SDSU Softball & Baseball Previews

Photo via the Summit League

The 2022 NCAA Softball season is quickly approaching and SDSU is looking to build on their Summit League title and NCAA Tournament finish.

“Our goal is still to win the league and the conference tournament but now this year after being at a regional, I think our goal is to win a regional,” said head softball coach Krista Wood. “After being at regionals last year, we know what we need to do to be a little bit better in the postseason.”

SDSU’s 2021 Summit League Conference Tournament Title was their first since joining the league. At the NCAA Tournament, the Jacks downed Stanford 7-1 in the first round, before falling to regional host Arkansas. SDSU was then beat by Stanford in extra innings, 1-2, in the regional elimination game.

SDSU will bring a wealth of experience and depth back from last year’s team as almost everyone returns. To prepare the team for the postseason, Wood and the rest of the coaching staff has put together a tough, competitive schedule for the Jacks before Summit League play begins.

“The mentality is really good, the culture is really good right now, there is really good energy, we have a lot of depth,” Wood said. “The key is going to be utilize our team and their strengths when we need to offensively and on the mound.

SDSU will kick off the season at the Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Tournament where they will meet with Northern Iowa (UNI), Drake, and Iowa St. beginning Feb. 11 with UNI. Like SDSU, both UNI and Iowa St. made the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament.

“Our first weekend out is tough,” Wood said.

The following weekend the Jacks will fly out to San Diego, where they will match with Oregon St., Iowa, DePaul, San Diego, and UC Riverside.

The Jacks no-hit Oregon St. last year and Wood expects a competitive contest this year. SDSU will also match with DePaul, who was picked to finish second in the Big East Conference, later in the weekend. Games will take place at the University of San Diego’s softball complex.

The weekend after is another road trip. The Jacks will head south to Denton, Texas for the University of North Texas Invitational. There they will matchup with Yale, Creighton, and North Texas, who was the 2021 Conference USA regular season champs.

“Creighton is always a good rivalry,” Wood said.

Following the Texas trip, SDSU will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Then we go to Nebraska and play Nebraska and Wichita St. in a round-robin,” Wood said. “That’s going to be a really tough weekend.”

Wichita St. was the American Athletic Conference Champs in 2021 and defeated  Texas A&M in the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament Regional before falling to the University of Oklahoma.

Wood explained the four game stretch in Lincoln will be one of the toughest weekends of the year.

SDSU will conclude their pre-conference tournament schedule with a return trip to California for the Santa Barbra Spring Break Bash.

There they will play Sacred Heart, UC Santa Barbara, Princeton and Manhattan.

When the Jacks play Manhattan it will be their fourth opponent on the schedule who also competed in the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament.

Following a day off for spring break, SDSU will head down Highway 101 for a doubleheader with Cal State Northridge, followed by a doubleheader with Loyola Marymount the next day.

After the trip, the Jacks will get a short break before starting Summit League play. SDSU will open with weekend series at the University of Nebraska-Omaha on March 26-27. After a weekend series with the University of South Dakota, the Jacks will travel up to Minneapolis for a weekday doubleheader with the University of Minnesota, another 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament participant.

The Summit League season schedule will continue into May with the Summit League Conference Tournament scheduled for May 11-14. Since SDSU won the Summit League title in 2021, they are scheduled to host the ’22 Tournament.

“We are super excited- we have never hosted the Summit League (Tournament),” Wood said.

SDSU plays their home games at the Jackrabbit Softball Stadium, which is located just north of the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex. Last year, the facility saw some upgrades, including the addition of padded outfield walls and a new scoreboard.

“Those were two big additions, hoping that in the future we would be hosting,” Wood said.

Since last season, SDSU has added a press box, two spectator viewing decks and infield padding to match the outfield padding.

“We’ve done some pretty big upgrades in the last two years,” Wood said.

SDSU will play host to Western Illinois, April 9-10, Kansas City, April 15-16, St. Thomas, April 30 – May 1, and North Dakota, May 6-7.

“I think if you come watch us you love the way we play – we play with a lot of energy, we hit for power, we steal bases, we pitch well, we make diving – I think we are just fundamentally sound on every side of the ball,” Wood said. “We make big plays on offense and we make big plays on defense.

“We are just fun to watch because the way our kids play together and our culture,” Wood added.

The first pitch for SDSU’s season opener with UNI is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. on Feb. 11 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Photo via GoJacks.com

Even though the weather in Brookings might not be baseball-esque, SDSU is readying for the 2022 college baseball season, with the first pitch scheduled for Friday Feb. 18 in Sugar Land, Texas.

SDSU is coming off a season where they played well down the stretch to make the Summit League Tournament. After eliminating Omaha, SDSU took perennial power Oral Roberts to 11 innings before losing 5-3. North Dakota State went on to defeat Oral Roberts in the championship.

The new season begins with a weekend series vs. Purdue, of the Big Ten Conference, followed by a Thursday - Saturday series with Incarnate Word, of the Southland Conference, in San Antonio, Texas.

According to head coach Rob Bishop, Purdue will be a difficult test due to their recent influx of transfers and lack of information about the starting pitchers.

“They return a few games on the mound, we don’t who their rotation is yet for the weekend,” Bishop said. “They have a couple guys that are on every scout’s radar.”

After Incarnate Word the following week, the Jacks will fly home only to return to action a few days later vs. Minnesota, of the Big Ten, at U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings.

The next weekend, SDSU will get back on the road to Conway, Arkansas to face off with Central Arkansas, also of the Southland, in a four game set.

“Central Arkansas - we played there a few years ago, they do a really good job with their program,” Bishop said.

The preseason schedule is tough but similar to the last three preseasons, Bishop said.

“When you look at our preseason stuff with Purdue, Incarnate Word, Central Arkansas, Wichita St., Nebraska, Creighton, and Minnesota there just aren’t any easy games honestly,” Bishop said. “Every team we play is going to be really good.”

The Jacks will head south on I-29 March 11 for a weekend series with Wichita State, of the American Athletic Conference, who was receiving votes in a national preseason poll.

“We go to different areas of the country every year but we are always traveling a long ways to find good weather and good teams,” Bishop said.

SDSU continues their nationwide tour with a trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana for a four game tilt with Northwestern State, another Southland member.

“Anywhere we go play where there’s better weather in Feb. and March the teams are obviously going to be good,” Bishop said.

Before Summit League play begins, SDSU will play a weekday game vs. Nebraska, of the Big Ten, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Nebraska is going to be a Top 25 – Top 50 caliber team and they were just a few pitches away from having a chance to play in the (College) World Series last year,” Bishop said. “Coach Bolt and his staff have just done an unbelievable job getting that program going.

“Our main job in the preseason is to prepare our team for Summit League play,” Bishop added.

Summit League play

The Summit League will add two new baseball programs to the mix this spring: St. Thomas and Northern Colorado.

St. Thomas is a former Division III school out of St. Paul, Minnesota who made the jump to Division I (and the Summit League) in all sports this spring. St. Thomas’s baseball program played in the Division III College World Series last spring, losing to Salisbury University in the final.

“I don’t think there’s as much of difference in baseball as there is in some of the other sports,” Bishop said. “Good pitching is good pitching. They pitch and defend extremely well and I think they’ll jump into our league and be competitive right out of the gate.”

Northern Colorado is an affiliate program who competes in the Big Sky Conference in most other sports. Their baseball program previously played in the Western Athletic Conference and is moving to the Summit League to cut down on travel times and cost, according to the Greeley Tribune, as their new Summit League foes are in more geographically friendly locations.

“They are going to be a team, especially at their place at elevation, where they really swing the bat,” Bishop said. “It brings a different dynamic to our league. It’s a very offensive place, they do a really good job playing to their strengths and playing to that park.”

Bishop explained that every year the Summit League as a whole has gotten better and better, which he credits to Oral Roberts “setting the tone for a long period of time.”

Oral Roberts is bringing in a wealth of new transfers this year as does Omaha. NDSU is also returning most of their pitching staff, which was the best in the league, so the Summit League should be very competitive once again, Bishop said.

Another wrinkle to the league is the new unbalanced schedule. Because there is now seven teams in the league, some will only play each other once, while others will play twice.

“If you do have a lopsided schedule, top of the league or bottom of the league, that unbalanced schedule really comes into play for who makes the tournament,” Bishop said.

The top four teams at the conclusion of the regular season advance to the tournament, which will take place May 25-28 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The winner of the tournament receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

SDSU will match with Oral Roberts twice (in Brookings towards the end of May), NDSU once (in Brookings in late April), St. Thomas twice (in Brookings in mid-May), Omaha once, Western Illinois once (in Brookings in early April), and Northern Colorado once.

“I like our team and I think if you look at the top three or four teams it’s going to come down to who has the best year on the mound and who stays healthy,” Bishop said.

The starting nine

Last spring, the Jacks were young and full of freshmen, which meant there was some growing pains to begin the year. However, the Jacks made a late surge to make the Summit League Tournament. This year, the Jacks will return a young, but more experienced team.

“During the last two years we have been really really young,” Bishop said. “Last year, especially with how many freshman we had out there, I was just really glad to play our way into that tournament.”

I wasn’t happy with our overall record or our overall season but I was happy with our last six weeks,” Bishop added.

Luke Ira, last year’s starting shortstop, returns for the Jacks as does Drew Beazley at first base. Pitcher Cody Carlson returns and Nic McCay, who missed the past two seasons with Tommy John surgery, will also be back pitching.

The Jacks will also bring some experience back with Ryan Bourassa and Brett Barnett, two of the best bullpen guys in the league, Bishop said.

Behind the plate, both Ryan McDonald and Derek Hackman have both caught a lot of games, “so we return quite a bit of experience there,” Bishop said.

In the outfield, Jess Bellows and Jamie Berg have played a significant amount of games for the Jacks and both return this season.

A new face for the Jacks is Henry George, an outfielder from Minnesota-Duluth via the transfer portal, who plays center field. Two players from Miles Community College, infielders Cade Stuff and Dawson Perry, will join the Jacks this year as well.

“Perry was the player of the year in Division II junior college baseball last year,” Bishop said. “He had a tremendous sophomore season. He’ll play first and DH for us. Stuff will likely play some second and third base and again, a really good junior college player and we expect him to make an impact.”

Bishop said he was disappointed with the overall offensive production from last spring so the coaching staff wanted to bring in some more offense via transfers.

“A lot of it was youth but at the end of the day, we didn’t produce enough there,” Bishop said. “Those guys are all going to help us there and our returning guys have all made big strides so I’m happy with our roster and our team.”

Bishop said he also expects the freshman class to impact the team, particularly on the mound, as well.

“The one thing about our guys is they show up every day and work,” Bishop said. “We do a good job from a character and academic stand point. We have good kids, good guys that represent us well.”

For returning baseball fans, Bishop said they can expect some quality baseball from the entire Summit League once again.

“If they are a new fan, what they will appreciate and like about our guys is how hard our guys play and how talented our guys are all around the diamond,” Bishop said. “At the end of the year when we get to play our series at home late and the weather is good, there is nothing better. There are going to see a group of guys that love to play and love to play for each other and it should be an exciting season.”