Tim Knutson

The SDSU Baseball Team started off their season on Feb. 28 with a trip to Kansas State University. The Jacks lost the two games they played against the Wildcats by a total of three runs. The Jacks put up five runs in their first competitive game of the season.

The road trip to begin the season then moved on to St. Louis, Mo., where the Jacks took on the University of Saint Louis. The Jacks had a hard time with St. Louis and ended up dropping three in the Gateway City.

The Jackrabbits had a three-day break before finding their way to Carbondale, Ill., for a two-game challenge. The Jacks lost the first game, but on March 4, picked up their first win of the season against Southern Illinois and put their total record at 1-6.

The Jackrabbits ended their spring break road trip by taking on Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Although the Jacks started off slow, they got a win in the final of three games. This put the Jackrabbits at a total of two wins and eight losses during the opening season road trip.

Head Coach Reggie Christiansen said, “I felt we pitched and fielded well, but we just couldn’t get the bats going.”

Only a few runs decided all the games and Coach Christiansen felt that the Jacks were hurt by not being able to get outside and practice. Christiansen added that he felt like this road trip was a good way to start the season.

“This road trip was a real step in the right direction,” he said.

Junior shortstop Jake Rogers from Lewiston, Idaho, led the Jacks

with 13 hits and two homeruns during the ten-game trip. Rogers tied Tyson Fisher, sophomore first basemen from Fortuna, Calif., with 14 runs batted in. Fisher also led the team by scoring eight runs.

Robby Apo, a junior from Eureka, Calif., led the Jacks with 13.2 innings pitched during the ten-game trip. Apo also led in strikeouts with eight, while Christian Larson, Danny Klous and Matt Bowman all tied for second with seven. Gary Olechoski, senior pitcher from Omaha, Neb., put up saves in both of the Jacks’ wins to start the season.

This weekend, the Jackrabbit baseball team will head to Lincoln, Neb., to take on the Cornhuskers.

Coach Christiansen said, “This is a big weekend for us. The University of Nebraska should be a real challenge, and I feel that we are up for it. We are just taking it day by day, and I think we just need to build on what we learned in the first ten games.”