Softball opens Summit League Tournament Wednesday

Wednesday, May 10

Fargo, N.D.

5:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

#3 seed Western Illinois

Photo by: Jason Salzman

5/8/2017 2:32:00 PM | Softball

SDSU Game Notes

Gameday Information

No. 6 seed South Dakota State versus No. 3 seed Western Illinois
Date	Wednesday, May 10
Time	5:30 p.m.
Location	Fargo, N.D. \| Ellig Sports Complex
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Live Video	TheSummitLeague.org
Twitter	@GoJacksSB \| #BackAndBetter

First Pitch

South Dakota State begins its 2017 Summit League Tournament run Wednesday in Fargo, North Dakota against third-seeded Western Illinois. The Jackrabbits and Fighting Leathernecks face off in game two of the year-end tournament at 5:30 p.m., from Ellig Sports Complex.
The winner of Wednesday's matchup advances to face No. 2 seed North Dakota State Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday's contest is a rematch of the regular season's final series, when SDSU (19-34, 6-12 Summit League) took two-of-three against Western Illinois (20-30, 11-7 Summit League) in Brookings, South Dakota.
The Jackrabbits and Leathernecks have faced off 31 times prior to this week's tournament contest, with WIU holding a 22-9 edge in the all-time series. Since the arrival of Krista Wood in 2015, however, the Jacks are 5-5 against the Leathernecks.
State is hitting .259 as a team with 68 doubles, eight triples and 30 home runs, including 12 in the final 11 games of the regular season. The squad is 19 of 25 on stolen base attempts and has scored 198 runs with 183 RBIs, tallying 364 total hits for the year.
From the circle, SDSU holds a combined 3.89 ERA and has struck out 219 batters over 350.2 total innings. The Jacks have allowed 410 hits and 240 runs (195 earned) while walking 144.
South Dakota State is 1-4 all-time in the Summit League Tournament and is making its fourth appearance since joining the league in 2008. Since Krista Wood's arrival, SDSU has reached the tournament all three years and claimed its first win in 2015. A look at the Jacks' history in the Summit League Tournament is below ...

Year	Seed	Opponent	Result
2010	#4	#1 Western Illinois	L, 0-4
2010	#4	#2 Fort Wayne	L, 1-9
2015	#5	#4 Western Illinois	W, 7-6
2015	#5	#2 South Dakota	L, 7-18
2016	#5	#4 South Dakota	L, 4-5

Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks

The Fighting Leathernecks are hitting .269 as a team with 51 doubles, 10 triples and 33 home runs, swiping 35 bags in 46 steal attempts. The team has scored 197 runs with 180 runs batted in on 368 hits and 143 walks.
Hailey Duwa is hitting .324 over 30 games with 15 runs batted in, while Kelsey Marlow leads the team with a .329 average, 11 doubles and five triples, driving in 29 runs.
Nina Maggio holds a .300 average and Holly Hoelting paces the team with seven home runs and 33 RBIs.
WIU boats a 3.72 team ERA on the year and 331 strikeouts, good enough for second in the league. The Leathernecks have allowed 219 runs (182 earned) with just 71 walks allowed this season.
Emily Ira ranks 18th nationally with 212 strikeouts on the year, going alongside a 11-14 record and a 2.61 ERA. Ira, who is first in the nation with just 0.65 walks allowed per seven innings, has tossed 22 complete games this year and is a four-time Summit League Pitcher of the Week selection. Payton Abbott (3-6, 4.08 ERA) and Brooke Stulga (6-10, 5.78 ERA) have each made 21 appearances this season in the circle.
Head Coach Holly Van Vlymen is in her 11th season at Western Illinois and holds a 258-218-2 record.

Jacks at the Plate

Ali Herdliska's 17 doubles leads the conference and ranks 13th nationally as of May 8. She is No. 29 in the nation with 0.32 doubles per game.
Ali Herdliska leads the team with 13 multi-hit games, 10 multi-RBI performances and 52 total hits. Julie Andersen has racked up 13 two-hit games while sitting second with 45 hits for the year.
Julia Andersen is second on the team with nine doubles, ahead of Brittney Morse's eight 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 22 long balls. She is three 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.
Yanney Ponce hit her first collegiate home run April 29 at North Dakota State.
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 sits second in the league in triples (eight) and third in doubles (68), runs (198) and runs batted in (183) while sitting fourth in hits (364), home runs (30) and walks (116).

Jacks in the Circle

Madison Hope has racked up two saves on the year, which is one shy of SDSU's single season saves record. Hope has a 3.63 ERA over 83.0 innings pitched in 30 appearances. She leads the nation with only one hit batter this season.
Over her last five appearances, Hope has lowered her ERA by over 40 points, allowing eight earned runs in 22.1 innings. Against North Dakota State on April 30, Hope allowed just four baserunners and two hits, and followed it with a shutout relief inning a start against Western Illinois where she went 6.1 innings with just one run allowed.
Ashlyn Bender holds a 4.03 ERA through 32 appearances (including 26 starts), going 9-12 on the year with 61 strikeouts.
Abby Deane (8-13) has tossed 124.2 innings to pace the squad with 117 strikeouts on the year.
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.
South Dakota State leads the conference in fewest home runs allowed (31) while throwing the second most innings (350.2). The Jacks are third in runs allowed (240) and strikeouts (219).
SDSU's 3.89 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.

-GoJacks.com-