SPEARFISH, S.D. - The Black Hills State Softball team announced their 2026 schedule Wednesday morning. The Yellow Jackets are slated to play their usual 44 RMAC games against the 11 RMAC schools with softball. They will also be playing in one extra tournament this year along with the Minot State Bubble Invite: The OC/UCO Festival in Oklahoma.

BHSU will start their season like last year in Minot, N.D. at the MSU Bubble Invite from January 30-February 1. They will play double headers against UMary on January 30. They went 1-1 against the Marauder's last year. They will then play a double header versus the home team Minot State on January 31, who they also went 1-1 against last year, and then they will finish their tournament with a doubleheader against MSU Billings on February 1. BHSU played MSUB in a mid-season midweek doubleheader last year and lost both matches.

BHSU will then head down to Oklahoma for the OC/UCO Festival on February 6-8. There, they will face three different Lone Star Conference teams, one Great American Conference team, and one MAIAA conference team. over three days. On their first day, February 8, they will face Cameron. This will be one of four teams that BHSU will be facing for the first time in program history. Cameron was one of the top teams in the Lone Star East Division last year. They will then play the home team Oklahoma Christian later that day. OCU went 38-21 last year and went 29-15 in LSC play. Then, on February 7, they will play their last LSC team facing Eastern New Mexico. ENMU went 23-21 in LSC play last year. They will end their day playing GAC's Oklahoma Baptist, who finished second in the GAC with a 25-7 record. Finally, on February 8, they will end the tournament facing the other home team, Central Oklahoma, who won the MAIAA last year with a 20-4 conference record.

On February 21-22, BHSU will begin RMAC play at home with a classic four games in two days versus Adams State. BHSU swept the Grizzlies last year to open up RMAC play this past year.
Week two will be from February 28-March 1, where BHSU will head to CSU Pueblo. BHSU won the first three of four games last year versus the ThunderWovles in Pueblo after having to switch sites.
Next, the Yellow Jackets will come home to face New Mexico Highlands on March 7-8, who they beat three out of four games as well this past season. BHSU has now won seven of ten versus the Cowgirls.

The fourth team the Green and Gold will face in the RMAC is Chadron State from March 14-15 in Chadron, Nebraska. The Yellow Jackets once again took three out of four from the Eagles last season and have now won six of eight.

Next up is Regis, who BH will face at home on March 21 and 22. The Yellow Jackets took three of four from the Rangers as well last year ending the streak of 21 straight losses to the Rangers by the Green and Gold.

The Yellow Jackets will stay home the next week to face MSU Denver on March 28-29, who was the only team BHSU didn't beat in the RMAC last year going 0-5 versus the Roadrunners, including 0-1 in the playoffs. The Yellow Jackets will look to end a 15 game losing streak versus MSUD.
BHSU will then head on a road trip to Golden to face Colorado School of Mines on April 2-3. The Orediggers won three out of four last year including a nine-inning win. BHSU took home game three last year 8-7.

The next series will be a home one versus Colorado Christian on April 11-12. For the first time since 2015, BHSU won a game versus the reigning RMAC Champions. They split the series 2-2, which was the first time that has ever happened in program history.

After that, BHSU will go on the road for the second to last time to face UCCS on April 18-19. The Mountain Lions knocked BHSU out of the RMAC Tournament last season, but BHSU did win two out of four in the regular season series.

The last homestand for BHSU will be April 25-26 versus Fort Lewis. The Green and Gold won three out of four against the Skyhawks last year, which ended a 17-game losing streak.
The Yellow Jackets will end their regular season with a road trip to Colorado Mesa on May 1-2. BHSU nearly won two out of four versus Mesa, but a ten-inning loss in game three kept it to a 1-3 homestand for the Green and Gold. That win was only their second versus the Mavericks since 2013.

The RMAC Tournament will be held May 7-9 at the highest seed's home ballpark and BHSU will look to get back their for the second time in two year and second time in program history.