JACKRABBITS READY FOR SUMMIT TOURNAMENT

Thursday, May 27

Omaha, Neb.

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Oral Roberts

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

5/26/2021 4:51:00 PM | Baseball

South Dakota State (14-30) at Summit League Baseball Championship

When	Thursday-Saturday, May 27-29 vs. Oral Roberts (28-21), 1 p.m. Thursday Remainder of tournament to be determined
Where	Tal Anderson Field; Omaha, Neb.
TV	MidcoSN \| Midco Sports Plus \| TheSummitLeague.org/Watch
Radio	KJJQ 910 AM \| GoJacks.com/watch
Live Stats	OMavs.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #RAB5

After going down to the wire just to qualify for this week's Summit League Baseball Championship, presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare, the South Dakota State University baseball team will look to carry the momentum into postseason play.

The Jackrabbits, 14-30 overall, enter this week's four-team, double-elimination tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, as the No. 4 season. SDSU is slated to open play at 1 p.m. Thursday against top-seeded and regular season champion Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles compiled a 26-21 overall record during the regular season, including a 19-7 mark in league play.

SDSU defeated Oral Roberts in the final two games of the final regular season series of the year to earn the final spot in the tournament field with a 9-19 Summit League record.

Following is a complete tournament schedule:
Thursday, May 27
Game 1 – No. 4 South Dakota State (14-30, 9-19) vs. No. 1 Oral Roberts (28-21, 19-7), 1 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 3 Omaha (22-23, 14-12) vs. No. 2 North Dakota State (38-16, 20-11), 6 p.m.
Friday, May 28
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 11 a.m. (loser eliminated)
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 3 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 7 p.m. (loser eliminated)
Saturday, May 29
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary): 6 p.m.

Radio coverage of all Jackrabbit tournament games begins 15 minutes prior to scheduled pitch on Brookings-based KJJQ?910 AM and online at GoJacks.com/Watch. All tournament games will televised on MidcoSN, with video streaming available through the Midco Sports Plus app and online at: thesummitleague.org/watch. Additional updates will be available via Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball).

The winner of the 2021 Summit League Baseball Championship will advance to the NCAA?Tournament, which begins June 4 at campus sites.

VERSUS THE FIELD: South Dakota State went a combined 8-16 against the three other teams competing in the Summit League Baseball Championship during the 2021 regular season. The Jackrabbits posted 3-5 records against both North Dakota State and Omaha, while compiling a 2-6 mark versus Oral Roberts.

SHORT HOPS: Following are a few quick notes about the Jackrabbits heading into this week's Summit League Baseball Championship, presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare:

Starting with the May 2 series finale at Oral Roberts, sophomore shortstop Luke Ira has hit safely in seven of SDSU's last nine games, compiling a .344 batting average (11-for-32) with two home runs, three doubles and five runs batted in;
Ira is the lone Jackrabbit to start all 44 of the team's games this season;
Three of the eight regular season games between SDSU and Oral Roberts were decided by one run;
The Jackrabbits hit five home runs in the most recent four-game series against Oral Roberts, compared to three by the Golden Eagles;
Landon Badger hit two home runs in the ORU series, while Derek Hackman, Ryan McDonald and Luke Ira each homered once, with McDonald's and Ira's blasts back-to-back in the May 22 series finale;
Cody Carlson has pitched at least five innings in nine of his 11 starts this season, including a season-high seven innings in each of his two starts this season against Oral Roberts (May 1 (Game 1), May 21);
True freshman position players Jess Bellows (41), Garrett Stout (27), Avery Mellman (26) and Jordan Sagedahl (24) have combined for 118 starts so far this season.

SUMMIT LEAGUE SUCCESS: South Dakota State has been a consistent winner in The Summit League since it became a league member more than a decade ago. In 13 seasons as a member of The Summit League, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 189-156 record (.548 winning percentage) in regular season conference games. SDSU has posted a .500 or better record in league play nine times and has now qualified for the four-team postseason tournament 11 out of the 12 years it has been eligible.

The Jackrabbits shared a Summit League regular season title in 2010 and won the Summit postseason tournament in 2013.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Jackrabbits have found success at the Summit League Baseball Championship, advancing to the title series five of the previous 10 times they qualified for the four-team tournament, including winning the tournament title in 2013.

SDSU has won at least one game in all 10 of its previous Summit League Baseball Championship appearances. Overall, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 17-19 record in Summit League postseason tournament games.

ALL-SUMMIT HONORS: South Dakota State catcher Derek Hackman and pitcher Drew Beazley were named Wednesday to the 2021 All-Summit League Baseball Second Team.

A junior from Johnston, Iowa, Hackman leads the Jackrabbits heading into postseason play in multiple offensive categories, including batting average (.336), home runs (8), slugging percentage (.580) and on-base percentage (.455). He also ranks second on the squad with 26 runs batted in.

Beazley, also from Johnston, Iowa, moved into the starting rotation early in the league season and has recorded a 3-2 record over 11 appearances, including six starts. Two of his five starts in league play resulted in combined shutouts as he ended the regular season with a team-best 2.54 earned run average and limited the opposition to a .265 batting average with 23 strikeouts in 28 innings.

A sophomore, Beazley also has seen extensive action in the field when not pitching, contributing a home run, 10 doubles and 20 RBIs on the offensive end.

BADGER'S BIG DAY: South Dakota State senior Landon Badger wrote his name into the Jackrabbit record book with three home runs in the first game of an April 24 doubleheader versus North Dakota State.

The Pierre native became the first SDSU player to accomplish the feat since Joel Blake on the exact same date in 2009 at Western Illinois. Badger homered in three straight innings, hitting a solo shot in the third inning, a three-run homer in the fourth and a grand slam in the fifth for a total of eight runs batted in.

For good measure, Badger hit his fourth home run of the day and drove in two more runs in the second game of the twinbill. He entered the weekend without a home run this season.

Badger's performances allowed him to earn Summit League Player of the Week honors. He became the second Jackrabbit to earn the award this season, joining Luke Ira on April 12.

Badger connected on his second grand slam of the season in the May 20 series opener against Oral Roberts. He added another home run later in the series and currently leads the squad with 30 runs batted in.

BELLOWS BREAKS IN: Freshman Jess Bellows started the final three games of the Northern Colorado series for the Jackrabbits and has since put his stamp on the SDSU lineup.

A native of Miles City, Montana, Bellows led SDSU with a .556 batting average (5-for-9) with six runs batted in and six runs scored in the series played Feb. 26-28. He doubled twice and hit his first career home run en route to a 1.111 slugging percentage. Both of his doubles came in extra innings with the international tiebreaker in effect and resulted in three of his RBIs.

Bellows, who has seen action primarily at the corner outfield spots, has hit safely in 32 of the 41 games in which he has played, including putting together a pair of six-game hitting streaks this season.

Overall, Bellows ranks third on the team with 41 hits while hitting out of the leadoff spot. His .266 batting average ranks third on the squad, while his 25 runs scored are second.

Bellows delivered the game-winning sacrifice fly in the Jackrabbits' 4-3 victory over Oral Roberts on May 21.

HACKMAN HEATS UP: While the rest of the Jackrabbit offense was scuffling in the Summit League-opening series against Omaha, catcher/designated hitter Derek Hackman heated up. The Johnston, Iowa, native batted .417 (5-for-12) with two home runs, a double, four runs batted in and three runs scored in the four-game series.

Both of Hackman's home runs were two-run blasts in the Jackrabbits' 7-6 victory on March 20 as he established a new career high with four RBIs. He became the first SDSU player to hit two home runs in a game since Anthony Schneider connected twice against Western Illinois on May 13, 2018. The junior continued his hot hitting against Omaha by hitting the game-winning three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the April 11 series finale at Erv Huether Field.

His hitting prowess carried over to a home series against North Dakota State as he batted a team-best .583 (7-for-12) with two doubles and two home runs. In the April 24 series finale, he posted the first five-hit game by a Jackrabbit since Schneider in the second game of the May 13, 2018, doubleheader versus Western Illinois.

Hackman had his streak of reaching base safely end at 20 games in the first game of the April 3 twinbill at Evansville. He enters the Summit League Baseball Championship with a 17-game streak of reaching base safely.

MOGEN JOINS TOP 10: Senior right-hander Brett Mogen moved into the SDSU career top 10 for appearances when he pitched the final inning of the Jackrabbits' 12-0 series-opening victory at Northern Colorado on Feb. 26.

Despite missing a month due to injury, Mogen has since into a tie for third place with 71 career appearances, breaking a tie with Chad Coley (70 appearances from 1990-93) by coming on to record the final out in the Jackrabbits' 7-4 victory over Oral Roberts in the May 22 regular season finale. Mogen stands tied with Gary Olechoski (2003-06) for third place.

Mogen put together his best season in a Jackrabbit uniform in 2019 with a 1-1 record and 1.67 ERA?in 20 appearances. His ERA?ranked as the sixth lowest in a season by an SDSU pitcher with more than 30 innings pitched.

Mogen is a second-generation Jackrabbit pitcher, following his father, Bruce, who was a member of SDSU's 1984 NCAA?Division II College World Series team.

OLMSTEAD RETURNS, CLIMBS K CHART: Senior pitcher Tyler Olmstead made his first appearance since the 2019 season when he recorded the final two outs of the seventh inning in the second game of the March 19 doubleheader at Omaha.

Olmstead, a Sioux Falls native, has made five other relief appearances this season, including picking up the win in the April 11 series finale versus Omaha. It was his first victory since pitching a complete-game, four-hit shutout with nine strikeouts against Purdue Fort Wayne on May 3, 2019.

A two-time second-team all-Summit League selection, Olmstead had been sidelined by injuries since the end of the 2019 season. The Sioux Falls native has compiled a 9-7 career record with 27 starts and has moved into sixth place on the SDSU career strikeouts chart. With 178 career strikeouts, Olmstead has passed both Jon Maras (175 strikeouts from 1989-92) and Ryan Froom (176 strikeouts from 2014-19) this season.

Olmstead's 92 strikeouts in 2019 stands fourth on SDSU's single-season list.

BARNETT MOVES UP SAVES CHART: Junior relief pitcher Bret Barnett recorded the 11th save of his career in the Jackrabbits' win over Kansas on Feb. 20. Barnett notched the final six outs, including three by strikeout, to close out SDSU's first Summit League win of the season.

With his latest save, March 20 at Omaha, Barnett broke a tie with Chad Coley (10 saves from 1990-93) for sixth place in program history and moved into a tie with Bruce Mogen (11 saves from 1983-86) for fifth place in program history. The Indianola, Iowa, native earned seven saves en route to first-team all-Summit League honors in 2019, and tallied two saves during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

In 12 appearances this season, including a start in the April 24 series finale against North Dakota State, Barnett has struck out 35 batters over 21 1/3 innings, upping his career totals to 100 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings. His career mark of 11.49 strikeouts per nine innings ranks as the highest in program history.

MAZUR HONORED: South Dakota State right-hander Adam Mazur was honored as Summit League Pitcher of the Week March 1 after helping lead the Jackrabbits to a four-game weekend sweep at Northern Colorado.

A returning freshman from Woodbury, Minnesota, Mazur struck out a career-high 12 UNC batters in six shutout innings as SDSU won the Feb. 26 series opener, 12-0. Mazur struck out the side in each of the second, third and fourth innings, fanning eight Bear hitters in a row in one stretch. He allowed three hits and walked two.

Mazur's 12 strikeouts are the most by an SDSU pitcher since Brady Stover set a Jackrabbit Division I-era standard with 13 K's in a 2018 game against Purdue Fort Wayne. In 40 1/3 innings over seven starts so far this season, Mazur has notched a total of 56 strikeouts after fanning 11 batters in seven innings April 10 versus Omaha.

In a March 19 start at Omaha, Mazur retired 14 Omaha hitters in a row in one stretch. He followed that by putting together a streak of retiring 12 consecutive Western Illinois batters en route to his second victory of the season on March 26.

TIEBREAKER TIMES TWO: South Dakota State excelled in late-inning situations, winning both games of a Feb. 27 doubleheader at Northern Colorado after the international tie-breaker was implemented.

With each extra inning starting with a man at second base, the Jackrabbits erupted for four runs in the top of the 10th of the opener, then posted a three-spot on the board in the ninth inning (scheduled seven-inning game) of Game 2 once play resumed Sunday after being suspended because of darkness the previous day.

In Game 1, Jess Bellows delivered a leadoff double to score Jordan Sagedahl with the go-ahead run. Luke Ira followed two batters later with a bunt single to plate Bellows and Derek Hackman capped the scoring in a 6-2 Jackrabbit victory with a two-run double to the right-center gap.

Game 2 followed much of the same script as Ira broke a 3-all tie in the top of the ninth with a leadoff double to drive in Landon Badger. Bellows closed out the scoring in a 6-3 Jackrabbit victory with a two-run double to the left-center gap that brought home Ira and Ryan McDonald.

The Jackrabbits turned an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to escape the eighth inning of Game 2 and did not allow a run in any of the three innings played under the tiebreaker rules over the two games.

The international tiebreaker was used in select nonconference games involving the Jackrabbits this season, but was not used in Summit League play.

COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 600 victories, was named head baseball coach at South Dakota State University on Aug. 1, 2016. Bishop is the ninth head coach in program history and the fourth in the Division I era of Jackrabbit baseball.

Through four-plus seasons with the Jackrabbits, Bishop holds a 91-116 record at SDSU. In his first season, Bishop's 2017 squad returned to the winning side of the ledger with a 26-24 overall mark, including an 18-12 record for a third-place finish in The Summit League standings. SDSU won its opening-round game in the Summit League Baseball Championship, 6-5, over second-seeded North Dakota State.

In 2018, SDSU overcame a slow start to post a winning record in Summit League play at 14-13 and went on to reach the title game of the Summit League Baseball Championship. The Jackrabbits finished with an 18-32 overall record during a campaign in which they played only six home games.

SDSU bounced back in 2019, posting a 28-22 overall record that included a second-place mark of 19-10 in Summit League play. The Jackrabbits won or split nine of the 10 league series in regular season play en route to making an appearance in the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship for the 10th time in 11 years.

The 2020 season was canceled just before the start of Summit League play, with SDSU posting a 5-12 record in the first month of the season. The Jackrabbits recorded wins at Minnesota, Air Force and Kansas State the final week of the pandemic-shortened campaign.

Overall, Bishop holds a 640-442-1 record (.591 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach. He earned his 600th career victory in the Jackrabbits' 8-6 victory at UA Little Rock on March 10, 2019.

Individually, Jackrabbit players have been honored as all-Summit League performers 20 times during his tenure, including eight all-league selections in 2019. Utility player Nick Smith was honored for the third consecutive season, while shortstop Gus Steiger and starting pitcher Tyler Olmstead were repeat selections in 2019.

Bishop has mentored a handful of Jackrabbit players who have pursued professional careers. Catcher Luke Ringhofer was selected in the 22nd round of the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft by the Baltimore Orioles and relief pitcher Chris Halbur was offered a free agent contract by the Los Angeles Dodgers after Bishop's first season in Brookings.

In addition, shortstop Gus Steiger signed with the Cincinnati Reds following an abbreviated 2020 MLB Draft. In 2019, left-handed pitcher Brady Stover was a 31st-round pick of the Washington Nationals, but opted to return to the Jackrabbits for his senior season.

Prior to becoming head coach at SDSU, Bishop spent six years at NCAA Division II member Montana State University-Billings, where he led the Yellowjackets to back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season titles in 2015 and 2016, attaining the program's first-ever 30-win season with a 30-20 record in 2016. His squads also were honored as the top academic team in the GNAC each of the past three seasons.

Previously, Bishop spent 10 years at Miles City Community College in Montana, where his teams won MonDak conference championships every year. His squads also claimed five consecutive junior college region titles and a Northwest District championship in 2007 to advance to the NJCAA Division II College World Series. Bishop's teams won at least 30 games each of his 10 seasons, including four 40-win seasons. He ended his tenure at Miles City, where he also served as athletic director for five years, with a 377-151 overall record.

Bishop served as a graduate assistant at SDSU under head coach Mark Ekeland during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In his first season as a head coach, Bishop led Huron University to the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title in 2000 with a 38-18 record.

A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.

THE ROSTER: The 2021 SDSU baseball roster features 36 players from seven different states. Of the 36 players, 13 are from Iowa, 10 are from South Dakota and seven hail from Minnesota. Two players are from Nebraska and North Dakota, while Montana and Washington are represented by one player each.

By class, four are seniors, two are juniors, nine are sophomores and 21 are freshmen (11 returning, 10 incoming).

A LOOK AHEAD: Should the Jackrabbits win the Summit League Baseball Championship, they will advance to the NCAA?Division I Baseball Championship, which begins June 4 at campus sites.

-GoJacks.com-