South Dakota State Softball took a 2-1 series loss against St. Thomas on Saturday and Sunday.
Game one (STT 6, SDSU 0)
The Jacks suffered their first shutout in Summit League competition this season. The Tommies put up three runs each in the first and third innings.
Pitching duties started with Madi Mangulis, who threw the first inning. Tayler Becker was sent to the mound for the next two innings before Hailey Herman finished the game, preventing the Tommies from scoring additional runs. Three batters struck out against the Jacks.
Game two (SDSU 8, STT 5)
SDSU picked up their lone victory of the series in the second game on Saturday. A four-run effort in the second inning leapfrogged the Jacks ahead, highlighted by two doubles by Akayla Barnard and Emma Vike. The Tommies tied the game in the fifth inning before Vike hit an RBI triple the next inning. Barnard capped the Jacks’ scoring efforts with a home run in the seventh.
Tayler Becker got the start before Sylvia Shromoff relieved her for the next four innings. Amanda Vacanti recorded her first save of the season with her throwing the last two innings.
Game three (STT 6, SDSU 2)
Two RBI doubles by SDSU put them ahead in the second inning. The Tommies responded with six unanswered runs, taking the lead in the fourth inning to take the series victory.
SDSU moves to 6-3 in Summit League play, dropping to third place behind Omaha (9-3) and St. Thomas (6-3), while also moving to 21-20 overall this season. The Tommies are now 21-16 overall.
“We did everything that we didn’t do in game one and game two, and it bit us,” head coach Kristina McSweeney said. “And it’s been a curse my entire coaching career. You walk somebody and you pitch for Kristina McSweeney, they’re gonna score…game three was a lot of that, you know, the five walks we gave up scored.”
North Dakota State
The Jacks return to home turf to host North Dakota State in a three-game series on Friday and Saturday. NDSU currently ranks sixth in the conference with a 3-6 record, only ahead of Kansas City.
Taylinn Warren holds the Bison’s best batting average with a .375. Despite only playing in 22 games and starting in 14 of them, Warren has scored 18 hits and 14 runs in 48 at-bats. She also has five RBIs on the season.
The best batting average among starters is Chloe Woldruff, who has a .320 and has missed just one game this season. Woldruff has 31 hits on 97 at-bats, along with a home run, but to find the most home runs is going to Bella Dean. Batting .230, she accounts for half of the team’s 12 home runs this season, despite recording only 16 hits in the team’s second-highest at-bat count. Dean also leads the Bison in RBIs and has a perfect stolen base percentage.
“The keys for us is winning innings,” McSweeney said of the upcoming series. “Getting out of the first inning, which seems to be our biggest issue…when we’re clean on defense, we have a really good chance of winning, and then controlling the beginning [of the game].”
The series kicks off with a doubleheader on Friday. The first pitches are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. It will conclude with a game on Saturday at 1 p.m. All games in this series will be streamed on the Summit League Network through Midco Sports.
