CENTRAL ARKANSAS NEXT SITE FOR SDSU BASEBALL

Friday, February 27

Conway, Ark.

3 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Central Arkansas

Photo by: SDSU Athletics

2/26/2026 10:30:00 AM | Baseball

South Dakota State (3-5) at Central Arkansas (5-4)

When	Friday-Sunday, Feb. 27-March 1 (three-game series) 3 p.m. Friday \| 4 p.m. Saturday \| 1 p.m. Sunday
Where	Bear Stadium \| Conway, Arkansas
TV	ESPN+ (Sunday only)
Radio	None
Live Stats	UCASports.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| Central Arkansas \| The Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

After making a brief trip home on the heels of opening the 2026 season with an eight-game swing through Texas, the South Dakota State baseball team is back on the road for a weekend series at Central Arkansas.

The format for this weekend's series at Bear Stadium in Conway, Arkansas, has been altered and will now consist of a three-game series. Friday's series opener has been moved to a 3 p.m. first pitch, with Saturday's contest now slated for a 4 p.m. start. The series finale on Sunday remains scheduled for 1 p.m.

Sunday's game will be available for viewing through the ESPN+ streaming platform.

SDSU enters the week with a 3-5 overall record. After being swept at UTSA and splitting a pair of slugfests at Incarnate Word to open the season, the Jackrabbits ended their first road trip of the season on a high note by taking two of three games at Tarleton State last weekend. TSU won the series opener, 9-2, before SDSU bounced back with victories by scores of 6-2 and 5-1.

Central Arkansas, meanwhile, holds a 5-4 record so far this season. The Bears won three of four games in their first home series of the season last weekend against Northwestern State (La.), starting with a pair of one-run victories. UCA began this week with a 13-4 setback at the hands of Oklahoma State Tuesday afternoon in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

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

THE SERIES: Friday's series opener against Central Arkansas will mark the 13th all-time meeting between the Jackrabbits and Bears on the baseball diamond. The series dates back to a season-opening series in 2008, when UCA won three of four games. All previous 12 matchups have been played in Conway, Arkansas, with UCA leading 9-3.

The last series between the two programs was played March 4-5, 2022, when the Bears won two of three games. UCA posted a 5-3 victory in the series opener, followed by a 5-0 victory in Game 1 of a doubleheader the next day as Logan Gilbertson and Jesse Barker combined on a six-hit shutout.

SDSU salvaged the series finale with a 9-1 win in Game 2 of the March 5 twinbill. The Jackrabbits scored five runs in the top of the first inning behind two-run doubles from Derek Hackman and Jordan Sagedahl, as well as a run-scoring double by Reece Anderson. Luke Ira added a solo home run in the second inning and Nic Nelson capped the scoring with a three-run blast in the eighth.

Drew Beazley allowed one run over four innings while Jake Goble (3 innings) and Bret Barnett (2 innings) combined to shut out the Bears the rest of the way.

Ira was the hitting star in the series by going 8-for-13 (.615 batting average) as he tallied multiple hits in all three games.

SHORT HOPS: Following are some more quick notes regarding the South Dakota State baseball team heading into this weekend's series at Central Arkansas:

SDSU set a program single-game record by scoring 17 runs in the fourth inning of its 19-11, series-opening win at Incarnate Word. Each of the first 12 batters of the inning reached base safely and a total of 21 men went to the plate in the frame.
Ty Madison was tabbed as the Jackrabbits' Opening Day starter for the second year in a row in the Feb. 13 opener at UTSA, becoming the first SDSU pitcher to start back-to-back openers since Adam Mazur (2020 and 2021).
The Jackrabbits played errorless defense in the three-game series at Tarleton State.
SDSU has sent 15 different pitchers to the mound so far this season. Nine of the 15 are in their first seasons at SDSU and made their debuts during the first week of play.
Freshman Logan Campbell has made a team-leading five appearances so far this season, including two in the series at Tarleton State. Campbell tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings with a key strikeout in the Feb. 22 series finale.
Left-handed reliever Tristan Augedahl has registered 11 strikeouts in only 6 2/3 innings of work so far this season. Augedahl has appeared in four games, including back-to-back relief stints in the final two games of the Tarleton State series.
Jackrabbit starting pitchers combined for only 10 innings of work in the first five games of the season, but responded in a big way during the Tarleton State series with a total of 16 2/3 innings in the three games. Ty Madison logged 4 2/3 innings in the Feb. 20 series opener, while Sam Novotny and Sam Schlecht followed with respective outings of seven and five innings in winning efforts.
Sophomore third baseman Nolan Grawe has reached base safely in 24 consecutive games dating back to last season. Grawe ended the 2025 season by reaching base in the final 18 games of the year and has been on base in all six of the games he has played thus far in 2026.
Long streaks are nothing new for Grawe, who has had separate hitting streaks of 19 games (2025) and 14 games (last 12 games or 2025 and first two games of 2026) en route to setting an SDSU freshman record with 69 hits.
Owen Siegert paced the Jackrabbits offensively in the Tarleton State series with a .583 batting average (7-for-12). Siegert notched three hits in each of the first two games of the series.
Freshman Jaren Vogt hit the first Jackrabbit home run of the season in Game 2 of the series against UTSA, which also was his first career start. Vogt is a two-way player who later started on the mound for the Jackrabbits in the Feb. 18 series finale at UIW.
Sophomore Dayton Franke hit the first Jackrabbit grand slam of the season Feb. 18 at Incarnate Word. It was Franke's second career grand slam and ninth home run of his collegiate career — in his 78th career at-bat (now 93 at-bats). As a freshman in 2025, Franke hit eight home runs in 65 at-bats, including three in one game against Oral Roberts, and has one home run in 28 trips to the plate so far this season.
Both Franke and Brady Brown were hit by pitches three times in a game last week. Franke was plunked three times in the Feb. 17 series opener at Incarnate Word, while Brown was hit three times in the Feb. 22 series finale at Tarleton State.
Junior first baseman/designated hitter Luke Luskey is off to another solid start by batting .345 (10-for-29) through the first eight games of the season. Luskey connected on his first home run of 2026 in the finale at Incarnate Word on Feb. 18, giving him 23 for his career. He also has 29 multi-hit games in his career after tallying two or more hits in three games this year.
Luskey recorded his 100th career hit — an RBI infield single — the Feb. 22 series finale at Tarleton State and now has 92 RBIs for his career in only 93 games played.

TAYLOR HONORED: South Dakota State outfielder Carter Taylor was honored Tuesday as the Kwik Star Summit League Baseball Peak Performer of the Week after helping lead the Jackrabbits to three victories in the state of Texas.

A freshman from Missoula, Montana, Carter batted .522 (12-for-22) over five games and notched multiple hits in four of those contests. In his first career start, Feb. 17 at Incarnate Word, he went 4-for-6, including hitting his first collegiate home, driving in two runs and scoring twice in a 19-11 Jackrabbit victory. The following day he closed the series with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate that included three RBIs. Taylor, who hit safely in all five games last week to extend his overall hitting streak to six games, tallied two hits in both the Feb. 20 series opener and Feb. 22 finale at Tarleton State.

For the week, his totals included four runs scored, five RBIs, a .696 slugging percentage and a .577 on-base percentage.

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 Feb. 11.

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.

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.

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-plus seasons with the Jackrabbits, Bishop holds a 177-243 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 726-565-1 record (.562 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 are scheduled to play three Big Ten Conference opponents in a row next week, starting with a March 5 matchup at Nebraska. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Hawks Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

From there, SDSU will move on to Minneapolis for three games at U.S. Bank Stadium in the Cambria Classic. The Jackrabbits will take on Northwestern in the March 7 opener at 11 a.m., followed by a 7 p.m. game against host Minnesota on March 8. The March 9 tournament finale against Southern Illinois is slated for 10 a.m.

-GoJacks.com-