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May 27—LINCOLN, Neb. — In the 20-plus years since South Dakota State elevated its athletic programs to Division I, virtually all of the Jackrabbit teams have enjoyed national success.
Men's and women's basketball, softball, soccer, track and field, cross country, volleyball and wrestling have all been regulars in NCAA postseason, while, of course, the football team has won two FCS national championships.
For the Jackrabbit baseball team, national success has been harder to come by.
SDSU has been to the NCAA tournament just once in the Division I era, in 2013, which happened to be during the two-year window that perennial Summit League power Oral Roberts left the conference to play in the Southland.
In 10 years under current coach Rob Bishop, the Jacks have had just two winning seasons and finished higher than third in the regular standings only once.
And for most of this spring, it didn't look like the 2026 campaign would be different. SDSU took a 21-30 record into the conference tournament. Though they'd been competitive against Big Ten and Big 12 teams and played well in conference play, they'd gone 0-6 against Oral Roberts. And they were 0-19 against them all-time in conference tournament play.
From outside the Jackrabbit clubhouse, there was little reason to think the Jacks posed much of a threat to the Golden Eagles, who were just three years removed from a stunning trip to the College World Series.
But the Jacks punched ORU in the mouth in the tournament opener, then beat them in the winner-take-all championship.
They're finally going back to the Big Dance, and this time their trip to the NCAAs comes with the satisfaction of knocking off the Eagles to get there.
The Jacks (24-31) will face the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Friday at 3 p.m. in Lincoln.
Jackrabbit baseball has had some proud moments in its 79-year history, but it was starved for some new ones, and this immediately moves towards the top of the list.
"The boys are pumped," said senior right-hander Ty Madison, whose durability out of the bullpen earned him Summit League tournament MVP honors. "It doesn't even feel real that it's happened. And it probably won't feel real until we get to practice in Lincoln on Thursday and play in the game on Friday. But the emotions have been overwhelming. Everyone's really excited."
For Bishop, it's been a long time coming. A grad assistant at SDSU from 1998-99, the Jamestown alum came back to SDSU from Division II Montana State-Billings in 2017, replacing Dave Schrage.
Bishop's teams have been competitive in the Summit League (122-121 in conference games during his tenure), but they've struggled to establish themselves as a power within the league like so many other SDSU teams have done.
Being a cold weather program doesn't help, as SDSU typically played few home games until finally putting turf on Erv Huether Field in 2025. They've cycled through multiple pitching coaches and in recent years have lost a handful of their best players to the transfer portal.
Three times the Jacks reached the Summit League tournament championship round under Bishop. They lost all three times.
But Bishop kept plugging along and athletic director Justin Sell stayed patient with him. That patience appears to be paying off. The Jacks are finally going back to the NCAA tournament, and they're doing it with a team that's made up mostly of underclassmen. The starting lineup on the day they clinched their NCAA berth featured five sophomores, two juniors and two freshmen.
"I'm so happy for our six seniors, but the really exciting part to me is that we had zero seniors in our starting lineup," Bishop said. "We're sophomores, freshmen and juniors. And we have a lot of experience because a lot of those guys played last year. We're a really young team and I said the other day we're kind of young and dumb in the best possible way. Our guys have just played free and really enjoyed each others' success and had a lot of fun playing baseball together. I've really enjoyed coaching this group. Whatever it is we're doing, they're 100 percent engaged and locked in and having fun."
The sophomore class of Owen Siegert, Nolan Grawe, Keagen Jirschele, Nic Werk, Dayton Franke and Drew McDowell has formed the backbone of the team.
Grawe leads the team with a .315 average to go with seven homers and 49 RBI. Jirschele has been an ace with the glove at shortstop while posting a .374 OBP, while Siegert recently returned form injury and is hitting .353. McDowell leads the team with a 3.95 ERA.
Junior slugger Luke Luskey ranked among the Summit League leaders in homers and RBI, and there are senior contributors.
Luke Wrobleski leads the team with nine stolen bases and has driven in 30 runs, while Madison, Sam Schlecht, Matthew Werk, Jacob Sjuts and Will Kent have provided leadership to the pitching staff.
Schlecht delivered arguably the biggest outing of his Jackrabbit career in the opener of the Summit League tournament, shutting down the Eagles to put SDSU in the tournament driver's seat. He'll likely get the ball Friday against Nebraska.
SDSU's team ERA is north of seven for the season, but they looked like a different group in the conference tournament, posting a 3.00 ERA in the four games in Minneapolis.
"I think the biggest thing was really just attacking hitters and getting after them and playing free," said Schlecht, who has a 5.88 ERA but in 72 innings has struck out 70 and walked 21 while allowing a .286 opponent's average. "I mean, we went into it as the four seed knowing we had nothing to lose and we really just got after it, got after hitters and got ahead and it put us in a position with a chance to win. I've wanted to go to a regional since I started playing college baseball. So it's pretty cool that me and the rest of the seniors get to do it in our last chance."
Did they surprise themselves? The Jacks were huge underdogs, and that 0-19 tourney record against the Eagles was awfully daunting.
Then again, there were underlying signs all year that the Jacks were better than their record, from playing well against major conference foes to winning the majority of their conference series' to their youth enabling them to make pronounced progress and improvements during the season.
"We all knew what we were capable of," Madison said. "We played a really tough schedule and we played some really good teams. We all knew we could play a really good brand of baseball, and we got hot at the right time."
Now comes the fun part. The Jacks' draw is about as interesting as they could have asked for.
They're in a group with three power conference bluebloods, all ranked in the Top 25 — Nebraska, Arizona State and Ole Miss — the latter two of whom they've never played before. SDSU plays Nebraska regularly — losing to them 5-4 in March and beating them in 2024 and 2025. And being just a few hours down I-29 means travel will be easy for them and for SDSU fans.
Still, Bishop knows playing the Cornhuskers — or the Sun Devils or Runnin' Rebels — in a regional is a lot different than playing a Big Ten or SEC team on a Wednesday in March.
"We just have to get our feet under us and control our emotions, because there's really no amount of preparing for this until you've been in that environment," Bishop said. "We've played in some big ballparks and cool environments but a midweek non-conference game is not quite the same as this."
But that's the reward Bishop has been diligently pursuing for the last decade. He repeatedly turned the focus to his players and SDSU fans and administration when asked about what this week means to him and the program at large, but he also acknowledged he's enjoying the buzz that's suddenly surrounding his team.
"When the last out was made (in the SLT) I think I had 175 text messages when I got on the bus," Bishop said. "From friends and family to alums that played here in the 60s and 70s to guys that won all the North Central championships in the 90s, it's been really fun to reconnect with a lot of people who care about this program. There are people who have supported this program the whole way, and to me, this is a little extra special for them. Hopefully this shows that it can be done here. That you can accomplish anything if you just kind of stay with it."
Continue reading...
Men's and women's basketball, softball, soccer, track and field, cross country, volleyball and wrestling have all been regulars in NCAA postseason, while, of course, the football team has won two FCS national championships.
For the Jackrabbit baseball team, national success has been harder to come by.
SDSU has been to the NCAA tournament just once in the Division I era, in 2013, which happened to be during the two-year window that perennial Summit League power Oral Roberts left the conference to play in the Southland.
In 10 years under current coach Rob Bishop, the Jacks have had just two winning seasons and finished higher than third in the regular standings only once.
And for most of this spring, it didn't look like the 2026 campaign would be different. SDSU took a 21-30 record into the conference tournament. Though they'd been competitive against Big Ten and Big 12 teams and played well in conference play, they'd gone 0-6 against Oral Roberts. And they were 0-19 against them all-time in conference tournament play.
From outside the Jackrabbit clubhouse, there was little reason to think the Jacks posed much of a threat to the Golden Eagles, who were just three years removed from a stunning trip to the College World Series.
But the Jacks punched ORU in the mouth in the tournament opener, then beat them in the winner-take-all championship.
They're finally going back to the Big Dance, and this time their trip to the NCAAs comes with the satisfaction of knocking off the Eagles to get there.
The Jacks (24-31) will face the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Friday at 3 p.m. in Lincoln.
Jackrabbit baseball has had some proud moments in its 79-year history, but it was starved for some new ones, and this immediately moves towards the top of the list.
"The boys are pumped," said senior right-hander Ty Madison, whose durability out of the bullpen earned him Summit League tournament MVP honors. "It doesn't even feel real that it's happened. And it probably won't feel real until we get to practice in Lincoln on Thursday and play in the game on Friday. But the emotions have been overwhelming. Everyone's really excited."
For Bishop, it's been a long time coming. A grad assistant at SDSU from 1998-99, the Jamestown alum came back to SDSU from Division II Montana State-Billings in 2017, replacing Dave Schrage.
Bishop's teams have been competitive in the Summit League (122-121 in conference games during his tenure), but they've struggled to establish themselves as a power within the league like so many other SDSU teams have done.
Being a cold weather program doesn't help, as SDSU typically played few home games until finally putting turf on Erv Huether Field in 2025. They've cycled through multiple pitching coaches and in recent years have lost a handful of their best players to the transfer portal.
Three times the Jacks reached the Summit League tournament championship round under Bishop. They lost all three times.
But Bishop kept plugging along and athletic director Justin Sell stayed patient with him. That patience appears to be paying off. The Jacks are finally going back to the NCAA tournament, and they're doing it with a team that's made up mostly of underclassmen. The starting lineup on the day they clinched their NCAA berth featured five sophomores, two juniors and two freshmen.
"I'm so happy for our six seniors, but the really exciting part to me is that we had zero seniors in our starting lineup," Bishop said. "We're sophomores, freshmen and juniors. And we have a lot of experience because a lot of those guys played last year. We're a really young team and I said the other day we're kind of young and dumb in the best possible way. Our guys have just played free and really enjoyed each others' success and had a lot of fun playing baseball together. I've really enjoyed coaching this group. Whatever it is we're doing, they're 100 percent engaged and locked in and having fun."
The sophomore class of Owen Siegert, Nolan Grawe, Keagen Jirschele, Nic Werk, Dayton Franke and Drew McDowell has formed the backbone of the team.
Grawe leads the team with a .315 average to go with seven homers and 49 RBI. Jirschele has been an ace with the glove at shortstop while posting a .374 OBP, while Siegert recently returned form injury and is hitting .353. McDowell leads the team with a 3.95 ERA.
Junior slugger Luke Luskey ranked among the Summit League leaders in homers and RBI, and there are senior contributors.
Luke Wrobleski leads the team with nine stolen bases and has driven in 30 runs, while Madison, Sam Schlecht, Matthew Werk, Jacob Sjuts and Will Kent have provided leadership to the pitching staff.
Schlecht delivered arguably the biggest outing of his Jackrabbit career in the opener of the Summit League tournament, shutting down the Eagles to put SDSU in the tournament driver's seat. He'll likely get the ball Friday against Nebraska.
SDSU's team ERA is north of seven for the season, but they looked like a different group in the conference tournament, posting a 3.00 ERA in the four games in Minneapolis.
"I think the biggest thing was really just attacking hitters and getting after them and playing free," said Schlecht, who has a 5.88 ERA but in 72 innings has struck out 70 and walked 21 while allowing a .286 opponent's average. "I mean, we went into it as the four seed knowing we had nothing to lose and we really just got after it, got after hitters and got ahead and it put us in a position with a chance to win. I've wanted to go to a regional since I started playing college baseball. So it's pretty cool that me and the rest of the seniors get to do it in our last chance."
Did they surprise themselves? The Jacks were huge underdogs, and that 0-19 tourney record against the Eagles was awfully daunting.
Then again, there were underlying signs all year that the Jacks were better than their record, from playing well against major conference foes to winning the majority of their conference series' to their youth enabling them to make pronounced progress and improvements during the season.
"We all knew what we were capable of," Madison said. "We played a really tough schedule and we played some really good teams. We all knew we could play a really good brand of baseball, and we got hot at the right time."
Now comes the fun part. The Jacks' draw is about as interesting as they could have asked for.
They're in a group with three power conference bluebloods, all ranked in the Top 25 — Nebraska, Arizona State and Ole Miss — the latter two of whom they've never played before. SDSU plays Nebraska regularly — losing to them 5-4 in March and beating them in 2024 and 2025. And being just a few hours down I-29 means travel will be easy for them and for SDSU fans.
Still, Bishop knows playing the Cornhuskers — or the Sun Devils or Runnin' Rebels — in a regional is a lot different than playing a Big Ten or SEC team on a Wednesday in March.
"We just have to get our feet under us and control our emotions, because there's really no amount of preparing for this until you've been in that environment," Bishop said. "We've played in some big ballparks and cool environments but a midweek non-conference game is not quite the same as this."
But that's the reward Bishop has been diligently pursuing for the last decade. He repeatedly turned the focus to his players and SDSU fans and administration when asked about what this week means to him and the program at large, but he also acknowledged he's enjoying the buzz that's suddenly surrounding his team.
"When the last out was made (in the SLT) I think I had 175 text messages when I got on the bus," Bishop said. "From friends and family to alums that played here in the 60s and 70s to guys that won all the North Central championships in the 90s, it's been really fun to reconnect with a lot of people who care about this program. There are people who have supported this program the whole way, and to me, this is a little extra special for them. Hopefully this shows that it can be done here. That you can accomplish anything if you just kind of stay with it."
Continue reading...
