After multiple schedule and location changes over the past few weeks, the South Dakota State softball team finally played its first series in Brookings last weekend.

The Jackrabbits faced their rivals North Dakota State at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium and completed the three-game sweep to improve their record to 27-15 overall and 9-0 in the conference.

“(It was) just such a surreal moment,” coach Kristina McSweeney said about finally playing games in Brookings. “Just to see our Jackrabbit fans out there supporting us in not the greatest conditions, but just having that hometown support, there’s nothing like it.”

Now the Jackrabbits are back on the road this weekend, as they are scheduled to head to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota for a doubleheader Saturday and a series finale Sunday.

While the series is currently scheduled to be played in Grand Forks, that could change. UND’s Wednesday doubleheader last week was canceled, and their series with St. Thomas last weekend was moved to Fargo due to unplayable conditions in Grand Forks.

Even though the series was moved, UND adjusted well and won two of the three games against the Tommies. The first was an 18-13 victory and the second was a 9-8 win.

The Fighting Hawks are 8-33 overall this season and 5-6 in the Summit League. Despite the poor record, UND has been playing well as of late. They’ve won four of their last six games and have won their last two weekend series.

Outfielder Madi Moore leads the Fighting Hawks in batting this season with a .320 average and runs scored with 21. Catcher Cassie Castaneda is second on the team in batting average (.308) and runs (18) and leads the team in hits (38). Madison Pederson is the team’s leader in home runs with five and RBIs with 32. She was named Summit League Peak Performer of the Week last week.

UND has struggled with their pitching this year. They are last in the Summit League in team earned run average at 6.67 and have given up the most hits (374) and runs (296).

“You go into UND with the same type of mindset, play clean defense, pitch ahead and score and be situationally sound in those offensive situations,” McSweeney said. “Those are the big three things that we just keep going back to.”

For the Jackrabbits, they have remained dominant against Summit League competition. They are undefeated in the conference this season and haven’t lost a regular-season conference game in over a year. Their last loss was April 2 last year against South Dakota.

SDSU’s series with the Bison last weekend was scheduled to start Saturday, but it got pushed back a day due to weather.

The Jackrabbits shut out the Bison 4-0 in the first game of the series Sunday, thanks to an impressive pitching performance from Tori Kniesche. She allowed only three hits and struck out nine batters.

Shannon Lasey started the next game for SDSU, the first of a Monday doubleheader, and struck out six. The Jacks scored 10 runs in the fourth inning, propelling them to a 12-3 win in five innings.

Kniesche started the second game of Monday’s doubleheader and posted another shutout. She also allowed only two hits and had 12 strikeouts. NDSU pitcher Paige Vargas was nearly as impressive, allowing four hits and posting seven strikeouts.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Jocelyn Carrillo scored on an Emma Osmundson RBI single to give the Jacks a 1-0 lead.

From there the Jackrabbit defense, who has the fewest fielding errors in the conference, prevented the Bison from tying the game and held on to win.

“NDSU was a phenomenal opponent,” McSweeney said. “Super impressed with their 1 through 9 offense and Vargas on the mound was tough for us all weekend. But a huge weekend for us to carry on and continue Summit League play.”

SDSU’s one-two punch of Kniesche and Lasey has been dominant for the pitching staff. Kniesche has a 17-4 record this season with a 1.72 ERA and 165 strikeouts this season and has pitched 54 and 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. Lasey has a 10-6 record with 91 strikeouts and a 3.42 ERA in her first season at SDSU.

At the plate, sophomore infielder Mia Jarecki has a .323 batting average, 43 hits, 32 runs scored and seven home runs this season, all of which lead the team. Junior infielder Rozelyn Carrillo leads the team in RBIs (29) and is second in home runs (six).

After their upcoming series with UND, the Jackrabbits will head to Kansas City for a series with the Roos before coming back home to face USD.