Jacks turn the page to SEMO

Friday, March 2

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

3 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Southeast Missouri State

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia Sports Media

3/1/2018 2:49:00 PM | Baseball

GAME 8-10: South Dakota State (0-7) at Southeast Missouri State (2-7)

When	3 p.m. Friday, March 2 \| 2 p.m. Saturday, March 3 \| 1 p.m. Sunday, March 4
Where	Capaha Stadium \| Cape Girardeau, Missouri
TV	Ohio Valley Conference Digital Network
Radio	SEMO Broadcast
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Game Notes	South Dakota State \| Southeast Missouri State
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| #EarnIt

After going winless in February to start the season, the South Dakota State University baseball team will strive for greater fortunes as the calendar flips to March, starting with a three-game weekend series at Southeast Missouri State.

The series opener is slated for 3 p.m. Friday at Capaha Stadium in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The remainder of the series will consist of games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games can be viewed through the Ohio Valley Conference Digital Network.

Live stats will be available through GoJacksLive.com.

SDSU, 0-7 overall, will be making its third trip through Missouri in as many weekends after having each of its first two weekend road trips altered due to inclement weather. The Jackrabbits played games against Austin Peay and Illinois the opening weekend in St. Louis and nearby Sauget, Illinois, and were swept in a three-game series against Bradley last weekend in Edwardsville, Illinois.

SEMO, meanwhile, completed February with a 2-7 overall record. The Redhawks split a four-game home series against Bowling Green last weekend, before dropping a 3-2 decision at Memphis on Feb. 27. SEMO was picked to finish fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll.

THE SERIES: Friday's game against Southeast Missouri State will mark the ninth time the Jackrabbits and Redhawks have met on the baseball diamond. SEMO leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1977, by a 6-2 count. The first meeting between the two squads was a 6-5 SEMO victory at the 1977 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional in Mankato, Minnesota.

SDSU and the Redhawks last met in 2007, with SEMO winning two of three games played in Cape Girardeau. The Jackrabbits won the series opener, 5-2, while SEMO won the last two games by scores of 7-4 and 1-0.

PRESEASON POLL: The Jackrabbit baseball team has been picked to finish second in the upcoming Summit League race, according to a poll of league coaches released Feb. 8.

SDSU received 20 points and one first-place vote, finishing behind defending champion Oral Roberts, which received the other five first-place votes and 25 total points. North Dakota State completed the top half of the poll with 17 points.

Rounding out the second half of the poll were Western Illinois (14 points), Omaha (9) and Fort Wayne (5).

The Jackrabbits, who return six position starters, are scheduled to open Summit League play March 16, when they open a three-game series at Oral Roberts. The 2018 Summit League Baseball Championship is slated for May 23-26 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In addition, SDSU shortstop Tony Kjolsing was selected as a Summit League Player to Watch. A senior from Chaska, Minnesota, Kjolsing batted .291 with four home runs and 21 runs batted in while playing in 32 games during the 2017 season.

LAST TIME OUT: Three Minnesota pitchers combined to limit South Dakota State to two hits, shutting out the Jackrabbits, 1-0, in nonconference baseball action Feb. 28 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Golden Gophers improved to 7-2 overall, while SDSU dropped to 0-7 on the young season.

Minnesota scored what would be the only run of the game in bottom of the first as Luke Pettersen led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a balk and scored on a groundout off the bat of Terrin Vavra. Pettersen, who was 3-for-4 and stole two bases, was the only Golden Gopher to record a hit in the game.

Minnesota starter Joshua Culliver struck out three walked two in five no-hit innings to earn the victory.

The Jackrabbits finally cracked the hit column with two outs in the seventh, when Josh Falk lined a solid single to left field for a base hit. Phil Velez added a single to left in the eighth for the other SDSU hit.

Jeff Fasching, who allowed both SDSU hits, struck out two batters in three shutout innings, while Max Meyer worked around a two-out walk in the ninth, to earn the save.

SDSU pitchers were equal to the task the rest of the way. Kuhlmann finished with one strikeout and did not walk a batter in his three innings of work. Brett Mogen, Austin Suhr and Alex Marro followed with one scoreless inning each, while Bryce Johnson finished on the mound with two shutout frames.

KJOLSING EXTENDS STREAK: Shortstop Tony Kjolsing brings a streak of reaching base safely by hit or walk in 21 consecutive games into the weekend series at Southeast Missouri State. A senior from Chaska, Minnesota, Kjolsing reached base safely in the final 14 games of the 2017 season and has been on base in all seven games thus far in 2018.

Kjolsing also enters the weekend as the top base stealer in The Summit League with four stolen bases in five attempts.

HOT START: Outfielder Landon Badger has excelled on Opening Day in each of his two seasons with the Jackrabbits. Both of Badger's career three-hit games have come in a season opener — he was 3-for-5 with two doubles and three runs batted in during his collegiate debut against Northern Illinois in the 2017 season opener, then went 3-for-4 in the 2018 opener against Austin Peay.

SLOW STARTS: The Jackrabbit baseball team has historically gotten off to sluggish starts in its Division I history, which dates back to the 2005 campaign. SDSU will attempt to avoid the third 0-8 start in program history at the D-I level — the 2012 squad opened the season on an eight-game losing streak, while the 2016 squad lost its first 13 games.

OFFENSIVE WOES: South Dakota State has struggled at the plate in the first two weeks of the 2018 season, posting a team batting average of only .176 and averaging a meager 2.3 runs per game. The Jackrabbits posted season highs of six runs and nine hits in an 8-6 loss to Bradley in the opening game of a Feb. 23 doubleheader.

Last season, SDSU batted .282 as a team and averaged 5.5 runs per game en route to a 26-24 record. The Jackrabbits tallied 10 or more runs in a game 10 times in 2017.

SOLID DEFENSE: The Jackrabbits enter the weekend as the top fielding team in The Summit League with a .984 fielding percentage through seven games. SDSU has committed only four errors and has not made an error in four of the last five contests.

NEW ARMS: Seven Jackrabbit pitchers made their SDSU debuts on the opening weekend of play in Missouri and Illinois. Brady Moxham and Korey Kuhlmann each started games for SDSU, while Otis Roby, Austin Suhr, Alex Marro, Bryce Johnson and Mitchell Oehme made appearances in relief.

COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 500 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.

Overall, Bishop holds a 575-353-1 record (.619 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 26-31 mark with the Jackrabbits. Prior to coming to SDSU, he 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.

His squads also were honored as the top academic team in the GNAC each of his last three seasons.

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. 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 season as a head coach, Bishop led Huron University to the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title in 2000.

A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.

THE ROSTER: The 2018 SDSU baseball roster features 33 players from six different states and one Canadian province. Of the 33 players, 12 are from South Dakota, 10 are from Iowa and seven hail from Minnesota. Arizona, Washington and Wisconsin are represented by one player each, as is Manitoba.

By class, seven are seniors, 11 are juniors, eight are sophomores and seven are incoming freshmen.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits continue their Spring Break trip by playing two games at Air Force (March 6-7) and three at Northern Colorado (March 9-11).

Further updates will be available through GoJacks.com and Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball).

-GoJacks.com-