The South Dakota State University baseball team will look to make up for lost time as it travels to the West Coast this weekend for its first series of the 2025 season, a four-game set at Pacific.
Fridays series opener is slated for a 6 p.m. Pacific Time (8 p.m. Central), with first pitch at Klein Family Stadium in Stockton, California. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday, starting at 3 p.m. PT (5 p.m. CT), with the series finale set for 1 p.m. PT (3 p.m. CT) on Sunday.
Video streaming of all four games will be available through the ESPN+ platform (subscription required).
South Dakota State will be making its season debut after having a scheduled four-game series at Murray State canceled last weekend due to inclement weather. The Jackrabbits are coming off a 2024 season in which they compiled a 20-29 overall record, including an 11-17 mark in The Summit League.
Pacific, meanwhile, already has played four games during the 2025 season and enters the weekend with a 2-2 record under first-year head coach Reed Peters. The Tigers won two of three games against UC San Diego in a home series last weekend, then dropped an 11-7 decision at UC Davis on Feb. 18.
The Tigers ended the 2024 campaign with an 11-44 overall record, including a 5-19 mark in the West Coast Conference.
Updates of Jackrabbit baseball will be available throughout the weekend via Twitter (@GoJacksBaseball) and through GoJacks.com.
The series
Fridays series opener will mark the fifth meeting between South Dakota State and Pacific on the baseball diamond. The Tigers hold a 3-1 series advantage after winning the first-ever meeting between the two programs, 5-2, in 2016, followed by taking two of three games in a series played early in the COVID-interrupted 2020 season.
All three games in the 2020 series were decided by one run; the Jackrabbits won the opener, 2-1, before Pacific claimed the final two games by scores of 13-12 and 6-5, with the finale going 11 innings.
For openers
The Jackrabbits are 5-15 in Opening Day games during the Division I era, which began with the start of the 2005 season. SDSU is 2-6 in season openers under head coach Rob Bishop, with both wins in games played at neutral sites.
The Jackrabbits claimed the 2017 season opener against Northern Illinois, 7-2, in a game played in Glendale, Arizona, and scored a 15-3 victory over UT Martin in the 2019 opener played at Russellville, Arkansas.
SDSU dropped an 8-6 decision at New Mexico State in the 2024 season opener played Feb. 16 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Jackrabbits led 4-0 after two-run home runs by Cael Frost and Dawson Parry, but NMSU gained the lead with a seven-run bottom of the fifth. Reece Anderson added a two-run homer in the top of the eighth.
The Jackrabbits ended up splitting the four-game series at New Mexico State by winning the final two games by scores of 8-5 and 11-10.
Preseason poll
South Dakota State has been picked to finish fifth in the upcoming Summit League baseball race, according to a preseason poll conducted among the leagues head coaches that was announced earlier this month.
The Jackrabbits are coming off a 2024 season in which they posted a 20-29 overall record, including an 11-17 mark in Summit League play.
Defending league tournament champion Oral Roberts collected three first-place votes to take the top spot in the poll with 22 points. St. Thomas (19 points), Omaha (18) and North Dakota State (17) each received one first-place vote to hold spots 2-4, followed by SDSU with eight points and Northern Colorado with six.
Summit League play begins March 14, when the Jackrabbits travel to Northern Colorado for the start of a three-game series. The four-team Summit League Baseball Championship is set for May 21-24 in Omaha, Nebraska.
In addition, SDSU shortstop Carter Sintek was named a Summit League Player to Watch and reliever Dylan Driessen was selected as a Summit League Pitcher to Watch.
A sophomore from Bennington, Nebraska, Sintek started 23 games in the first half of the 2024 season before being sidelined the remainder of the year for medical reasons. He batted .283 (26-for-92) with seven extra-base hits (2 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs) and nine runs batted in, while posting eight multi-hit games.
Driessen, a junior from Omaha, Nebraska, averaged 12.98 strikeouts per nine innings last season, tallying 62 Ks in 43 innings of work. The right-hander made a team-high 25 appearances, finishing the 2024 campaign with a 3-3 record and one save.
Youth movement
As many as four true freshmen could be in the Jackrabbits Opening Day lineup on Friday.
On the infield, Keagen Jirschele (second base) and Nolan Grawe (third base) could be penciled into the lineup, along with Dayton Franke at designated hitter. Nicholas Werk is the leading candidate to start the year in left field.
Ronken moves to right
Sophomore Bryce Ronken is expected to make a full-time move to the outfield during the 2025 season.
A Sioux Falls native, Ronken split time between third base, designated hitter and outfield a year ago. He put up solid offensive numbers by ranking third on the team with a .313 batting average (35-for-112) and a .545 slugging percentage as 14 of his 35 hits (7 doubles, 2 triples and 5 home runs) went for extra bases.
Goble seeks bounce-back season
Senior pitcher Jake Goble will attempt to regain the form that he displayed during a breakthrough 2023 season.
A right-hander from Rapid City, Goble earned honorable mention all-Summit League honors as a sophomore after leading the team with 58 1/3 innings pitched and a 4.32 earned run average while sharing the team lead with five victories and 11 games started. He also was named to the all-tournament team at the Summit League Baseball Championship after a solid start in an elimination game against North Dakota State as the Jacks advanced to the title game.
In 2024, Goble pitched through an up-and-down season in which he dropped to a 3-8 record.
Madison earns opening day start
Newcomer Ty Madison has been named the Jackrabbits Opening Day starter. A right-hander from Omaha, Nebraska, Madison previously pitched at Des Moines Area Community College, where he made a combined 14 starts and went 8-5 during the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Madison posted a 4-3 record in 2024, striking out 35 batters in 37 1/3 innings over eight starts as DMACC advanced to the NJCAA Division II World Series.
Back end of the bullpen
South Dakota State boasts two of the top power arms in The Summit League within its relief corps.
Senior Alex Clemons and junior Dylan Driessen both enter the 2025 season ranked in the top four in program history for strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Driessen currently stands third with an average of 12.97 strikeouts/9 innings after tallying 98 Ks in 68 innings pitched over his first two seasons.
A native of Bettendorf, Iowa, Clemons is right behind in fourth place with an average of 12.27 Ks/9 innings after fanning 105 batters in 77 career innings from 2022-24.
Eli Sundquist, who pitched for the Jackrabbits from 2020-23 is the current school record holder with an average of 13.99 Ks/9 innings.
Facility improvements
South Dakota States Erv Huether Field is in the midst of a renovation project that will convert the Jackrabbits home baseball facility to a fully synthetic turf playing surface.
The privately financed project, which is being completed in conjunction with similar improvements at the adjacent Jerald T. Moriarty Field for softball was announced in August 2024 and is expected to be completed in time for SDSUs home opener in March.
SDSUs home opener is tentatively scheduled for March 21 against St. Thomas.
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