South Dakota State University will play a three-game Summit League softball series against Omaha from April 17 to April 19. The games will take place at Connie Claussen Field in Omaha, Nebraska, with matchups scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings and a Sunday afternoon finale.
This series is significant as both teams have established themselves as strong competitors within the league. Omaha currently leads the Summit League standings with an 8-1 record and holds an overall record of 26-8. South Dakota State stands at 23-24 overall and has a conference record of 5-4.
Historically, the two programs have been closely matched, especially in recent years. They have met in each of the last five Summit League conference tournaments, splitting their last four seasons’ meetings evenly at nine wins each. Notably, South Dakota State won all six meetings in their championship season of 2021 but lost subsequent tournament titles to Omaha.
Omaha enters the weekend ranked No. 35 in NCAA RPI rankings and is listed among the top five mid-major programs by D1Softball.com and Softball America. The Mavericks lead several statistical categories within the league including batting average (.326), fielding percentage (.976), on-base percentage (.448), scoring (7.65 runs per game), slugging percentage (.573), and walks (160).
South Dakota State recently competed at Iowa’s Dr. Christine Grant Classic where they secured notable wins over Georgia Tech and Iowa, including their first-ever victory over an active Atlantic Coast Conference team. Key performers included Amanda Vacanti with an eight-inning complete game win against Iowa, Tayler Baker who went undefeated across two starts including a shutout against Georgia Tech, Abby Gentry who hit .636 over four games, Emma Vike with six hits, Ella Berlage and Bria Riebel each hitting .333.
The Jackrabbits are batting .325 through nine league games this season with Emma Christensen and Gentry leading at .560 averages apiece during conference play. The pitching staff has combined for a 4.42 earned run average led by Akayla Barnard (1.75 ERA) and Vacanti (2.10 ERA).
All three games will be streamed live on The Summit League Network powered by Midco Sports Plus while live statistics can be found on Omavs.com.
