The top Summit League matchup this week is at Claussen Field in Omaha, Nebraska, where the South Dakota Coyotes face pitcher Kam Meyer and the Omaha Mavericks.
 
South Dakota sits in second place in the standings with three weekends remaining and Omaha one game back in third place. Three of Omaha's four losses are to first-place South Dakota State which hosts South Dakota May 5-6. The top two finishers earn a first-round bye and are automatically included in the four-team, double-elimination Summit League Tournament.
 
The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday. First pitch both days is 1 p.m. A free stream is available at omavs.com/watch. A link to live stats is here.
 
Omaha (21-14) has had the best of this series the last two years behind Meyer and fellow pitcher Sydney Nuismer. The Mavericks won three of four at home in 2021 and was 4-0 against USD in Vermillion last year. Omaha outscored South Dakota 30-6 in those four games.
 
Meyer is one of the best in the region. She has the 20^th-best ERA in the nation and boasts the seventh-most strikeouts – 188 in 128 innings. Meyer is unbeaten in four career starts against USD. Last year, she struck out 38 Coyotes in 16 innings.
 
If she has an Achilles heel it's run support. Meyer had a 22-7 record last year. She is 9-7 this year. Her offense has offered seven runs in those seven losses. Two of Omaha's losses to South Dakota State were 1-0 and one of those games went 14 innings.
 
South Dakota (19-18) features the best hitter in the conference in senior Aleesia Sainz and the Coyotes have an ace in Clara Edwards who threw her first collegiate no-hitter last week. Sainz is batting .560 (14-for-25) with a 1.747 OPS in Summit play. She drove in seven runs in Sunday's series-clinching win against Western Illinois last time out. Edwards got the win in the circle Sunday and improved to 6-1 in conference play with a 0.91 ERA.
 
Courtney Wilson enters play with a .350 average which leads USD and ranks fourth in the Summit. She has also stolen nine bases. Bela Goerke has five home runs and is second on the team with 21 RBIs. Freshman Delaney White has a 1.021 OPS in Summit play, seventh-best in the league.
 
Omaha's lineup features veterans Sydney Ross, Rachel Weber and Lynsey Tucker. Ross and Weber have combined for nine of the Mavericks' 12 home runs this season. Ross is a problem on the bases with 15 steals in 17 chances. Tucker is batting at team-best .336 with six doubles and a homer. She was 7-for-13 with two walks and six runs scored against South Dakota last season.
 
South Dakota's Kori Wedeking gets her first chance to shine in this series. Wedeking has six wins in 14 starts and 17 appearances in the circle. She was roughed up by Western Illinois last weekend, but had been rolling prior to that. It was the first time she had allowed more than three runs in a start since late February.