Western Illinois to remain unbeaten in Summit League play at 8-0. The Jackrabbits began their current 10-game winning streak in Omaha with a pair of victories over Northern Colorado at the Connie Claussen Classic March 19-20.

The Jackrabbits also won 10 in a row from Feb. 12 through March 9, following a season-opening loss to Iowa State at the Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Classic in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

SDSU, which had its game scheduled for Wednesday at Creighton postponed due to rain, last played a home game on May 4, 2019, when the Jackrabbits defeated South Dakota, 14-2, in five innings.

Omaha enters the weekend with a 7-16 overall record and a 2-2 mark in The Summit League. The Mavericks were idle last week after opening league play March 27-28 by splitting a four-game home series against North Dakota.

THE SERIES: Saturday's series opener will mark the 94th meeting between South Dakota State and Omaha on the softball diamond. The Mavericks have been a longtime nemesis for SDSU, holding a 66-26-1 advantage in the series that began in 1981.

Both programs were long-standing members of the North Central Conference before moving to the Division I ranks. Since the series resumed at the D-I level in 2013, Omaha holds a 12-10 series edge, although SDSU has won the last four matchups.

The Jackrabbits swept a three-game series March 22-23, 2019, at Omaha. SDSU swept the series-opening doubleheader, 4-1 and 8-1, before claiming the finale, 13-3. Lyndsey Crist was the hitting start for the Jackrabbits in the finale, hitting a pair of home runs as part of a 3-for-4, four-RBI day at the plate.

The Jacks' series winning streak began with a 4-3 victory at the 2018 Summit League Softball Championship in Fargo, North Dakota.

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

The Jackrabbits have hit 37 home runs as a team in 27 games, including a streak of six consecutive games with a homer from March 5-9;
SDSU 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;
The Jackrabbits rank 20th nationally with a .552 team slugging percentage;
Emma Osmundson became the 11th Jackrabbit to hit a home run this season, hitting the first of the team's five home runs in the April 2 doubleheader opener;
Cylie Halvorson leads the team with 10 home runs and hit a homer in each of the Jackrabbits three games against Kansas March 10-11;
Halvorson has two separate three-game home run streaks this season;
Six Jackrabbit starters enter the week hitting .333 or better, led by freshman Emma Osmundson, who ranks 12th among Division I players by hitting at a .485 (33-for-68) clip;
SDSU has yet to lose back-to-back games this season;
In Summit League play, Jackrabbit opponents have scored runs in 10 separate innings, but SDSU has answered with at least one run of their own in the next half-inning seven times;
The Jackrabbits put together a streak of nine consecutive errorless games from March 6-12 and rank eighth nationally with a .981 team fielding percentage;
With an average of 6.52 runs scored per game, the Jackrabbits rank 21st among Division I squads, while their .316 team batting average ranks 28th;
SDSU is 5-0 in one-run games this season, winning four of those games in its last at-bat;
Jackrabbit pitchers have turned in complete games in 19 of 27 games, including five shutouts.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: For the second time this season, the Jackrabbits swept the weekly Summit League softball awards. Monday, Jackrabbit second baseman Lindsey Culver was named Summit League Player of the Week, while Tori Kniesche was selected as the Summit League Pitcher of the Week.

Both later received national recognition as Culver was tabbed as D-I Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week and Kniesche received Freshman of the Week recognition from D1Softball.com.

A returning freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Culver put up huge offensive numbers in a four-game sweep at Western Illinois April 2-3. She batted .692 (9-for-13) with five home runs, seven runs batted in and eight runs scored. She also tallied a 2.231 slugging percentage as eight of her nine hits went for extra bases (five home runs, two triples, one double). She hit two home runs in both games of the April 2 doubleheader and recorded a pair of three-hit games in the series.

Kniesche, a freshman right-hander from Wayne, Nebraska, pitched a pair of complete-game shutouts in improving to 11-1 on the season. She fired a two-hitter with 12 strikeouts in her April 2 start, then tossed a one-hitter with a dozen more K's the next day. Kniesche also was honored as Summit League Pitcher of the Week after the opening weekend of the season on Feb. 15.

SDSU earlier swept the Summit League awards March 8, when Rozelyn Carrillo earned Player of the Week honors and Grace Glanzer received Pitcher of the Week recognition.

In addition, freshman outfielder Emma Osmundson was named Summit League Player of the Week on March 15.

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 12 of her 13 starts this season with three 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 in the first half of 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.

For the season, Kniesche is 11-1 with a 1.54 ERA?and 90 strikeouts in 68 innings. The opposition is batting .154 against her.

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 40 after tallying two steals in last weekend's series at Western Illinois.

For her career, Daugherty is 40-of-42 in stolen-base attempts, including a team-best 14-for-15 in that department so far this season.

Daugherty currently leads the team with 32 hits and 24 runs scored. She has notched a team-best 11 multi-hit games and ranks second on the squad with a .376 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 ranked third nationally in that category.

As a team, the Jackrabbits have combined for 19 triples so far this year and currently lead all Division I teams with an average of 0.70 triples per game.

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 .338 and has driven in 15 runs. Nine of her 23 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 third on the squad with four home runs and is hitting at a .280 clip, while ranking third on the team with 17 runs batted in. She also has performed well at the shortstop position, committing only two errors in 82 total chances.

BEAUDRY GIVES A BOOST: Senior Allison Beaudry has maximized her production in limited opportunities in recent weeks.

Beaudry entered the March 19-20 series against Northern Colorado hitless in five at-bats all season, but recorded hits in three of her four at-bats over the two games, collecting three runs batted in and scoring four times. She tripled in each of the games.

March 27 at Kansas City, Beaudry homered in both games of a March 27 doubleheader, then added a solo homer in the April 2 opener at Western Illinois, upping her season slugging percentage to an even 1.000.

Beaudry batted .273 with a home run, five doubles and eight RBIs during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

CULVER'S POWER SURGE: By posting a pair of two-homer games in the first game of the April 2 doubleheader at Western Illinois, Lindsey Culver now owns each of the last three multi-home run games by a Jackrabbit player.

Culver 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.

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 177-147 record after being hired to lead the program in August of 2014, Wood boasts a 447-301 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 continue Summit League play with a four-game weekend series at North Dakota. Doubleheaders April 17 and 18 are slated for noon starts at Apollo Park in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

-GoJacks.com-