Jackrabbit Softball heads to NDSU

Saturday, April 29

Fargo, N.D.

12 p.m.

South Dakota State University

North Dakota State

Photo by: Jeff Kellum

4/27/2017 9:49:00 AM | Softball

Gameday Information

April 29	12 pm. (DH1)	Live Stats	Live Video
April 29	2 p.m. (DH2)	Live Stats	Live Video
April 30	11 a.m.	Live Stats	Live Video
Social Media		Twitter: @GoJacksSB \| #BackAndBetter

First Pitch

South Dakota State closes the road portion of the 2017 regular season this weekend at North Dakota State. The three-game set begins with a doubleheader Saturday at 12 p.m., followed by a single game Sunday at 11 a.m.
SDSU (17-30, 4-8 Summit League) had its final non-conference game of the season canceled early in the week due to weather. The Jacks last played a three-game series with Omaha, dropping a pair after winning the opener. The Bison (20-28, 7-5 Summit League) lost both games of their midweek doubleheader at No. 4 Minnesota, and last weekend took two of three against Western Illinois.
The teams have faced off 110 times prior, with the Jacks trailing in the series, 66-44. State will look to snap a 15-game losing streak to the Bison, last winning in 2012 at home. The last win in Fargo for the Jackrabbits was in 2005.
The Jacks are hitting .264 as a team with 60 doubles, eight triples and 27 home runs, including six in the last three games. The squad is 19 of 25 in stolen base attempts and has scored 182 total runs with 168 runs batted in and 330 hits.
From the circle, SDSU holds a combined 3.85 ERA and has struck out 213 batters in 310.2 innings. The Jacks have allowed 216 runs (171 earned) and walked 128 batters.

North Dakota State Bison

North Dakota State is hitting .235 as a team with 54 doubles, two triples and 32 home runs. The Bisonhave gone 33 for 46 on stolen base attempts, scored 156 runs (with 149 RBI) at worked 136 free passes.
Stephanie Soriano (.297) and Zoe Stavrou (..271) sit as the top hitters for NDSU. Soriano leads the team with 49 hits, including nine double, two triples and two home runs while posting a .318 on-base percentage. Stavrou has nine doubles as well, slugging .479 on the year with seven home runs and a team-best 29 runs batted in. Vanessa Anderson paces the squad with nine home runs and Bre Beatty has 10 doubles.
The Bison boast a 3.14 combined ERA with a Summit League-leading 323 strikeouts over 320.2 innings.
Jacquelyn Sertic is a three-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week this season, and leads the league with 264 strikeouts this season. Her 2.86 ERA is second best in the conference, and the starter has thrown 225.1 innings with a 13-20 record and 27 complete games.
Head Coach Darren Mueller is in his 16th season leading the Bison, where he holds a 562-300 career record.

Jacks at the Plate

Ali Herdliska's 16 doubles leads the conference and ranks seventh nationally as of April 24. The national leader, Johnkyria Alston of Eastern Kentucky, has 19. Herdliska is No. 28 in the nation with 0.34 doubles per game.
Ali Herdliska leads the team with 13 multi-hit games, nine multi-RBI performances and 48 total hits. Julie Andersen has racked up 12 two-hit games while sitting second with 40 hits for the year.
Julia Andersen is second on the team with eight doubles, ahead of Brittney Morse's seven two-baggers and Lyndsey Crist's six doubles. Morse leads the team with seven home runs.
Ali Herdliska is third on SDSU's career home run record list with 21 long balls. She is four away from the No. 2 spot on the list, held by Steph Kuhl (2004-07). Devan Larsen holds the school record with 35 for her career.
Paige Gerdes hit State's first grand slam of the season April 21, 2017 in the first inning against Omaha. It was also her first career home run.
Christian McKone went deep April 22 against Omaha for her first career home run, which came in her 364th at-bat wearing an SDSU uniform.
Ali Herdliska tallied five RBI Feb. 26 against Alabama A&M. That mark is second best for a single game in SDSU's Division I history.
Three Jackrabbits have combined for four four-RBI performances thus far in 2017. Danielle Steffo has driven in four in a game twice this season (Feb. 17 and March 7) while Ali Herdliska did it March 10 and Emily Ensrud reached the mark April 1.
Lyndsey Crist scored four runs in SDSU's win over South Carolina State, a mark that is tied for the school's single game NCAA Division I record.
Danielle Steffo has SDSU's lone four-hit game of the season thus far as she went 4 for 4 against St. Bonaventure March 7. That is tied for third best in the school's NCAA Division I record book.
Lyndsey Crist has worked 23 walks this season and now ranks seventh on SDSU's single season record list. The top mark for single season walks is 34, set last year by Ali Herdliska.
SDSU leads the conference in triples while sitting second in doubles (60) and hits (330) and third in runs batted in (168) and walks (108).

Jacks in the Circle

Abby Deane set the school's Division I strikeouts mark March 7 against St. Bonaventure, when she sat down 13 opponents in five innings. She also struck out 10 Feb. 11 against Northern Iowa.
Madison Hope has racked up two saves already on the year, which is one shy of SDSU's single season saves record. Hope has a 4.04 ERA over 60.2 innings pitched in 25 appearances.
Abby Deane (8-13) has tossed 124.2 innings to pace the squad with 117 strikeouts on the year.
Ashlyn Bender has a team-leading 3.87 ERA through 29 appearances (including 23 starts) while going 9-11 on the year with 59 strikeouts.
South Dakota State leads the conference in innings pitched (310.2) and home runs allowed (30. The Jacks are third in runs (216) and earned runs (171) allowed, strikeouts (213) and strikeouts per seven innings (4.80).
SDSU's 3.85 team ERA reflects continued improvement in the circle since the arrival of Krista Wood and Shannon Pivovar three years ago. In 2014, SDSU had a 6.03 combined ERA and lowered it to 4.31 in 2015.

Summit League Players of the Week

Newcomer Brittney Morse made the most of her weekend debut as a Jackrabbit en route to earning Summit League Player of the Week honors Feb. 13. Morse hit .400 (6 of 15) over five starts and blasted four home runs. She posted 1.200 slugging and .471 on base percentages for the weekend and picked up six RBI.
Ali Herdliska picked up her first career Summit League Player of the Week honor March 13. She hit .417 (15 for 35) on the week with six doubles, two triples and a home run, driving in 14 with five multi-hit games and four multi-RBI games.
Herdliska picked up her second Summit League Player of the Week honors of the year April 17. She posted a .643 (9 of 14) average over five games with 1.000 and .750 slugging and on-base percentages. Patient at the plate, the Solon, Iowa native worked six walks and struck out just once, racking up two doubles and a home run, reaching safely in all five contests.

Jacks picked fifth in Summit League Poll

SDSU was tabbed fifth in the 2017 Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll, released early February by the league office.
The Jacks have earned the No. 5 seed in the previous two Summit League Championships and will look to improve their seeding for the 2017 year-end tournament.
North Dakota State, the three-time defending Summit League Tournament champion, was picked first.

Herdliska named Player to Watch

As part of The Summit League's preseason poll release, league coaches selected eight Players to Watch. SDSU's Ali Herdliska, the 2016 Freshman of the Year was part of the list after earning All-Summit League First Team honors last year.
2016 saw Herdliska match the school's single-season home run record (16) while the first year player broke the single-season records for walks (34), total bases (108) and slugging percentage (.725). She also had 45 runs batted in, the second best performance in Jackrabbit history.

#BackAndBetter

Three All-Conference selections from the 2016 season lead the Jackrabbits into the new campaign as the team looks to continue its upward trend since the arrival of head coach Krista Wood two years ago.
Herdliska, mentioned above as a 2017 Player to Watch, was a First Team pick and the Freshman of the Year after leading the team with a .322 average, 48 hits, 16 home runs and 45 RBI.
Lyndsey Crist appeared in 48 games last year for SDSU and hit .319, racking up seven doubles, five home runs and 22 RBi while posting a .983 fielding percentage. She also went 8 of 9 on steal attempts.
Abbey Murphy started 53 of 55 games for SDSU and hit .280, tallying 10 doubles and three home runs with 21 RBI. Additionally, she walked 14 times, had six stolen bases and recorded a .943 fielding percentage.
Two senior pitchers, Ashlyn Bender and Katie Lang, anchor the staff for SDSU. Bender went 9-18 last year with a team-leading 4.00 ERA over 169.2 innings. Lang made five appearances, threw 9.1 innings and had three strikeouts with a 4.50 ERA.
Anderson Bats Renews Partnership
Anderson Bat Company announced last fall its renewal of a partnership with the South Dakota State Jackrabbit softball program on Thursday as the official softball bat supplier for the 2017 season.
The Jackrabbits will be swinging the Rocketech 2.0 and Supernova 2.0 Fast Pitch Softball Bats in the 2017 season.
Anderson Bat Company is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance softball and baseball bats. Established in 1999, our labor of love has evolved from a private labeling operation into the industry's leading manufacturer of alloy and composite baseball and softball bats, and the best is yet to come.

2016 Season Review

2016 was a year of new heights for the Jackrabbit softball program as head coach Krista Wood completed her second season at the helm. South Dakota State finished the year 23-34, earning the fifth seed in the Summit League Tournament for the second consecutive year.
SDSU won 20 games in consecutive years for the first time in a decade. It was the 12th 20-win season in the program's 46-year history.
Ali Herdliska and Lyndsey Crist were All-Summit League First Team selections while Abbey Murphy earned second team honors.
SDSU tied an NCAA record with four consecutive home runs against Fort Wayne (April 30, 2016) as Lauren Chirnside, Abbey Murphy, Jordyn Sturgeon and Danielle Steffo went back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the fourth inning of a 12-1 win.
Devan Larsen ended her career with a school record 35 home runs, hitting 12 as a senior to finish second on the team.
Ali Herdliska tied Larson's single-season home run record with 16 round-trippers while also setting school records in slugging percentage (.725), total bases (108) and walks (34). Her 45 runs batted in was second most in school history for a season. In terms of single games, Herdliska walked four times against South Dakota on May 7, 2016 to reset the school record.
Christian McKone swiped a school record 29 bases out of 31 steal attempts.
Chirnside set a single-game school record (tying the NCAA mark) with four doubles on March 22, 2016 against Drake.