JACKRABBITS IMPRESS IN NCAA DEBUT

Friday, May 21

Fayetteville, Ark.

4:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

43-6

Stanford

31-21

South Dakota State

Stanford

Photo by: Walt Beazley

5/21/2021 8:32:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Cylie Halvorson hit a pair of home runs to drive in five runs and Grace Glanzer pitched a complete game to lead South Dakota State to a 7-1 victory over Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Division I Softball Championship Friday afternoon at Bogle Park.

With the victory, the Jackrabbits improved to 43-6 overall and will face host and No. 6 national seed Arkansas in a winners-bracket game at 1 p.m. Saturday. SDSU's 43 victories tie a single-season school record set by the 1996 squad (43-22).

Halvorson, a returning freshman first baseman from Sioux Falls, broke a scoreless deadlock with a two-run homer to straight-away center field in the fourth inning.

Stanford, 31-21 overall, cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth on a solo homer by Aly Kaneshiro, but as they have all season, the Jackrabbits responded.

Jocelyn Carrillo upped the SDSU lead to 4-1 with a two-run homer to left in the top of the sixth and Halvorson followed an inning later with a three-run blast to left center, providing an exclamation point for the Jackrabbits in their NCAA postseason debut. Halvorson upped her season home run total to 19, adding to her single-season school record.

Glanzer kept Stanford off balance throughout, using a mix of pitches to get an equal number of outs through the air and on the ground with 10 apiece. She struck out only one, walked one and gave up three hits in improving to 19-4 on the season and recording her 21^st complete game of the year.

Emma Osmundson, who scored ahead of Halvorson on each of her home runs, also tallied two of the Jackrabbits' six hits.

Stanford pitcher Alana Vawter struck out six in a losing effort.

SATURDAY SCHEDULE

South Dakota State (43-6) vs. Arkansas (41-9), 1 p.m.
Stanford (31-21) vs. Manhattan, 3:30 p.m. [elimination game]
SDSU-Arkansas loser vs. Stanford-Manhattan winner, 6 p.m. [elimination game]

NOTES

Friday's game marked the first-ever meeting in softball between South Dakota State and Stanford
The start of the game was pushed back two hours due to rain
The Jackrabbits improved to 2-0 against Pac-12 Conference opponents this season, with Glanzer pitching a no-hitter against Oregon State on March 5
SDSU hit two or more home runs in a game for the 24^th time this season (22-2 record)
Halvorson's two-home run game was the first of her collegiate career
SDSU upped its team home run total to 73 – the previous record was 53 in 2016
The Jackrabbits are 37-0 this season when leading after four innings

-GoJacks.com-