South Dakota closes out the regular season with a home series against North Dakota State. Friday's "Pink Day" doubleheader begins at Noon while Saturday's "Senior Day" game is at 11 a.m.

LAST TIME OUT
North Dakota State (17-33, 4-11) snapped a rare nine-game losing streak with a win in game two of its three game series against Kansas City. 

South Dakota (19-28, 4-10) suffered a three game series sweep at the hands of St. Thomas.

SERIES HISTORY
North Dakota State leads 68-30...The Bison took 2 of 3 a year ago in a series that was played in Sioux Falls while South Dakota won two of three the last time the two met at Nygaard Field.

SOUTH DAKOTA NOTES
South Dakota's pitching staff, which ranks third in Summit League during league play with a 2.69 earned run average, has allowed two or fewer earned runs in nine of its 14 league games.

McKenna Young notched a new career high of nine strikeouts in game two against St. Thomas and the freshman has a 2.27 earned run average in league play. Clara Edwards continues to be the workhorse in the circle for the Coyotes as her 25 starts are the most in the Summit League. Clara's 2.51 overall ERA ranks third in the Summit League.

Alivia Conte has a team best .313 average while Tatum Villotta and Gabby Moser are each hitting .288. Villotta saw her 10 game hit streak end but the junior has hit safely in 11 of her last 12 games. 

Abi Brown, who went 3-for-5 with a double and three RBIs in the series against St. Thomas is hitting .318 in limited plate appearances during league play. 

NORTH DAKOTA STATE NOTES
North Dakota State is headed towards just its third losing season in head coach Darren Mueller's 23-year tenure.

The Bison are just 2-10 since sweeping a three-game series with St. Thomas over Easter weekend and have scored three or fewer runs in five of those 12 games. On the flip side the pitching staff, which carries a 4.11 overall ERA, has allowed three or more runs in nine of those 12 games. 

The Bison sit fifth in the Summit League in league ERA of 4.13 and fourth in league play in batting at .249. 

Kaitlyn Dunford (6-4 overall, 3.77 ERA) sits fourth in Summit League with a 1.14 earned run average in league play. Dunford pitched five innings allowing no earned runs to help the Bison snap that nine-game losing streak with a 11-3 win over Kansas City. Savy Williams (5-10, 3.42 ERA) has been the workhorse and leads the Bison with 96.1 innings pitched while producing a 3.93 ERA during league play.

Reanna Rudd, who went 4-for-9 in the Kansas City series, is the team's leading hitter at .288 while Bella Dean has team highs of seven home runs and 27 RBIs.

After having back-to-back 30 win seasons in 2022 and 2023 they would need a sweep to give them 20 wins and would also give them a possibility of finishing third in the league standings as the Bison have never finished lower than third in the Summit League under Mueller. 

UP NEXT
The Coyotes will compete in the Summit League Championships that run May 8-11 in Brookings, South Dakota.