JACKRABBITS PREPARE FOR SUMMIT TOURNAMENT

Thursday, May 13

Fargo, N.D.

noon

South Dakota State University

Kansas City

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

5/12/2021 8:56:00 AM | Softball

South Dakota State (38-5) at Summit League Softball Championship

When	Thursday, May 13-Saturday, May 15 • May 13 vs. Kansas City/South Dakota winner, noon • Remainder of schedule to be determined (double-elimination tournament)
Where	Tharaldson Park \| Fargo, North Dakota
TV	MidcoSN \| Midco Sports Plus (subscription required)
Radio	None
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #GRIT

After dominating the 2021 regular season, the South Dakota State softball team will swing for a conference title sweep when it heads to the Summit League Softball Championship, presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare, this week in Fargo, North Dakota.

The top-seeded Jackrabbits enter the six-team tournament with a 38-5 overall record, which includes a 21-1 mark in the recently completed league season. SDSU's 21 league wins tied a Summit record first set by Western Illinois in 2000 and matched by Southern Utah (2006) and Western Illinois (2009).

SDSU earned a first-round bye and will meet the winner of Wednesday's play-in game between fourth-seeded Kansas City and No. 5 South Dakota at noon Thursday to kick off the double-elimination portion of the tournament. All games will be played at Tharaldson Park on the North Dakota State University campus.

All games of the tournament are slated to be televised by MidcoSN and streamed online through the Midco Sports Plus app.

A complete tournament schedule follows:
Wednesday, May 12
Game 1 – No. 4 Kansas City (27-24) vs. No. 5 South Dakota (13-37), 3 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 3 North Dakota State (16-28) vs. No. 6 North Dakota (16-31), 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 13
Game 3 – No. 1 South Dakota State (38-5) vs. Kansas City/South Dakota winner, noon
Game 4 – No. 2 Omaha (18-26) vs. North Dakota State/North Dakota winner, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 5 p.m.
Friday, May 14
Game 6 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 7 - Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 15
Game 8 - Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 9 - Game 8 winner vs. Game 8 loser (if necessary), 3:30 p.m.

VERSUS THE FIELD: The Jackrabbits compiled a combined 17-1 record against the tournament field during the 2021 season. SDSU recorded four-game sweeps of Kansas City, North Dakota State and Omaha, along with a two-game sweep at North Dakota. The lone blemish on the Jackrabbit record was a series-opening loss to South Dakota on April 24, while SDSU came back to win the final three games.

Opponent	Season Series	All-Time Series Record
Kansas City	4-0	Kansas City leads 20-17
North Dakota	2-0	SDSU leads 56-31
North Dakota State	4-0	NDSU leads 75-51
Omaha	4-0	Omaha leads 66-30-1
South Dakota	3-1	SDSU leads 83-64

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

SDSU has won 11 games this season by putting the eight-run run into effect;
The Jackrabbits have set a new single-season school record with 61 home runs in 43 games — the previous record of 53 home runs (in 57 games) was set in 2016;
SDSU had its streak of consecutive games with a home run end at 17 in the second game of a May 7 doubleheader against North Dakota State;
Eleven different Jackrabbit players have hit a home run this season and SDSU homered in 20 of 22 Summit league games;
SDSU ranks 17th among Division I programs with an average of 1.42 home runs per game;
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 10th nationally with a .572 team slugging percentage;
With an average of 6.74 runs scored per game, the Jackrabbits rank 12th among Division I squads, while their .325 team batting average ranks 18th;
Six Jackrabbit regulars enter the week hitting .300 or better, led by freshmen Jocelyn Carrillo and Emma Osmundson, who are hitting .409 and .391 respectively;
SDSU has yet to lose back-to-back games this season;
In Summit League play, Jackrabbit opponents scored runs in 22 separate innings, but SDSU answered with at least one run of their own in the next half-inning 15 times;
The Jackrabbits put together a streak of nine consecutive errorless games from March 6-12 and rank 17th nationally with a .976 team fielding percentage;
SDSU is 7-0 in one-run games this season, winning five of those games in its last at-bat.

30-WIN MARK: South Dakota State has reached the 30-win plateau for the sixth time in program history and the third time in the last four seasons under head coach Krista Wood.

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.

EYE ON THE RPI: The Jackrabbits stand not only atop the Summit League, but have built themselves a solid national profile heading into postseason play.

In the May 10 RPI rankings released by the NCAA, SDSU ranked 39th out of 290 Division I teams to have played a game this season, a drop of two spots from the previous week. The next closest Summit League team is Kansas City at 134.

The Jackrabbits have a combined 6-4 record against other teams in the RPI top 55: Wichita State, 28th (1-1); Iowa State, 34th (0-1); Oregon State, 44th (1-0); Kansas, 54th (2-1), and Northern Iowa, 55th (2-1).

SUMMIT LEAGUE AWARDS: Summit League regular season champion South Dakota State swept the major award categories and placed nine players on the 2021 All-Summit League Softball Team, which was announced Tuesday.

Returning freshman Cylie Halvorson was selected as the Summit League Player of the Year, while the Jackrabbit pitching tandem of Tori Kniesche and Grace Glanzer were honored as Summit League Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year, respectively. In addition, Krista Wood was named Summit League Coach of the Year.

Halvorson, a first baseman from Sioux Falls, finished the regular season as the league leader in home runs (16), runs batted in (51), total bases (109) and slugging percentage (.779), while her .357 batting average ranked fifth. Her 16 home runs are tied for the most in a single season by a Jackrabbit with Devan Larsen (2015) and Ali Herdliska (2016, 2019).

Halvorson also has played errorless in the field, handling 248 total chances without a miscue in 43 starts at first base. She is the second Jackrabbit to be named Summit League Player of the Year, joining Brittney Morse in 2018.

Halvorson's 16 home runs this season rank 19th nationally and her 51 runs batted in rank 13th. She now stands second on the SDSU single-season charts with her 51 RBIs, trailing Brittney Morse (61 in 2018).

Kniesche, a freshman from Wayne, Nebraska, burst onto the scene this season, leading the league in both wins (19) and earned run average (1.50). Entering postseason play, Kniesche has limited the opposition to a .139 batting average and has struck out 158 batters in 107 innings pitched. She has won her last 15 decisions en route to a 19-1 record, and also recorded a save.

Highlighting Kniesche's season thus far were a pair of five-inning no-hitters in the span of a week – April 24 versus South Dakota and April 30 against Creighton. The right-hander is the first Jackrabbit to be honored as Summit League Pitcher of the Year.

Glanzer finished right behind Kniesche in both ERA (1.86) and wins in compiling a 16-3 record through the regular season. A returning freshman from Sioux Falls, Glanzer tied with Kniesche for the league lead with five shutouts, which included a March 5 no-hitter against Oregon State and a pair of one-hitters. Glanzer tossed a team-high 139 innings and turned in league-best 18 complete games, striking out 94 batters and limiting opposing batters to a .188 average.

Herdliska in 2016 is the only other Jackrabbit softball player to be honored as Summit League Freshman of the Year.

The trio of Halvorson, Glanzer and Kniesche were joined on the all-Summit League First Team by five other Jackrabbits. On the infield, catcher Allison Yoder and second baseman Lindsey Culver were both named to the first team in a vote among the league's seven head coaches.

Yoder, a sophomore from Urbandale, Iowa, settled into the starting catching role midway through the season and displayed a consistent bat, hitting .301 with seven doubles, four triples and 12 runs batted in.

Culver, a returning freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, recorded a .298 batting average with seven home runs and 24 RBIs in 39 games. She finished the regular season with a .596 slugging percentage.

The designated player spot was filled by SDSU's Kelsey Lenox. The junior from Chesterfield, Missouri, batted .350 with a team-high 10 doubles and ranked second on the team with nine home runs and 42 RBIs.

All three of SDSU's starting outfielders received all-league honors, including first-team selections Jocelyn Carrillo and Emma Osmundson. Carrillo, a returning freshman from Palmdale, California, was the team's top hitter in league play and took over the overall team and league lead in batting average on the final weekend of the regular season to check in at .409 entering the postseason. In patrolling center field, Carrillo ranked second in the league with a .764 slugging percentage, tallying eight home runs and 30 RBIs. Her .492 on-base percentage also paced the conference.

Osmundson, a true freshman from Sioux Falls, ranked second on the team and in the league with a .391 batting average, adding five triples, three home runs and 19 RBIs. She posted a .635 slugging percentage in 41 games and also ranked second among Summit League players with a .482 on-base percentage.

Completing the Jackrabbit outfield triumvirate is junior left fielder Peyton Daugherty, who was honored on the second team. The Ankeny, Iowa, product ranked second in the league with 53 hits, 38 runs scored and 17 stolen bases while hitting out of the leadoff spot. She batted .358 in regular season play.

The Summit League Coach of the Year award is the second for Wood, who also earned the honor in 2018.

Wood led SDSU to its first-ever conference title in softball during the 2021 regular season, posting a 38-5 overall record and matching a Summit League record for conference wins with a 21-1 mark in league play. The Jackrabbits won a school-record 16 games during the season and have won 25 of their last 26 games entering postseason competition.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: SDSU has dominated the Summit League weekly awards in 2021, with seven different players honored during the course of the season.

Five different Jackrabbits have been named Summit League Player of the Week, while pitchers Tori Kniesche and Grace Glanzer have combined for six Pitcher of the Week accolades.

Glanzer, a returning freshman from Sioux Falls, claimed her third weekly award by closing out the regular season with 12 shutout innings over two starts in a weekend home series against North Dakota State. In her May 7 start, Glanzer carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before finishing with a one-hit shutout. The right-hander struck out four and walked two.

In her final appearance of the regular season on May 8, Glanzer worked the first five innings, again blanking the Bison while surrendering three hits and striking out three. She improved to 16-3 on the season and lowered her earned run average to 1.86.

Glanzer also received the award March 8 and April 19.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN: South Dakota State's Cylie Halvorson and Tori Kniesche are in the running for the 2021 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year award, association officials announced in late April. SDSU is one of three programs to have two players among the 30 finalists, joining Arizona and Oklahoma.

Due to last year's season being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, candidates hail from both the 2020 and 2021 freshman classes.

A returning freshman from Sioux Falls, Halvorson leads the Jackrabbits — and The Summit League — in numerous offensive categories, including home runs (16), runs batted in (51) and slugging percentage (.779). She is batting .357 and has played errorless defense at first base in starting all 43 games.

Kniesche, a true freshman from Wayne, Nebraska, has posted a 19-1 record with one save so far this season and has won her last 15 decisions, including pitching a pair of five-inning no-hitters in late April. The right-hander has compiled a 1.64 earned run average with four shutouts, including her no-hitters April 24 versus South Dakota and April 30 against Creighton.

Her 158 strikeouts — in only 107 innings — currently rank sixth on the SDSU single-season charts. Kniesche is limiting the opposition to a .139 batting average, which would stand as the lowest single-season mark on record in program history.

The freshman has tallied double figures in strikeouts in eight starts, including each of the last four. Her 14-game personal winning streak began March 10, when she tossed five innings of relief in the first game of a doubleheader at Kansas.

The 2021 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year award will be presented prior to the start of the 2021 NCAA?Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

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 15th nationally in that category, while Lindsey Culver, Allison Yoder and Jocelyn Carrillo are each tied for 30th with four triples.

As a team, the Jackrabbits have combined for 24 triples to tie a single-season program record first set in 1985. SDSU currently ranks second among Division I teams this season with an average of 0.56 triples per game.

NO-HITTER HISTORY: South Dakota State's co-aces Grace Glanzer and Tori Kniesche have each pitched a no-hitter this season, marking the second year in a row a Jackrabbit pitcher has accomplished the feat.

Glanzer's no-hitter came against Oregon State on March 5 in Greeley, Colorado, while Kniesche tossed five-inning no-nos versus South Dakota on April 24 and against Creighton on April 30. Kniesche joined Meggan Staton (2003) as the only Jackrabbit with more than one no-hitter in both a season and career.

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.

The no-hitters by Glanzer and Kniesche are the sixth, seventh and eighth 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, as well as another no-hit bid into the seventh inning of the Jackrabbits' series opener May 7 against North Dakota State.
Glanzer has posted a complete game in 18 of her 21 starts this season with five shutouts.

DAUGHERTY SETS THE TABLE: Jackrabbit outfielder Peyton Daugherty has filled the leadoff role for 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 43 after tallying one steal in the April 30 doubleheader against Creighton.

For her career, Daugherty is 43-of-45 in stolen-base attempts, including a team-best 17-for-18 in that department so far this season.

Daugherty currently leads the team with 53 hits and 38 runs. She shares the team lead with 16 multi-hit games and is third on the squad with a .358 batting average.

TWO-HOME RUN GAMES: Kelsey Lenox's two-home run game to open an April 10-11 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.

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 and Summit League Player of the Week on April 26, was the team's top hitter in April, batting at a .512 clip (22-for-43) in 16 games with six homers and 17 runs batted in. She also has been one of the squad's top clutch hitters this season, highlighted by 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 fifth on the squad with six home runs and is hitting at a .295 clip, while tallying 25 runs batted in. She also has performed well at the shortstop position, committing only four errors in 116 total chances.

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

Already the program's winningest coach with a 192-148 record after being hired to lead the program in August of 2014, Wood boasts a 462-302 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 27 All-Summit League selections in her time at SDSU, including two Summit League Freshmen of the Year (Ali Herdliska-2016, Grace Glanzer-2021), a pair of Players of the Year (Brittney Morse-2018, Cylie Halvorson-2021) and the first Pitcher of the Year in program history (Tori Kniesche-2021). 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 then-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.

The 2021 season has been a historic one for Wood and her program as the Jackrabbits earned the first regular season conference title in program history, posting a 21-1 mark in Summit League play. The Jackrabbits strung together a school-record 16-game winning streak and closed the regular season with a 38-5 overall record after winning 25 of their final 26 contests.

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, four are sophomores and 11 are freshmen.

A LOOK AHEAD: The winner of the Summit League Softball Championship will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship, which begins May 21 at campus sites. Selections and pairings will be announced at 8 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.

-GoJacks.com-