- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,150,434
- Reaction score
- 59
May 28—BROOKINGS — When the South Dakota State baseball team takes the field at Haymarket Park on Friday against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, it will mark the Jackrabbits' second appearance in the Division I NCAA baseball tournament and first in 13 years.
Since the Jacks stunned 30-time NCAA tournament qualifier Oral Roberts in the Summit League championship, SDSU fans have been buzzing about their baseball team, celebrating their return to the national stage.
And it's brought back memories of the first SDSU team to reach the NCAA tournament, back in 2013.
Back then, SDSU was less than a decade removed from playing Division II baseball in the North Central Conference. After three successful seasons under Ritchie Price (who was 25 when he was named head coach in 2009), the Jacks had put themselves in position to be Summit League contenders, and hired former Notre Dame coach Dave Schrage in 2012.
And in 2013, it all came together.
Behind a deep and outstanding pitching staff, the Jacks overcame a brutal spring that limited them to just nine home games on the season, going 36-23 and then fighting their way out of the loser's bracket in the conference tournament to punch their ticket to the program's first Division I regional.
From there they went to Oregon to face the Ducks, going 0-2 in Eugene with a pair of one-run losses.
Thirteen years later, the memories are still fresh for the players who authored that historic season. Seeing their alma mater make another run has reignited their interest in the team while simultaneously bringing a proud sense of nostalgia.
"It was just totally amazing, the best experience of my baseball life, I can tell you that," said Watertown's Eric Danforth, who was a sophomore outfielder on the '13 team. "I know we took a lot of pride in the guys who came before us — guys like Eric Cain, Zach Briggs, Blake Treinen, Trever Vermeulen, Erik DeJong — those guys set the stage. And now to see this year's team running it back — those kids should be dang proud of themselves. It's got everybody excited, and to get in touch with a bunch of old alums over the last week has been great."
The Jacks' two Summit League baseball champions don't have a lot in common other than the name on the front of their jerseys.
The 2026 Jackrabbits had a mediocre regular season, posting a losing record in conference play and getting the 4-seed in the 4-team conference tournament. They didn't exactly enter the year with NCAA tournament expectations.
SDSU's team ERA is 7.17, while their bats have produced an .809 team OPS with 45 home runs.
But they won their first two games in the Summit League tournament to go straight to the championship round.
In 2013 the Jacks went 36-23 and 17-9 in the Summit League to earn the No. 1 seed. They lost their conference tourney opener to Western Illinois, forcing them to battle back to win four elimination games, including two against NDSU on championship Sunday.
They hit only 15 home runs as a team that entire season, but a dominant pitching staff posted a 3.37 team ERA, led by a trio of aces in Layne Somsen, Stephen Bougher and Adam Bray. With those three atop the rotation and ace closer JD Moore finishing games off, the 2013 Jacks had much higher expectations than this year's team.
"I would say there was maybe a little bit of pressure on us, because we knew we had a good team," said Somsen, who went 4-5 with a 1.97 ERA that year as a senior. "But we were such a tight-knit group that I don't think we really felt pressure to accomplish something (specific). We just kind of knew if we went out and did what we were supposed to do we'd have some success. We had a really good pitching staff and we started swinging the bats well at the right time."
Coach Schrage said the chemistry Somsen referenced is what he remembers most about the '13 squad. With typically harsh winter and spring weather impacting Brookings, the Jacks played only nine home games that entire season. And the SJAC hadn't been completed yet, so they didn't have much for indoor facilities, either.
Schrage remembers buying floodlights at a hardware store so his hitters could see the ball in the loft where they took indoor batting practice. It was not a glamorous version of Division I baseball, and that gave the Jacks an edge that served them well.
"There's no doubt that spending all that time together on the road with all the traveling we did, and all the adversity that they experienced with weather and facilities and all that — it turned them into a really tight group," Schrage remembers. "I mean, they're still close. They still get together and come back for Hobo Day, they sent me a picture this year and there were like 15 guys that had come back."
Somsen led the way, while Bougher (8-2, 2.86) and Bray (7-2, 3.19) were nearly as good. Shane Kraemer, Kolton Emery and Chad Hodges gave the staff plenty of depth, while Talon Jumper (4-2, 3.00) and Joe Erickson (3.50) teamed with Moore (1.99, 13 saves) to solidify the bullpen.
Senior Daniel Telford was by far the Jacks' biggest bat, hitting .410 with six of the team's 15 homers. Nobody else on the team hit more than two long balls, and no one else hit .300.
But Nick Andrews (.299), future Phillies draft pick Zach Coppola (.296), Paul Jacobson (.293), Scott Splett (.288), Danforth (.278), Daniel Marra (.274), Aaron Machbitz (.270), Reid Clary (.269), Al Robbins (.263) and Andrew Melton (.251) made for a lineup that had as few liabilities as it did stars.
"We won a lot of games scoring three or four runs," Danforth says. "Thank God for our pitching staff. Those dudes were studs."
Indeed, Somsen would go on to reach the major leagues with the Reds, while Bray made it to Triple-A with the Twins and would likely have earned an eventual call-up if injuries hadn't sidetracked his promising career. Bougher spent four years in Indy ball, including two with the Sioux Falls Canaries.
"Looking back, I don't remember us feeling pressure, really, but I think we understood we had the chance to do something special," said Bray, who went 24-16 with a 3.26 ERA in his career at SDSU and 18-9 with a 3.25 ERA in five years of pro ball. "We were definitely aware (an NCAA tournament) hadn't been done before (at SDSU), but we tried to stay loose and just go out and play. We were really close but we also all really wanted to win. We were hungry."
But it all threatened to come crashing down when the Jacks lost the opening game of the conference tournament in Rochester, Mich.
Aaron Michel threw a gem for the Leathernecks and an SDSU throwing error led to two unearned runs off Somsen in a 4-2 loss.
The Jacks bounced back to beat Oakland 8-4 as Bougher pitched into the 9th and Telford launched a two-run homer, but saw their season on life support when the Leathernecks jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Bray in the next game.
RBI singles by Clary and Telford cut the lead to 4-2, and the Jacks rallied for three in the seventh to steal a 5-4 win and send them to the championship round, where they'd need to beat NDSU twice.
They did, as an all-hands-on-deck pitching effort shut the Bison out twice. Emery and Moore combined on a seven-hitter in a 2-0 win to start the day, then Kraemer, Bougher and Somsen, who entered in the 8th, spun a 1-0 win in the clincher.
"We had to do it he hard way, but those two wins against NDSU, I mean, those were incredible games," Somsen said. "For us seniors it was really special. We had one goal when the season started and that was to win the first championship."
Danforth remembers the bus ride back to Brookings from Michigan taking all night, with the team arriving on campus at about 6 a.m., just a few hours before the team gathered at Cubbys for the NCAA selection show.
Getting sent to Oregon for the tournament meant chartering a team flight, a welcome perk after spending the year bussing to any field that wasn't covered in snow.
When the team arrived in Eugene they were given a tour of the Ducks' impressive facilities, but the players almost felt like that was a distraction from the purpose of their trip.
"I remember thinking, myself and a couple of the other seniors, like, 'I don't want to go look at all this stuff," Somsen said. "'I don't really care what they have. I'm just here to play baseball, right?' I mean, it was cool to see the amenities of an upper echelon program but the next day it was back to business."
Somsen got the ball against the Ducks and outdueled Garrett Cleavinger (now of the Tampa Bay Rays) for seven innings, with the Jacks leading 2-1 into the eighth. But a two-run single by Ryon Healy off of Moore gave the Ducks a 3-2 comeback win.
They lost another one-run game the next day, falling 4-3 to San Francisco to end their magical season.
"Those were tough losses," Schrage said. "We were a really solid team, and we felt like we could go up there and really compete with those teams, and I think we showed that. I'm really proud of that group, for how they overcame so much adversity and stuck together. But I always say it's not your last game that you remember, it's all the time you spent with your teammates — the bus trips, the hotels, the meals and the relationships you build. Those things last a long time."
Somsen admits he still thinks about how things could've been different with a couple breaks given how close both losses were.
"As good a pitching staff as we had, I think we had a chance to make a push," said the Yankton native. "It was really fun to get out there and compete on that stage. We played really good baseball. It's an arms race in the NCAA tournament and the teams that throw the ball the best make the College World Series. I thought we really had that capability, we just ended up coming up short in a couple of heartbreakers."
Two years later, with Danforth, Bray, Coppola and Cleary leading a strong senior class, the Jacks made another run, earning the 2-seed with the tournament held in Sioux Falls. But Oral Roberts had returned to the Summit League by then after a brief dalliance with the Southland Conference, and the Eagles knocked the Jacks out in the semis.
Schrage stepped down after the 2016 season to take over at Butler, and was replaced by Rob Bishop.
In Bishop's first nine seasons at the helm the Jacks reached the Summit League tournament finals three times, but never closed the deal. That finally changed this season, and SDSU beat Oral Roberts to do it. They had been 0-19 all-time against the Golden Eagles in postseason play.
"It's fun to follow the team and see them on top again," Bray said. "I know there were a bunch of guys watching last weekend and I know a lot of guys are going down to Lincoln for the regional. I still keep in contact with a lot of the guys from 2013 and it's been fun to talk to them about this year's team and then how it brings back memories and stories from when we played. I mean, I still talk about that season with my family and everything that happened. It's something you'll never forget."
That's something the 2013 players hope the 2026 players take to heart. They want the Jacks to enjoy the experience, but to approach it with confidence.
SDSU's peers in the region are all powerhouse programs — Nebraska, Ole Miss and Arizona State. Capacity crowds are expected at Haymarket Park. For most if not all of SDSU's players, this weekend will be the pinnacle of their baseball careers.
"I probably didn't figure out until my senior year that it's alright to slow it down a little bit, because there's a lot going on," Danforth said. "I wish I would've been a little more mature at that time to say, hey, this is amazing, you're in this, so be here. They're going into Cornhusker country, it's going to be loud, it's national TV, all of that. Just breathe — take it all in, be where you are and go play your game."
Continue reading...
Since the Jacks stunned 30-time NCAA tournament qualifier Oral Roberts in the Summit League championship, SDSU fans have been buzzing about their baseball team, celebrating their return to the national stage.
And it's brought back memories of the first SDSU team to reach the NCAA tournament, back in 2013.
Back then, SDSU was less than a decade removed from playing Division II baseball in the North Central Conference. After three successful seasons under Ritchie Price (who was 25 when he was named head coach in 2009), the Jacks had put themselves in position to be Summit League contenders, and hired former Notre Dame coach Dave Schrage in 2012.
And in 2013, it all came together.
Behind a deep and outstanding pitching staff, the Jacks overcame a brutal spring that limited them to just nine home games on the season, going 36-23 and then fighting their way out of the loser's bracket in the conference tournament to punch their ticket to the program's first Division I regional.
From there they went to Oregon to face the Ducks, going 0-2 in Eugene with a pair of one-run losses.
Thirteen years later, the memories are still fresh for the players who authored that historic season. Seeing their alma mater make another run has reignited their interest in the team while simultaneously bringing a proud sense of nostalgia.
"It was just totally amazing, the best experience of my baseball life, I can tell you that," said Watertown's Eric Danforth, who was a sophomore outfielder on the '13 team. "I know we took a lot of pride in the guys who came before us — guys like Eric Cain, Zach Briggs, Blake Treinen, Trever Vermeulen, Erik DeJong — those guys set the stage. And now to see this year's team running it back — those kids should be dang proud of themselves. It's got everybody excited, and to get in touch with a bunch of old alums over the last week has been great."
The Jacks' two Summit League baseball champions don't have a lot in common other than the name on the front of their jerseys.
The 2026 Jackrabbits had a mediocre regular season, posting a losing record in conference play and getting the 4-seed in the 4-team conference tournament. They didn't exactly enter the year with NCAA tournament expectations.
SDSU's team ERA is 7.17, while their bats have produced an .809 team OPS with 45 home runs.
But they won their first two games in the Summit League tournament to go straight to the championship round.
In 2013 the Jacks went 36-23 and 17-9 in the Summit League to earn the No. 1 seed. They lost their conference tourney opener to Western Illinois, forcing them to battle back to win four elimination games, including two against NDSU on championship Sunday.
They hit only 15 home runs as a team that entire season, but a dominant pitching staff posted a 3.37 team ERA, led by a trio of aces in Layne Somsen, Stephen Bougher and Adam Bray. With those three atop the rotation and ace closer JD Moore finishing games off, the 2013 Jacks had much higher expectations than this year's team.
"I would say there was maybe a little bit of pressure on us, because we knew we had a good team," said Somsen, who went 4-5 with a 1.97 ERA that year as a senior. "But we were such a tight-knit group that I don't think we really felt pressure to accomplish something (specific). We just kind of knew if we went out and did what we were supposed to do we'd have some success. We had a really good pitching staff and we started swinging the bats well at the right time."
Coach Schrage said the chemistry Somsen referenced is what he remembers most about the '13 squad. With typically harsh winter and spring weather impacting Brookings, the Jacks played only nine home games that entire season. And the SJAC hadn't been completed yet, so they didn't have much for indoor facilities, either.
Schrage remembers buying floodlights at a hardware store so his hitters could see the ball in the loft where they took indoor batting practice. It was not a glamorous version of Division I baseball, and that gave the Jacks an edge that served them well.
"There's no doubt that spending all that time together on the road with all the traveling we did, and all the adversity that they experienced with weather and facilities and all that — it turned them into a really tight group," Schrage remembers. "I mean, they're still close. They still get together and come back for Hobo Day, they sent me a picture this year and there were like 15 guys that had come back."
Somsen led the way, while Bougher (8-2, 2.86) and Bray (7-2, 3.19) were nearly as good. Shane Kraemer, Kolton Emery and Chad Hodges gave the staff plenty of depth, while Talon Jumper (4-2, 3.00) and Joe Erickson (3.50) teamed with Moore (1.99, 13 saves) to solidify the bullpen.
Senior Daniel Telford was by far the Jacks' biggest bat, hitting .410 with six of the team's 15 homers. Nobody else on the team hit more than two long balls, and no one else hit .300.
But Nick Andrews (.299), future Phillies draft pick Zach Coppola (.296), Paul Jacobson (.293), Scott Splett (.288), Danforth (.278), Daniel Marra (.274), Aaron Machbitz (.270), Reid Clary (.269), Al Robbins (.263) and Andrew Melton (.251) made for a lineup that had as few liabilities as it did stars.
"We won a lot of games scoring three or four runs," Danforth says. "Thank God for our pitching staff. Those dudes were studs."
Indeed, Somsen would go on to reach the major leagues with the Reds, while Bray made it to Triple-A with the Twins and would likely have earned an eventual call-up if injuries hadn't sidetracked his promising career. Bougher spent four years in Indy ball, including two with the Sioux Falls Canaries.
"Looking back, I don't remember us feeling pressure, really, but I think we understood we had the chance to do something special," said Bray, who went 24-16 with a 3.26 ERA in his career at SDSU and 18-9 with a 3.25 ERA in five years of pro ball. "We were definitely aware (an NCAA tournament) hadn't been done before (at SDSU), but we tried to stay loose and just go out and play. We were really close but we also all really wanted to win. We were hungry."
But it all threatened to come crashing down when the Jacks lost the opening game of the conference tournament in Rochester, Mich.
Aaron Michel threw a gem for the Leathernecks and an SDSU throwing error led to two unearned runs off Somsen in a 4-2 loss.
The Jacks bounced back to beat Oakland 8-4 as Bougher pitched into the 9th and Telford launched a two-run homer, but saw their season on life support when the Leathernecks jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Bray in the next game.
RBI singles by Clary and Telford cut the lead to 4-2, and the Jacks rallied for three in the seventh to steal a 5-4 win and send them to the championship round, where they'd need to beat NDSU twice.
They did, as an all-hands-on-deck pitching effort shut the Bison out twice. Emery and Moore combined on a seven-hitter in a 2-0 win to start the day, then Kraemer, Bougher and Somsen, who entered in the 8th, spun a 1-0 win in the clincher.
"We had to do it he hard way, but those two wins against NDSU, I mean, those were incredible games," Somsen said. "For us seniors it was really special. We had one goal when the season started and that was to win the first championship."
Danforth remembers the bus ride back to Brookings from Michigan taking all night, with the team arriving on campus at about 6 a.m., just a few hours before the team gathered at Cubbys for the NCAA selection show.
Getting sent to Oregon for the tournament meant chartering a team flight, a welcome perk after spending the year bussing to any field that wasn't covered in snow.
When the team arrived in Eugene they were given a tour of the Ducks' impressive facilities, but the players almost felt like that was a distraction from the purpose of their trip.
"I remember thinking, myself and a couple of the other seniors, like, 'I don't want to go look at all this stuff," Somsen said. "'I don't really care what they have. I'm just here to play baseball, right?' I mean, it was cool to see the amenities of an upper echelon program but the next day it was back to business."
Somsen got the ball against the Ducks and outdueled Garrett Cleavinger (now of the Tampa Bay Rays) for seven innings, with the Jacks leading 2-1 into the eighth. But a two-run single by Ryon Healy off of Moore gave the Ducks a 3-2 comeback win.
They lost another one-run game the next day, falling 4-3 to San Francisco to end their magical season.
"Those were tough losses," Schrage said. "We were a really solid team, and we felt like we could go up there and really compete with those teams, and I think we showed that. I'm really proud of that group, for how they overcame so much adversity and stuck together. But I always say it's not your last game that you remember, it's all the time you spent with your teammates — the bus trips, the hotels, the meals and the relationships you build. Those things last a long time."
Somsen admits he still thinks about how things could've been different with a couple breaks given how close both losses were.
"As good a pitching staff as we had, I think we had a chance to make a push," said the Yankton native. "It was really fun to get out there and compete on that stage. We played really good baseball. It's an arms race in the NCAA tournament and the teams that throw the ball the best make the College World Series. I thought we really had that capability, we just ended up coming up short in a couple of heartbreakers."
Two years later, with Danforth, Bray, Coppola and Cleary leading a strong senior class, the Jacks made another run, earning the 2-seed with the tournament held in Sioux Falls. But Oral Roberts had returned to the Summit League by then after a brief dalliance with the Southland Conference, and the Eagles knocked the Jacks out in the semis.
Schrage stepped down after the 2016 season to take over at Butler, and was replaced by Rob Bishop.
In Bishop's first nine seasons at the helm the Jacks reached the Summit League tournament finals three times, but never closed the deal. That finally changed this season, and SDSU beat Oral Roberts to do it. They had been 0-19 all-time against the Golden Eagles in postseason play.
"It's fun to follow the team and see them on top again," Bray said. "I know there were a bunch of guys watching last weekend and I know a lot of guys are going down to Lincoln for the regional. I still keep in contact with a lot of the guys from 2013 and it's been fun to talk to them about this year's team and then how it brings back memories and stories from when we played. I mean, I still talk about that season with my family and everything that happened. It's something you'll never forget."
That's something the 2013 players hope the 2026 players take to heart. They want the Jacks to enjoy the experience, but to approach it with confidence.
SDSU's peers in the region are all powerhouse programs — Nebraska, Ole Miss and Arizona State. Capacity crowds are expected at Haymarket Park. For most if not all of SDSU's players, this weekend will be the pinnacle of their baseball careers.
"I probably didn't figure out until my senior year that it's alright to slow it down a little bit, because there's a lot going on," Danforth said. "I wish I would've been a little more mature at that time to say, hey, this is amazing, you're in this, so be here. They're going into Cornhusker country, it's going to be loud, it's national TV, all of that. Just breathe — take it all in, be where you are and go play your game."
Continue reading...
