SDSU STUNS ST. THOMAS TO ADVANCE IN LEAGUE TOURNEY

Thursday, May 7

St. Paul, Minn.

2 p.m.

South Dakota State University

24-32

St. Thomas

34-17

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
South Dakota St.	0	1	0	1	1	4	0	7	12	0
St. Thomas (Minn.)	0	2	0	1	2	0	0	5	10	0

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

5/7/2026 6:59:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Andrew Pedersen

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The six-seed South Dakota State softball team defeated second-seed, and host St. Thomas, by a 7-5 score Thursday in The Summit League Championship. The victory at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium advanced the Jackrabbits to Friday's winner bracket game against South Dakota.

It was a tight affair throughout between the Jacks and Tommies.

SDSU got on the board first in the top of the second on an Ella Berlage RBI single. St. Thomas responded in the bottom of the frame as a Laken Lienhard two-run double put the Tommies in front.

The Jackrabbits put two runners on base in the top of the third, but were unable to capitalize. However, SDSU starting pitcher threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the inning to move the game to the fourth.

The top of the fourth saw the Jackrabbits load the bases with one out. Emma Vike hit an RBI single to put one run on the board for SDSU, but St. Thomas went to Ella Cook in relief and she escaped by the threat by striking out consecutive batters.

St. Thomas again jumped ahead on the scoreboard in the ensuing frame. The Tommies' Zoe Trotter hit a one-out solo home run to give St. Thomas a 3-2 edge after four innings.

The fifth inning was led off by SDSU's Amanda Vacanti who crushed a solo home run to tie the score. The Tommies again responded in the bottom of the fifth. A miscue in the outfield led to a two-out triple for St. Thomas' Cassidy Carby. Cook followed with an RBI single, then an Abbi Stierlen RBI double put St. Thomas ahead 5-3.

The sixth inning became the story of the ballgame.

Quinn Marnocha led the top of the sixth by drawing a walk. After a fly out, Abby Gentry hit a single and Akayla Barnard smacked an RBI double to cut the score to 5-4. Vacanti came up to the plate with two runners on base and sent an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence to propel the Jackrabbits on top by a 7-5 score.

The bottom of the frame saw St. Thomas hit back-to-back singles. Sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third and a walk gave the Tommies the bases loaded with one out. Mangulis worked her way out of the threat behind a fly out, along with a ground out back to her that she threw back to home for the force out, to move to the seventh inning unscathed.

SDSU went down quietly in the top of the seventh. Mangulis then worked a 1-2-3 frame to close out another complete game and clinch the 7-5 win for the Jackrabbits.

South Dakota State recorded 12 hits as a team. Vacanti was a team-best 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Barnard and Emma Christensen also had multi-hit performances. Mangulis improved to 8-7 on the season behind her complete-game performance. She allowed five runs on 10 hits. Mangulis also struck out four batters while walking three.

NOTES

South Dakota State ended a three-game skid against St. Thomas.
SDSU became the first six-seeded team in Summit League Championship history to win its first two games in the conference tournament. The tournament expanded to six teams in 2014.
Vacanti's multi-home run game was her third of the season.
Mangulis threw her seventh complete game of the year on Thursday. She's now thrown a team-high 97 1/3 innings this season.
Barnard scored a run in the game which was her 54th this season. She set a new program single-season record topping the previous mark of 53 established by Abbey Murphy in 2018. She's also two total bases away from breaking the single-season record held by Cylie Halvorson at 127 set in 2021.
SDSU has now advanced to the winner's bracket game for the third straight season.

UP NEXT
South Dakota State advances to the winner's bracket game on Friday at 1 p.m. The Jackrabbits will take on the No. 4 seed South Dakota Coyotes. The winner of the game will advance to the championship on Saturday.

-GoJacks.com-