JACKRABBITS BEGIN 2026 WITH SERIES AT UTSA

Friday, February 13

San Antonio, Texas

4 p.m.

South Dakota State University

UTSA

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

2/12/2026 1:00:00 PM | Baseball

South Dakota State (0-0) at UTSA (0-0)

When	Friday-Sunday, Feb. 13-15 (three-game series) 4 p.m. Friday \| noon Saturday \| 1 p.m. Sunday
Where	Roadrunner Field \| San Antonio, Texas
TV	ESPN+ Game 1 \| Game 2 \| Game 3
Radio	None
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| UTSA \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

South Dakota State will take to the baseball field for the first time this season with a three-game weekend series at UTSA.

First pitch for the season opener is set for 4 p.m. Friday at Roadrunner Field in San Antonio, Texas. Saturday's middle game of the series is slated for noon, with Sunday's series finale starting at 1 p.m. Video coverage of all three games is scheduled to be available through the ESPN+ streaming platform.

The Jackrabbits enter the 2026 season in search of their first winning campaign since 2019. In 2025, SDSU compiled a 16-36 overall record, including a 12-18 mark in Summit League play.

UTSA, meanwhile, is coming off a 2025 season in which the Roadrunners set a school record with 47 wins (47-15 overall) and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in program history. After winning the American Athletic Conference regular season with a 23-4 mark, UTSA, which was ranked 13th by D1 Baseball to end the 2025 season, defeated Kansas State and host Texas twice in the Austin Regional to advance to Super Regional play at UCLA.

This weekend's series kicks off a road swing of eight consecutive games in the state of Texas to start the season for the Jackrabbits. SDSU is scheduled to remain in San Antonio for a two-game series Feb. 17-18, followed by a three-game set Feb. 20-22 at Tarleton State.

Updates of Jackrabbit baseball will be available throughout the weekend via X/Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball) and through GoJacks.com.

THE SERIES: Friday's series opener will mark only the fourth meeting between South Dakota State and UTSA on the baseball diamond. The Roadrunners hold a 2-1 series advantage after winning two of three games in a series played on their home field Feb. 28-March 1, 2014.

UTSA scored a 5-1 victory in the series opener before the two programs split a doubleheader the next day.

SDSU led 6-1 through seven innings in Game 1 of the twinbill before the Roadrunners came back to force extra innings with a run in the eighth and four in the ninth. The Jacks' game-winning run in the top of the 10th came without the benefit of a hit as Al Robbins drew a one-out walk and Reid Clary reached on an error. After both runners moved up a base on a balk, Robbins scored on an RBI groundout by Tyler Shannon. Talon Jumper then retired the side in order in the bottom of the 10th to preserve the win.

UTSA claimed Game 2 and the series with an 8-5 victory.

FOR OPENERS: The Jackrabbits are 5-16 in Opening Day games during the Division I era, which began with the start of the 2005 season. SDSU is 2-7 in season openers under head coach Rob Bishop, with both wins in games played at neutral sites.

The Jackrabbits claimed the 2017 season opener against Northern Illinois, 7-2, in a game played in Glendale, Arizona, and scored a 15-3 victory over UT Martin in the 2019 opener played at Russellville, Arkansas.

After having their scheduled season-opening series at eventual College World Series qualifier Murray State rained out, SDSU officially opened the 2025 season with a 7-1 setback at Pacific (Calif.) on Feb. 21 in Stockton, California.

BACK TO THE LONE STAR STATE: The state of Texas frequently has been the site of Jackrabbit season openers over the years..

More recently, South Dakota State opened the COVID-shortened 2020 season at Dallas Baptist snd in 2023, the Jackrabbits played a season-opening four-game series in Sugar Land against Purdue.

PRESEASON POLL: South Dakota State has been picked to finish fourth in the upcoming Summit League baseball race, according to a preseason poll conducted among the league's six head coaches and announced Wednesday.

The Jackrabbits totaled 12 points in the poll and are coming off a 2025 campaign in which they compiled a 16-36 overall record, including a 12-18 mark in The Summit League. SDSU returned to the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship, marking the 14th time in 16 years of Division I eligibility that the Jackrabbits qualified for the double-elimination tournament.

Oral Roberts earned the top spot in the preseason poll with 24 points and four first-place votes. Omaha received the other two first-place votes and tied with defending regular season champion St. Thomas for second place in the survey with 19 points.

North Dakota State (11 points) and Northern Colorado (6 points) rounded out the poll.

SDSU opens the 2026 season Friday at Texas-San Antonio, kicking off a three-game weekend series. The Jackrabbits begin Summit League play March 13-15 with a three-game series at Oral Roberts.

The top four teams in league play will advance to the Summit League Baseball Championship May 20-23 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In addition to the preseason poll, Jackrabbit first baseman Luke Luskey was named a Summit League Player to Watch and Ty Madison was selected as a Summit League Pitcher to Watch.

Luskey, a junior from Green Isle, Minnesota, has earned second-team all-Summit League honors each of the last two seasons. In 2025, he led the league with 14 home runs despite missing the final 12 games of the season due to injury. Luskey also paced the Jackrabbits with 52 runs batted in and a .691 slugging percentage while batting .336.

A senior from Omaha, Madison began the 2025 season in the starting rotation before moving to the bullpen. He made a team-high 22 appearances, striking out 26 batters in 30 innings and posting a 2-2 record.

SUMMIT LEAGUE SUCCESS: South Dakota State has been a consistent winner in The Summit League since it became a league member in 2008. Now in its 19th season as a member of The Summit League, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 239-210 (.532 winning percentage) record in regular season conference games.

SDSU has posted a .500 or better record in league play 10 times and has qualified for the four-team postseason tournament 14 out of the 16 years it has been eligible (no tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic).

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

SEASON PREVIEW: Despite having only one senior in its core group of position players, the South Dakota State baseball will look to be on the upswing during the 2026 season behind a solid group of young returning players and a revamped pitching staff.

"We're not old, but we are pretty experienced," said Rob Bishop, who is entering his 10th season leading the Jackrabbit baseball program. "It starts with having so many innings played by true freshmen last year."

In what turned out to be a building season in 2025, six true freshman position players combined to start 191 games. At least two freshmen drew starting assignments in all 52 of the team's games a season ago.

"If we keep these guys healthy and keep these guys on the field over a long period of time, this could be a pretty good stretch for us," Bishop said. "We have player development plans with each one of those guys and they all needed to get stronger, gain a little bit of weight and continue to refine their approach. All of them have done that; they have good baseball ability, but now we're just getting more physical."

This season's edition of the Jackrabbits has been built on versatility and athleticism. With only 34 players on the roster, Bishop said an emphasis has been placed on building a program around student-athletes who can play a variety of positions, including several two-way players who are expected to see action both in the field and on the mound.

"Our roster is a lot smaller than it has been," he said. "That's really required us to recruit guys who we think can play in the middle of the field."

Following is a breakdown among the various position groups:

Infield
The Jackrabbits return their starting corner infielders, but will feature some new faces up the middle.

Junior first baseman Luke Luskey has earned all-Summit League honors each of his first two seasons in the Jackrabbit lineups and has been a consistent power threat.

Luskey hit 22 home runs his first two seasons with the Jackrabbits, including a league-best 14 a season ago despite missing the final 12 games due to a knee injury. He also led the team with 52 runs batted in and a .691 slugging percentage in 2025.

Should Luskey take on more of designated hitter role this season as he returns from injury, sophomore Dayton Franke is the most likely candidate to fill in at first base. In only 65 at-bats last season, Franke finished second on the team in home runs with eight, including three in one game during the final homestand of the season against Oral Roberts.

At third base, Nolan Grawe returns after starting 50 games a season ago. Grawe, who ranked second on the team with a .347 batting average, set a Jackrabbit freshman record with 69 hits in 2025 and put together a 19-game hitting streak in the first half of the season. He brings another 12-game hitting streak into the start of his sophomore campaign.

To start the 2026 season, the shortstop position is expected to be held down by Keagen Jirschele. A sophomore from Wausau, Wisconsin, Jirschele primarily played at second base during his freshman season. He batted .196 with two home runs and 11 RBIs in 37 games, including 33 starts.

At second base, the Jackrabbits turned to the international and junior college route to bring in Australia native Travis Finney. A junior, Finney played two seasons at Yakima Valley College (Wash.), where he posted a batting average over .330 each year and recorded a combined fielding percentage of .992.

Other potential candidates to see action at the middle infield positions include sophomore Nic Werk and freshmen Grant Sorensen and Jaren Vogt. Werk primarily played outfield in 2025, but did make eight starts at second base.

Behind the plate, SDSU will rely on a number of new faces to help manage the pitching staff. Junior college transfer Luke Jones is penciled in as the Opening Day starter at catcher, with redshirt freshman Nate Wachter, sophomore Mason Lang and true freshman Luke Evenson also vying for playing time.

The lone returner among the catching group, Lang batted .294 in limited action a season ago.

Outfield
Sophomore center fielder Owen Siegert is the lone returning starter in the Jackrabbit outfield. A first-team all-Summit League performer in 2025, Siegert batted .329 with five home runs, 33 RBIs and a team-leading 12 stolen bases.He also ranked third on the team with 11 doubles.

The corner outfield spots are expected to be filled primarily by sophomore Brady Brown in left field and either newcomer Luke Wroblewski or Wachter in right. The lone senior among position players, Wroblewski previously played at Northwestern (Iowa), where he was an all-conference performer after batting .436 in 2025.

Nic Werk and freshmen Carter Taylor, Trey Husar and Derek Schlamann also could see action in the outfield.

Pitching Staff
For the second year in a row, Ty Madison has been tabbed as the Opening Day starter for the Jackrabbits. The Omaha native started games in each of the first two series of the 2025 season before moving to the bullpen and appearing in a team-high 22 games. Madison finished with a 2-2 record while striking out 26 batters in 30 innings.

Joining Madison in the starting rotation at the start of the season will be fellow right-handers Sam Schlecht and Sam Novotny. Schlecht is in his third season in the program and has been a spot starter, including making six starts among his 13 appearances a season ago. He struck out 38 batters in 36 innings of work while compiling a 6.50 earned run average.

Novotny began his collegiate career by redshirting at Nebraska before moving on to Johnson County Community College (Kan.), where he combined for a 13-2 record over two seasons and pitched on a squad that reached the 2025 NJCAA D1 World Series.

Freshmen Kaden Rylance and Jaren Vogt are the top candidates to fill mid-week starting roles early in the season, according to Bishop.

Last year's top starter, Caleb Duerr, suffered an injury in off-season workouts that will sideline him for the entire 2026 season. Junior Jack Kruger also remains out due to injury after making only one appearance early in the 2025 season.

The Jackrabbits do regain the services of right-hander Will Kent, who made nine starts between the 2023 and 2024 seasons before missing all of last year. Kent will likely work out of the bullpen to start the season.

The back end of the SDSU bullpen also will have a new look in 2026 after mainstays Jake Goble and Alex Clemons graduated and Dylan Driessen was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. Bishop expects to hand the ball off to sophomores Tristan Augedahl and Drew McDowell in late-game situations this season.

A left-hander, Augedahl pitched exclusively out of the bullpen last season, making 17 appearances and striking out 21 in 17 innings of work. He showed the ability to pitch more than once in a series, while McDowell may be counted on to pitch mulitiple innings in his outings.

"The good news with both of those guys is they love that big moment so we didn't have to convince them to be in the bullpen," Bishop said. "We've seen a big step in their stuff and a big step up in just how physical and how polished they are. Both have the ability to be shut-down guys."

Junior college transfer Dylan Richardson will be counted on as the primary setup man, with senior Matthew Werk and juniors Austin Henry and Tyler Sjuts also contending to bridge the gap.

The remainder of the pitching staff is made up of a group of freshmen that includes left-handers Brandon Week and Avon Barney, along a number of other potential two-way players that include Siegert, Jirschele, Husar and Logan Campbell.

"I think that we have four or five guys that you could see pitching on the weekends and playing in the field in the mid-week games, or vice versa," Bishop said. "We've just tried to build more roster depth by having more utilities and more all-around players."

COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 700 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 nine seasons with the Jackrabbits, Bishop holds a 174-238 record at SDSU, including a 109-109 mark in Summit League regular season games. He also has led the Jackrabbits to the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship seven times, highlighted by finals appearances on two occasions — in 2018 and 2023.

The 2023 squad set a school record with 89 home runs in 52 games. SDSU played only one true home game but managed a 24-28 overall record and another winning season in Summit League play with a 13-11 mark. That momentum carried over to the four-team league postseason tournament, where the Jackrabbits made a run to the title game.

SDSU hit a Summit League-best 80 home runs in 2024 and also led the circuit with a .492 slugging percentage..

Overall, Bishop holds a 723-560-1 record (.563 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach. He earned his 700th career victory in the Jackrabbits' 11-7 win at North Dakota State on April 6, 2024.

Individually, Jackrabbit players have been honored as all-Summit League performers 48 times during Bishop's tenure, including seven all-league selections in 2025.

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.

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 in all 10 seasons, including four with 40 wins. He ended his tenure at Miles City with a 377-151 overall record. He also served as athletic director the last five years of his tenure at Miles City.

Bishop served as a graduate assistant at SDSU under head coach Mark Ekeland during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In his first year 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 2025 SDSU baseball roster features 34 players from 10 different states and one foreign country (Australia). Of the 34 players, 13 are from Minnesota, five are from Nebraska and South Dakota, three are Iowa natives and two hail from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington. Arizona and Wyoming are represented by one player each.

By class, one is a graduate transfer, three are seniors and nine are juniors. The sophomore class consists of 10 players and there is one redshirt freshmen, while 10 are incoming freshmen.

ON DECK: The Jackrabbits remain in San Antonio for a two-game mid-week series Feb. 17-18 at Incarnate Word. Game times are 2 p.m. both days at Sullivan Field.

-GoJacks.com-