Softball Hosts South Dakota On Wednesday Afternoon

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Creighton opens the month of April with a midweek nonconference contest against South Dakota.

Matchup
Wednesday, April 4 • South Dakota (13-24) at Creighton (13-11) • 4 p.m.

Follow The Games
Live stats for all Wednesday's game can be found at Creighton.Statbroadcast.com.

A live stream with audio commentary will be available on Jays Video (gocreighton.com/jaysvideo) as well as for the remaining Bluejay home games.

Scoring updates and infographics will be provided via Twitter at @BluejaySoftball.

Scouting Creighton (13-11, 2-1 BIG EAST)
The Bluejays host the Coyotes following a 2-1 showing last week during Creighton's first BIG EAST games of the year.

Creighton leads the conference in batting average (.305), on-base percentage (.393) and scoring (5.42 runs per game).

Senior Sam Crowley leads the team and ranks fourth in the BIG EAST with a .387 batting average and is tied for second on the squad with 24 hits. She also paces the Bluejays and leads the league with a .458 on-base percentage and ranks third in the league with a .613 slugging percentage, which includes a team-best (tied) four home runs.
Ashley Cantu leads the team in hits (27), runs scored (21) and walks (10), and is one of two Bluejays to start all 24 games this season.

Hope Moreno has also started each game this season after playing the first three seasons of her collegiate career at UTEP, and is tied for the team lead with 19 RBIs.

The Bluejays own a 3.56 team-ERA, led by Bryana Clark who boasts a 2.69 ERA (7th-best mark in BIG EAST) during a team-high 67.2 innings pitched.

Scouting South Dakota (13-24)
The Coyotes enter Wednesday on a four-game losing streak.

Seven different regular starters are hitting better than .300 as the team holds a .293 average as Jessica Rogers leads the squad with a .347 average.

South Dakota averages 4.95 runs per game.

Taylor Steinfeldt leads the team with 19 extra-base hits as the Coyotes rank 12th in Division I with 1.16 home runs per game and 21st in slugging percentage (.495).

Rogers paces the team with a .745 slugging percentage and has hit 11 home runs.

The pitching staff owns a 5.81 ERA and is allowing opponents to hit .350. South Dakota has also allowed 68 unearned runs.

Series History Against Coyotes
Creighton leads the all-time series against South Dakota, 13-7.

The Coyotes defeated the Bluejays four times last season, including once in Omaha.

South Dakota claimed a 13-10 victory on April 27, 2017 in Omaha as Creighton blasted four home runs and the Coyotes had two.

Crowley Named To BIG EAST Honor Roll
Senior centerfielder Sam Crowley earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, the league announced on Monday afternoon.

Crowley finished the Bluejays' opening BIG EAST series against Providence 5-for-7 with three RBIs and four runs scored.

She opened the weekend by reaching base three times and scoring twice as Creighton defeated the Friars 7-6 in extra innings.

The Green Bay, Wisconsin native, wrapped up the series with a 3-of-4 performance, including a two-run homer during Thursday's loss to the Friars.

Miller Shines In the Circle
Freshman Kiele Miller opened her BIG EAST career with two victories.

She pitched 13.0 innings during two appearances, including a complete game, and allowed only one earned run while striking out 16 and not walking a batter.

Miller struck out a season-high 10 during 6.0 innings of relief work as the Bluejays defeated Providence 7-6 in extra innings during the first game of Creighton's BIG EAST schedule (March 28).

McGill's Walk-Off Leads To First BIG EAST W
Junior Jayci McGill's walk-off home run on the second pitch of the 10th inning propelled the Bluejays to a 7-6 extra-innings victory over Providence during Creighton's BIG EAST opener.

McGill finished the game 3-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBIs.

Cantu Continues To Shine As Lead-off
Sophomore Ashley Cantu has hit in the lead-off position of the batting order for each of Creighton's 24 games.

Cantu leads the Bluejays in hits (27), runs (21), walks (10) and stolen bases (3-3). Additionally, the sophomore has reached based because of an error four different times and on a fielder's choice five times.

She is 16-for-32 (.500) as the lead-off hitter of an inning.

The Frisco, Texas native opened the BIG EAST schedule with three hits and three runs scored during three games.

Bluejays Prepare For More Home Games
Creighton is scheduled to play 22 home games this season, which would be the most for the program in a single-season since 2007 (15-6-1 mark during 22 games).

The Bluejays are 5-4 at home this season.

Creighton played only 12 home games during the 2017 season, the fewest since the 1994 season when it played only 10.

Creighton's First BIG EAST Weekend
March 24-25 marked the start of the BIG EAST schedule. All eight teams were scheduled to play three games, but Creighton and St. John's, as well as Butler and Villanova, were unable to play because of snow.

The Bluejays and Red Storm have yet to find a time to makeup the series, but both institutions are trying to work on a possible pair of days.

The top four teams in the final regular-season standings will advance to the BIG EAST Championship which will be held in Rosemont, Illinois, May 11-12.

St. John's won last season's regular-season title before DePaul earned the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with the conferene tournament title.

The Bluejays have qualified for the four-team postseason tournament once (2014) since joining the BIG EAST in 2014.

NCAA RPI Update
Creighton ranked 140th in the latest RPI rankings released on Monday.

The Bluejays are the second-highest ranked BIG EAST school as DePaul checked in at No. 54.

South Dakota is No. 197 in this week's RPI rankings (296 Division I softball programs ranked).

Midweek Games
The Bluejays' matchup against Nebraska (March 20) marked the first midweek game of Creighton's 2018 scheduled.

The Bluejays were scheduled to play at UMKC on Tuesday, March 6 but weather forced the cancellation of that game.

Creighton is scheduled to play five midweek games on four different dates (excluding last week's BIG EAST series) during the remainder of the season.

The Jays finished 2-3 during midweek games last season.

Softball Hosts South Dakota On Wednesday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Ashley Cantu

Bryana Clark

Sam Crowley

Jayci Foster

Kiele Miller

Hope Moreno