SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (18-10 (16-4 RMAC)) head back to Denver to face the MSU Denver Roadrunners (21-7 (16-3)) The Roadrunners are one of two teams who are ahead of BHSU in the RMAC standings and have won 13 of their last 14 games. BHSU has not lost a conference series yet this season and are currently sitting in a tie for third in the RMAC, this will be BHSU's second straight road series.

GAME DETAILS
•    Location: Denver, Colo. (Assembly Athletic Complex-Softball Field)
•    First Pitch Saturday: 12 PM and 2 PM MST
•    First Pitch Sunday: 11 AM and 1 PM MST

BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES
•    Black Hills State enters the series versus MSU Denver in a tie for third in the RMAC with Colorado Mesa and has only lost four RMAC games this season. The Yellow Jackets are coming off another RMAC series win versus Regis. They took three out of four versus the Rangers including a record breaking 21-1 victory in game one, where they broke the record for most runs scored in a single game. They also broke the record for most wins in a season in program history.
•    The Yellow Jackets were incredible from the plate in the series versus Regis. BHSU hit .400 from the plate and had a .600 slugging and .500 on base percentage. They had 43 runs scored, with three home runs, three triples, and eight doubles. They had 22 walks compared to five for Regis. 
•    BHSU is currently one of the top 40 teams in the country in multiple categories. They are seventh in sacrifice flies (14), 14th in hits (259), 16th in doubles (53), 20th in doubles per game (1.89), 20th in walks (101), 20th in RBIs (166), 24th in on-base percentage (.418), 24th in RBIs per game (5.93), 24th in total runs (174), 27th in hit by pitch (21), 31st in batting average (.334), 34th in scoring (6.21), and 37th in slugging percentage (.486).
•    Black Hills State entered this season ranked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll and is coming off the best season in the program's D2 history after going 15-32 (14-28 RMAC) last season. They are currently in a tie for third after winning 16 of their first 20 conference matchups.  
•    Head Coach Ashlyn Englehorn enters her second season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, she has a record of 33-42 with BHSU and a career 53-91 record as a head coach after spending two years with Crown College. Her 50th win came in game 3 versus Chadron State. 
•    Freshman catcher Desi Hernandez is leading the team in batting average with a mark of .435, which is fifth in the conference. She is third in runs with 24, while being leading the team in on base percentage with a .523 clip, which ranks seventh in the RMAC. She is currently second on the team and third in the conference in RBIs with 31, while being second on the team and fourth in the conference in RBIs per game with a 1.11 clip. She is also leading the RMAC in hit by pitches with seven and is 16th in the country in runners caught stealing with seven. Hernandez is coming off another great series, where she led the team in batting average hitting 7-13 (.538), with five RBIs and six runs scored. She had two walks and a .611 on-base percentage. 
•    Senior first baseman Ashlynn Pauwels is one of the top players in the entire RMAC. She is eighth in the RMAC with a .425 batting average, while also ranking second in the conference and 15th in the country with 31 RBIs. She also ranks second in the RMAC in RBIs per game (1.18), and total bases (72). She ranks 39th and 13th in the country in each respective stat. She is also third in the RMAC and 16th in the country in home runs (8), and third in hits (40) Pauwels is a one-time RMAC Player of the Week (2-18-25). She tied the BHSU D2 record for RBIs in a game with 5 against Adams State. She officially made it to her 100th career hit as a Yellow Jacket in game two versus CSC, and her second home run versus CSC in game 3 made her the program's all-time leader in career RBIs. She hit .615 against Chadron, while hitting three home runs, scoring five runs, batting six runners in, and reaching 17 total bases. She currently has a hit in 15 of the last 17 games. She went 6-15 from the plate against Regis, while having five Rbis including a home run and three runs scored.
•    Tyler Whitlock has jumped up to third in batting average with a .378 clip. She leads the team in runs with 23. She has a perfect stolen base percentage going 13-13 on stolen bases this year. She is second in the RMAC with 13 steals and is also second in steals per game (.46). She leads the RMAC in doubles with 10 and triples with four. She hit 8-17 (.471) versus the Rangers with six RBIs, six runs, two triples, and two doubles. 
•    Alyssa Wong has had a great start to the season. She has a .323 batting average, is second on the team in on-base percentage with .482 and has 19 walks and 15 RBIs. She is second in the RMAC with .76 walks per game. She is coming off a series versus Regis where she went 5-14 with four RBIs, five runs, and had three walks.
•    Sophomore Pitcher Laci Peskey has been one of the best pitchers in the country this season. She is currently third in NCAA D2 in strikeouts with 129 and is ranked fifth in victories (13), fifth in complete games with 13, fourth in innings pitched (106.0), 27th in saves (2), 25th in games started (14), 36th in strikeouts per seven innings pitched (8.5), 22nd in pitching appearances (19), and 43rd in strikeout/walk ratio (4.96). She is also leading the RMAC in WHIP (1.03) and is second in ERA (1.65). She is putting up historic numbers as she already set the BHSU record for wins in a season and has tied the record for most strikeouts in a single season. She is already a three-time pitcher of the week this season (2-3-2025, 2-18-2025, 3-4-2025). She is coming off a series versus Regis where she went 2-0 with three earned runs in 13.2 innings pitched. She only had eight strikeouts in her two appearances. She had an incredible offensive performance. She went 4-9 with six RBIs, six runs scored, two walks and a three-run home run.

MSU DENVER STORYLINES
•    MSU Denver comes into this game ranked half a game above BHSU in the RMAC standings at 21-7 (16-3 RMAC). They have won 13 of their last 14 games after sweeping Adams State, Chadron State and winning three of four against Colorado School of Mines. 
•    MSUD has scored 10 or more runs in six of those 13 wins. They have also held opponents to three or less runs in 11 of their last 14 games. They outscored Chadron in their last series 34-9. 
•    MSU Denver has one of the best offenses in the country. They are ranked fifth in the nation in batting average (.367). They are also ranked seventh in slugging percentage (.583), seventh in doubles (60), seventh in doubles per game (2.14), and seventh in sacrifice flies. Along with that, they are ranked ninth in scoring (7.29), ninth in runs (204), tenth in RBIs per game (6.57), 11th in RBIs (194), 13th in hits (279), 14th in triples (13), 17th in on-base percentage (.424), 20th in home runs (26), 23rd in win-loss percentage (.750), 24th in home runs per game (.93), and 25th in triples per game (.46). Meaning they are incredibly talented offensively and are going to be hard to slow down.
•    MSU Denver's head coach Annie Van Wetzinga is a legend in D2, she has coached for 18 seasons over three different schools. This is her 12^th season at MSU Denver, where she arrived from Upper Iowa and Colorado School of Mines before that. Wetzinga is 547-365 all time and is 394-209 at MSU Denver. She is a one-time RMAC Coach of the Year (2015), and one-time RMAC regular season champion (2015), a two-time RMAC Tournament champion (2014, 2016) and a three-time NCAA Tournament qualifier all while at MSU Denver (2014, 2015, 2016). She has never had a losing record while head coach of the Roadrunners.
•    Jenna Medhus is the star for the offense of MSU Denver. Medhus is a reigning Second-Team All-RMAC player and is off to an incredible season this year. She has a crazy impressive .527 batting average, which is fourth in D2, while also boasting a 1.127 slugging percentage, which leads all of D2. She ranks 25th in the country with a .561 on-base percentage and is 15th with 4 triples. She also has seven doubles, six home runs and 28 RBIs. She also has seven pitching starts this year and nine appearances. She is third on the team with a 3.94 ERA and has 26 strikeouts in 37 innings pitched, while having four complete games. She is coming off a crazy series versus Chadron State, where she went 9-13, with eight runs scored, four home runs, and 11 RBIs. She started one game on the mound versus Chadron. She pitched seven innings, allowed three runs, and had seven strikeouts.
•    Jaiden Geist is second on the team in batting average with a .457 clip, while having a .702 slugging and a .492 on-base percentage. She is one of four players over a 1.1 OPS, and is leading the team in doubles with eight, while having 20 RBIs, 18 runs scored and two home runs. Geist had a quiet series versus Chadron. She started three of the four games, while going 3-10 from the plate, scoring four runs, having one homer and five RBIs.
•    Miki Berg is the third of four players with above a 1.1 OPS. She is third on the team in batting average with a  .393 clip, while being second in slugging percentage with a mark of .820. She has 23 RBIs this season with 17 runs scored and has five home runs, five doubles, three triples, and has stolen five bases on six attempts. She went 4-13 with three runs scored and two RBIs but had no extra base hits in the series versus the Eagles. 
•    Alexia Boring is the last player in the group of over 1.1 OPS, she has a .377 batting average, while having a .675 slugging percentage. She leads the team with 28 runs scored, while having 15 RBIs, five home runs, and six doubles. She also has eight walks. Boring went 3-13 with three runs scored versus CSC. She has only had one extra base hit in the past seven games and has not had an RBI in that time frame.
•    The top pitcher for MSU Denver is Natalie Romero. She has an impressive 1.76 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, which are ranked fourth in the conference. In 71.2 innings, she has only allowed 18 earned runs and has 49 strikeouts. She has an 8-2 record with six complete games and one shutout. She made two appearances versus Chadron. The first was a seven-inning complete game performance, where she didn't allow an earned run. The other was a three-inning relief outing, where she only allowed one run and got the win.

SERIES HISTORY
•    BHSU has only won one of the last 18 matchups versus MSU Denver and is 4-35 all-time versus the Roadrunners. 
•     Last year, MSUD run-ruled the Yellow Jackets in three of their four matchups, and scored 10 runs in all four games. They outscored the Yellow Jackets 41-11 in last year's series.