Creighton University
South Dakota State
Softball Wraps Up Month Of April At South Dakota State On Friday
4/29/2021 3:30:00 PM | Softball
Bluejays close out nonconference portion of regular season at SDSU
Up Next
Creighton heads to Brookings, South Dakota for a doubleheader against South Dakota State on Friday afternoon.
Game Schedule
Friday, April 30 • Creighton (14-12) at South Dakota State (32-5) • 2 p.m. (DH)
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Follow The Game
Live video and live stats will be available for Friday's doubleheader.
Video will be provided on GoJacks.com, while live stats will be on StatBroadcast. A subscription is required to view the live video.
Links to the video and live stats will be available on the Creighton softball schedule page.
Scoring updates and infographics will be provided via Twitter at @BluejaySoftball.
Scouting Creighton (14-12)
The Bluejays hits the road following their eighth home win that snapped a season-long four-game losing skid.
Friday's doubleheader marks Creighton's final nonconference games of the regular season.
Creighton ranks second in the BIG EAST with a .287 team batting average.
Fifth-year senior and lead-off hitter Ashley Cantu ranks second in the BIG EAST with a .425 batting average and is fifth in the league with 37 hits. Cantu also leads the Bluejays with 16 runs scored and is second on the team and sixth in the conference with a .462 on-base percentage.
Sophomore Kailey Wilson ranks second in the conference in slugging percentage (.747). She is also seventh in the league for batting average (.392), fifth for on-base percentage (.473) and second for home runs (8) and fifth in RBIs (25).
Kiara Mills ranks second on the team and seventh in the conference with a .618 slugging percentage with six home runs and four doubles. She is also second on the team with 14 RBIs, while posting a .294 batting average .415 on-base percentage.
Parker Boyd and Mikayla Santa Cruz have logged the bulk of the innings in the circle for the Bluejays.Boyd paces the staff with 82 2/3 innings and ranks fifth in the BIG EAST with 79, including a league-best 29 strikeouts looking. Santa Cruz owns a 4.46 ERA during 53 1/3 innings.
Freshman Jena Lawrence boasts a 2.74 ERA during 30 2/3 innings of work.
Head coach Brent Vigness is in his 28th season at the helm of the Bluejays and owns 804 wins at Creighton, the most by any head coach across all of Creighton athletics.
Scouting South Dakota State (32-5)
The Jackrabbits enter Friday with 19 wins in their last 20 games, which included a program-best 16-game winning streak.
South Dakota State also secured its first Summit League regular-season title with a doubleheader sweep on Sunday against South Dakota.
Center fielder Jocelyn Carrillo and pitcher Tori Kniesche helped the Jacks sweep this week's weekly conference awards.
Carrillo tallied seven hits during four games against USD, which included a 3-for-3 performance with two homers and three RBIs during the second game of the weekend. Carrillo ranks second on the team with a .412 batting average with 40 hits, including six doubles, six home runs and four triples.
Kniesche allowed just one earned run and three hits during 10 innings of work, including a five-inning no-hitter. The freshman from Wayne, Nebraska struck out 21 during the weekend to up her season total to 134 strikeouts in 93 innings of work.
SDSU features four hitters with more than 40 hits as the team owns a .331 batting average (13th in Division I) and averages just under seven runs per game (12th in Division I).
Lead-off hitter Peyton Daugherty and Cylie Halvorson, the third-hitter in the lineup, share the team-lead with 45 hits. Halvorson also leads the Jackrabbits with 13 home runs and 43 RBIs, while Daugherty is tied for the team-lead with 32 runs scored and owns 16 stolen bases.
Emma Osmundson leads the team with a .414 batting average and .504 on-base percentage with 31 hits and 15 walks, while primarily hitting in the No. 2 slot in the batting order.
The South Dakota State pitching staff owns a 2.05 ERA. Kniesche leads the group with a 1.73 ERA in 93 innings of work, 134 strikeouts and 17 wins, while Grace Glazer holds a 2.04 ERA in a team-high 120 innings.
Opponents are hitting just .199 against SDSU pitchers.
Head coach Krista Wood is in her seventh season at the helm of the Jackrabbits.
Series History Against Jackrabbits
Creighton leads the all-time series against South Dakota State, 14-10-1.
The Jackrabbits won three out of four against the Bluejays during 2019, including a doubleheader sweep in Brookings, South Dakota (April 23, 2019).
Creighton's last victory in Brookings came on April 15, 2015.
Last Time Out
The Creighton softball team snapped its four-game losing skid with a 6-4 victory against South Dakota at the Creighton Sports Complex on Wednesday afternoon.
Creighton fell behind 1-0 after a solo home run in the top of the second before the Bluejays responded with three runs on one hit and one error in the bottom of frame.
Sam Alm -- playing in her first game since April 10 against St. John's -- led off the inning with an infield single. Madeline Vejvoda walked before Mikaela Pechar tallied a sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third base with only one out. After a walk by Victoria Alvarez, Cayla Nielsen drove in the first run on a fielder's choice and an error later in the inning allowed both Vejvoda and Nielsen to score.
Creighton pushed its lead to four runs with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth as Nielsen lifted a 1-0 delivery over the center-field wall for her second home run of the season and extended the Bluejay advantage to 5-1.
Alm helped Creighton score its sixth run in the sixth inning. The junior second baseman singled into left-center field and drove in pinch-runner Kate Mullally from third.
South Dakota scored three runs in the top of the seventh on a solo home run, an error and an RBI ground out as the Coyotes cut their deficit to just two runs, 6-4. Mikayla Santa Cruz ended the game with her second strikeout of the inning during her lone inning of relief work.
Jena Lawrence recorded the victory for Creighton after allowing two hits and no runs during three innings of relief work. The freshman also tallied two strikeouts and walked a pair. Starting pitcher Parker Boyd went three innings and struck out three, while allowing only one hit -- the solo home run in the top the second.
Nielsen led the Bluejays' offensively with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Alm finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI after missing the last six games because of injury.
Manthie extended her on-base streak to team-best 11 games with a single and walk on Wednesday.
Manthie Keeps Reaching Base
Left fielder Brittney Manthie has reached base in 11 consecutive games entering Friday, which is Creighton's longest active streak.
During the past 11 games, Manthie is hitting .400 (8-of-20) with eight hits, eight walks, three runs scored and two stolen bases.
The Minnesota native has played in all 26 games this season (21 starts) and owns 14 hits, 10 runs scored, eight walks and three stolen bases. She has also reached base because of an error a team-high four times.
Alm Makes Impact In Return
Second baseman Sam Alm returned from injury on Wednesday and went 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI during her first game played since April 10.
Alm missed the previous six games and the Bluejays went 2-4 during those contests.
The junior is hitting .305Â (18 hits) this season with 11 RBIs and three doubles. She also ranks second on the team with six sacrifice bunts and has struck out only four times during 59 official at bats.
Additionally, the Omaha native owns a team-high 10 hits with two outs this season.
Creighton is 12-8 this season when Alm starts at second base and 2-4 when a different player has started.
Alm has also appeared a team-high 11 times in the clean-up position in the Bluejays' batting order and Creighton is 7-4 during those contests.
Home Runs Tell The Tale
Creighton is 7-1 this season when not allowing a home run, but just 3-7 when allowing two or more long balls.
The Bluejays are also 11-5 when hitting at least one home run and 3-7 when not hitting a homer.
During Creighton's 14 wins this season, the Bluejays have hit 17 home runs and allowed 11.
Comparatively, Creighton has allowed 28 home runs during its 12 losses this season.
