Creighton University
South Dakota State
Softball Welcomes South Dakota State For Midweek Matchup
4/6/2021 4:15:00 PM | Softball
Bluejays hosting fourth of eight consecutive home games
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Creighton steps out of league play for its first nonconference midweek game of the season as South Dakota State heads to Omaha for a Wednesday afternoon matchup.
Game Schedule
Wednesday, April 7 • South Dakota State (23-4) at Creighton (10-7) • 2 p.m.Â
Follow The Game
Live video and live stats will be available for Wednesday's game.
Video will be provided on YouTube.com/GoCreighton and stats will be provided by StatBroadcast.
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 (10-7)
The Bluejays swept Seton Hall this past weekend to jump into third place in the BIG EAST standings.
Creighton leads the BIG EAST with a .295 team batting average, led by sophomore Kailey Wilson. Wilson ranks third in the conference with a .436 average and paces the league with a .818 slugging percentage.
Wilson leads the Bluejays and is tied for fourth in the conference with six home runs and 18 RBIs.
Wilson and fellow Bluejay Ashley Cantu are tied for fifth in the BIG EAST with 24 hits. Cantu ranks four in the league with a .421 batting average.
Mikayla Santa Cruz owns a team-low 3.69 ERA during 36 innings pitched.
Parker Boyd leads the Creighton pitching staff with 58 1/3 innings of work and owns a 4.32 ERA. The graduate transfer has 56 strikeouts (t-5th in BIG EAST) including 21 looking, which ranks second the conference.
Bluejay pitchers have combined for a 4.30 ERA and 95 strikeouts during 109 innings of work.
Creighton returned 17 letterwinners from 2020 and welcomed six newcomers, including five freshman and one graduate transfer.
Head coach Brent Vigness is in his 28th season at the helm of the Bluejays and owns 800 wins at Creighton, the most by any head coach across all of Creighton athletics.
Scouting South Dakota State (23-4)
The Jackrabbits head to Omaha with a 10-game winning streak.
Overall, South Dakota State owns 23 victories, boasts a .316 team batting average and scores 6.5 runs per contest.
Peyton Daugherty paces the team with 37 hits (.370 average) and 27 runs scored, while Emma Osmundson owns a team-high .485 batting average (33 hits) with six doubles, five triples and two homers.
Cylie Halvorson leads the Jacks with 10 home runs and 30 RBIs.
Daugherty, Osmundson and Halvorson have hit 1-2-3, respectively, at the top of SDSU's lineup for the entirety of its current 10-game win streak.
Lindsey Culver earned DI Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week and Summit League Player of the Week honors after hitting .692 (9-of-13) with five homers, seven RBIs and eight runs as the Jackrabbits went 4-0 this past weekend against Western Illinois. She also registered a 2.231 slugging percentage as eight of her nine hits went for extra bases (five home runs, two triples, one double).
Culver is hitting .333Â (22 hits) with seven home runs, four triples, one double and 22 RBIs this season.
Freshman Tori Kniesche pitched a pair of complete-game shutouts this past weekend against WIU and earned conference pitcher of the week accolades. She allowed just three hits and struck out 24 during 14 innings of work.
Kniesche leads South Dakota State with a 1.54 ERA in 68 innings and owns a team-best 90 strikeouts, while limiting the opposition to a .154 batting average.
Grace Glanzer claims a 2.66 ERA in a team-high 87 innings of work and owns 60 strikeouts to just 24 walks.
The SDSU pitching staff owns a 2.36 ERA and has limited opponents to a .205 batting average.
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).
The last time the two teams met in Omaha was in 2016 when the teams split a doubleheader.
Last Time Out
The Bluejays resumed play after 11 days off and swept three games against Seton Hall.
Creighton ended the weekend with a .326 batting average, led by Kailey Wilson who hit .778 with seven hits, including a double and two home runs.
The Bluejays won 9-4 and 5-2 in a doubleheader on Friday before winning in walk-off fashion, 6-5, on Saturday.
Mikayla Santa Cruz and Parker Boyd combined in the circle to limit the Pirates to a .265 batting average and nine earned runs.
Wilson Named BE Player of the Week
Kailey Wilson earned BIG EAST Softball Player of the Week honors, the league announced on Monday morning. The Aurora, Colorado native hit .778 (7-of-9) with five RBIs and two home runs to help the Bluejays sweep Seton Hall.
Wilson led all BIG EAST hitters this past week in batting average, home runs, on-base percentage (.818) and total bases (14). She also ranked second in the league with a 1.556 slugging percentage.
The sophomore started all three of Creighton's games against Seton Hall as the designed player.
Wilson led the Bluejays by going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored during a 9-4 win to start the series.
She followed the opening game performance by hitting two home runs and driving in three during Creighton's 5-2 victory and ended the weekend by going 2-for-3, while walking once in Saturday's 6-5 win.
Wilson has started all 17 games this season and currently leads the Bluejays in multiple offensive categories. The Colorado native paces the team with a .436 batting average, .483 on-base percentage and .818 slugging percentage, while also leading the team with six home runs, 18 RBIs and 45 total bases. She is tied for the team-lead with 24 hits and three doubles.
She enters the week as the BIG EAST leader for slugging percentage, ranks third in batting average, is fourth in the league for home runs and RBIs, while tied for fifth in the conference in hits.
In addition to Wilson's accolade, Mikayla Santa Cruz earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after posting a pair of wins and a 1.40 ERA during 10 innings of work against Seton Hall. The sophomore did not allow an earned run during a complete-game effort in the second game of Friday's doubleheader.
Vigness Reaches 800 Creighton Wins
Head coach Brent Vigness owns a 800-603-3 record at the helm of the Bluejays and is the only Creighton coach to reach the 800-win mark during a coaching tenure.
He earned his 700th win at Creighton on March 10, 2016 against South Dakota State.
Vigness is one of five active Creighton coaches with more than 350 wins as a Bluejay head coach.
A Central College (Iowa) grad, Vigness took over for the Bluejays prior to the 1994 season after spending five years as head coach at Assumption College in Worchester, Massachusetts.
Coach, Sport  Wins (as of 4/6/21)
Brent Vigness, Softball 800*
Ed Servais, Baseball 569*
Mary Higgins, Softball 564
Tom Lilly, Men's & Women's Tennis 474*
Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Volleyball 383*
Jim Flanery, Women's Basketball 356*
Ed Hubbs, Men's & Women's Tennis 347
Dana Altman, Men's Basketball 327
* still active coaching at Creighton
Cantu Reaches 200-Hit Plateau
Fifth-year senior outfielder Ashley Cantu reached the 200-hit plateau on March 12 against Providence.
The Frisco, Texas native recorded her 200th hit with an infield single during the top of the seventh inning in the second game of a doubleheader against the Friars.
Cantu became the ninth player in program history to record 200 or more hits.
She earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor after leading the Bluejays with five hits and four runs scored against Providence.
Creighton At Home
Since joining the BIG EAST in 2014, the Bluejays own a 48-43 record at home.
Creighton's last home game before the 2021 home-opening weekend against UConn on March 20-21, 2020 was on May 5, 2019 against Seton Hall to close out the 2019 season. The Bluejays did not play a home game last season because of the season ending on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Creighton posted 13 wins at home in 2018, the most in a single season since claiming 19 home victories in 2008.
The Bluejays are scheduled to play 16 games at the Creighton Sports Complex this season.
Year-by-year home records since 2014:
2020: 4-2
2019: 5-6
2018: 13-6
2017: 6-6
2016: 7-8
2015: 4-9
2014: 9-6
