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Black Hills State University Athletics

Black Hills State University Yellow Jacket Athletics
Alyssa Wong versus Adams
Jeff Codevilla

Softball

Yellow Jackets Set to Make Home Debut Versus New Mexico Highlands

SPEARFISH, S.D.-  The fun in Spearfish isn’t over yet as The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (6-13 (3-5 RMAC)) are finally making their home debut as they will host the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls (6-14 (4-4 RMAC)) at Yellow Jacket Field on Sunday and Monday. This will be the first home games of the season for BHSU and will be their third RMAC series. The Yellow Jackets, who already have two weekly awards already this year will look to bounce back after losing their last series to Pueblo 1-3.  
 

 

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Date/Time/Location (All Times MT): Sunday, March 8 at 12 and 2 PM at Yellow Jacket Field in Spearfish, S.D.
Monday, March 9 at 11 AM and 1 PM at Yellow Jacket Field in Spearfish, S.D.

Live Streaming: Beginning in the 2025-26 season the RMAC Network will now move to Pay-Per-View. Fans can purchase a single game pass ($10), monthly ($25) or annual subscription ($130). Individuals with bhsu.edu or yellowjackets.bhsu.edu email address can still take advantage of the Peak Pricing Promotion by using the code Y26-RMACEDU.

Linear TV: BHSU Athletics has partnered with Forum Communications to bring you BHSU games to your live TV. You will now be able to watch all home events on cable at the KNBN-2 Station in Rapid City and the KSFL-TV station in Sioux Falls. Channel numbers and schedules for each of those channels for all sports can be found at the link above.

StatBroadcast: Live Stat links for all games can all be found at the links above

  • Black Hills State currently sits at 6-13 after splitting their first RMAC series versus Adams State losing the first two games of the series and winning the second two series and then falling to Pueblo 1-3 losing both games on Sunday. The Yellow Jackets are playing solid softball, but have just had a couple of unlucky innings. In the series versus the ThunderWolves, BHSU allowed nine runs in the fourth inning combined over the four games and allowed nine runs the rest of the way. 
  • Outside of BHSU’s Oklahoma trip, five of the Green and Gold’s eight losses have come by less than two runs including both of the losses to Adams State. Three of BHSU’s wins have also come by that same margin. 
  • The Yellow Jackets are currently top 80 in the country in seven different stats. They are 22nd in hit by pitches (15), 57th in strikeouts per seven innings (5.75), 64th in walks (60), 65th in hits allowed per seven innings (9.19), 71st in hits (138), 76th in RBIs (79), and 77th in doubles (24). 
  • The team took BHSU to their first ever RMAC tournament last season after leading BHSU to a 27-27 (25-19 RMAC) record, which finished sixth in the conference. They had five All-RMAC players, one RMAC Pitcher of the Year, and one All-Region player last year.
  • Last year, the Yellow Jackets set 20 separate team records. They were single-season doubles (102), single-season triples (12), single-season walks (177), single-season wins (27), single-season road wins (20), single season RMAC wins (25), single-season hits (468), single-season RBIs (272), single-season runs (290), single-season total bases (699), single-season at-bats (1487), single-season games played (52), single-season pitcher strikeouts (295), single-season sacrifice flies (20), single-season sacrifice bunts (43), single-season hit by pitches (39), single-season batting average (.315), single-season on-base percentage (.397), and single-season slugging percentage (.470).
  • BHSU landed at seventh in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 64 points. It is the highest ranking BHSU has received in a preseason coaches' poll in their RMAC history. They are currently in ninth at 3-5.
  • The three wins in the first weekend at the Bubble was the most wins in the first weekend in the D2 era. It is also the second time BHSU has entered the second weekend at .500.
  • Kaitlyn Geschwill, a newcomer for the Yellow Jackets, made probably the biggest impact a newcomer can make in her first weekend with her new team: she won RMAC Pitcher of the Week. She has a 4.91 in 41.1 innings and has appeared in 14 of the 19 games this season. She has an RMAC-leading 55 strikeouts compared to only 29 earned runs. She has only allowed 11 extra base hits. Besides strikeouts, she’s also leading the conference in strikeouts per seven innings (9.7), and is tied for first in pitching appearances (14). The Central Lakes College transfer had a huge weekend out of the bullpen for BHSU in her RMAC POTW weekend. She pitched in five of the six games, threw 15 innings with a 2-1 record, only allowing two earned runs and seven hits on a .93 ERA and 22 strikeouts. She bounced back after a rough outing in Oklahoma, where she had a 3.15 ERA, 17 strikeouts and only six earned runs in 13.1 innings, including a complete game shutout in game four versus Adams.
  • Sammie Kaufman-Warner, a freshman, is absolutely dominating for BHSU and is continuing to make a big impact early. She has a .355 batting average, a .597 slugging percentage, a .423 on-base percentage, and has 22 hits, 20 RBIs, and 12 runs scored with six doubles and three home runs. This includes a walk-off inside-the-park home run versus Adams in game three. She is third in the conference in RBIs (20), and RBIs per game (1.12). She has a run in 11 of 19 games, a hit in 14 of 19, an RBI in 12 of 19, and has reached base in 16 of 19. She earned her first RMAC Player of the Week nod two weekends ago for going off in Broomfield with a .636 batting average, a 1.071 slugging percentage, nine RBIs, five runs scored, three doubles, and a walk-off, inside the park home run.
  • Desi Hernandez is coming off an excellent freshman season where she was named All-RMAC honorable mention. Hernandez is hitting .348 with six RBIs, three doubles, a home run, three runs scored, and 22 total bases. She has a .478 slugging percentage. On the fielding side, she has three caught stealings. She had a career-high four hits twice going 4-4 in both games against New Mexico Highlands and Colorado School of Mines. She has a hit in 13 of 15 games this year and has reached base in 14 of 15 games. In Edmond, Hernandez had five hits and went 2-for-4 against Cameron. She made her way back to the lineup in Pueblo and went 4-for-9 (.444) with a double and an RBI.
  • Carly Reyes Mims is also coming off a major freshman season and was also named All-RMAC Honorable Mention last season. She is in the record book once for being tied for fifth in single-season doubles (11). Reyes Mims started the season off very hot. She is hitting .328 with a  OPS of .921 with a .448 slugging percentage and a .473 on-base percentage. She has 19 hits and 18 runs in 19 games with five RBIs, a home run, a triple, and two doubles. She is fifth in runs per game (.947), and seventh in runs (18). In Edmond, she went 3-3 versus Oklahoma Baptist and 1-3 versus Central Oklahoma. In game one versus Adams, she went 1-for-2 with two runs scored. She had four hits and three runs scored in Pueblo with a hit in each of the last three games.
  • Freshman Jessica Melendez is sitting in fourth on the offense with a .320 batting average with 11 runs scored, four RBIs and two doubles. She saw her seven game hit streak end on Sunday versus Pueblo, but she had a really strong Adams State series where she hit .429 with a .500 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage. She had four runs scored and two RBIs. In game two, she went 3-for-4 with a run scored and then had two RBIs in game three. She had two hits and two runs versus CSUP.
  • Caylee Mann was the top player for BHSU early and was another transfer who made an immediate impact. She has a .305 batting average, and has 14 RBIs with six runs scored, three doubles and a two home runs. She is ranked fourth in the RMAC in sacrifice flies with two. She had an RBI in five of the six games in the Bubble and she has two games with three RBIs while having three hits in both of those games. She had two RBIs in Broomfield and in game two, she went 2-4 with an RBI. In game one versus CSUP, she went 2-for-3 with a home run. 
  • Alyssa Wong was named to All-RMAC Gold Glove team and started this year with a .238 batting average, .458 on-base percentage with 14 walks, ten hits, three doubles, and nine runs scored. She is 12th in walks per game (1.0) and second in the RMAC in on-base percentage (.541). She has reached base in all but two games and this past weekend, she went 3-for-8 with four walks and four runs scored. She had two runs scored in Pueblo
  • Head Coach Ashlyn Englehorn is the first Jacket head coach to win Coach of the Year since Amy Gurney did it in the DAC in 2008. She is entering her third season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets and has a overall record of 68-122, a BHSU record of 48-73 , and a RMAC record of 42-53. She led BHSU to first RMAC Tournament berth in program history in 2025 after being picked to finish ninth in preseason coaches poll. Helped the Green & Gold finish with their first winning record in program history since 2009. In her first two seasons as head coach, she has won nine RMAC series, with six being this year. In the previous 12 seasons, BHSU had won a total of eight RMAC series. She also helped BHSU break their program wins record, program road wins record, and program RMAC wins record, along with multiple other program statistical records. 
  • New Mexico Highlands is having a solid run in RMAC play right now after a rough non-conference. The Cowgirls currently sit at 6-14 and 4-4 in RMAC play after sweeping Chadron in their four-game series. This was after Highlands had lost 12 in a row and 14 of their first 16 games. The Cowgirls did schedule a hard non-conference schedule with that included #8 West Texas A&M, #25 Oklahoma Christian, #11 Central Oklahoma, RV Hillsdale, and two games versus #1 Texas Tyler. They were run-ruled in three of those games, but took Hillsdale to extras, only lost to Tyler by three in one of their games and only lost by one to Oklahoma Christian
  • The Cowgirls then started their RMAC play with #20 Colorado Christian and lost all four games to them taking them to extras once and falling in a 2-1 pitching duel in game four. In Chadron, however, they only put up seven combined runs in three of their wins and doubled that in their game two win, where they won 7-5. They held CSC to only eight runs over the two days.
  • The Cowgirls have a completely brand new team with ten new Juco transfers from the Southwest including four from Yavapai College. Out of the eight qualified hitters last year for NMHU that hit over .200, only one returned this year. One of their three qualified pitchers right now was at NMHU last season and she was their top ERA leader.
  • NMHU  is ranked top 85 in the country in eigth stats. They are 15th in triples (8), 28th in triples per game (0.40), 49th in hits allowed per seven innings (10.12), 58th in walks (62), 64th in doubles (26), 80th in RBIs (78), 83rd in total runs (86), and 85th in hits (133).
  • NMHU was projected ninth in the RMAC Preseason Poll with 35 points just ahead of FLC and they currently sit in a tie for sixth with Regis at 4-4.
  • Jolissa Valdez is the top pitcher for Highlands so far and is the reigning RMAC Pitcher of the Week. Valdez, a transfer from Eastern Arizona, currently has a 5.37 ERA pitching in 43 innings and allowing 33 earned runs to 18 strikeouts. Valdez has only allowed a .273 batting average against and only 16 extra base hits. She is 2-4 this season in 11 appearances but just pitched really well in the sweep over Chadron pitching a two-hit complete game with only one unearned run allowed. She then pitched 5.2 innings only allowing three hits and no earned runs giving her a 0.00 ERA on the weekend in 12.2 innings pitched and a 2-0 record.
  • Halle Watkins has been the top hitter for NMHU by far. The freshman from Flagstaff has a team-leading .349 batting average with a 1.103 OPS. She has a .674 slugging and a .429 on-base percentage with three home runs, 11 RBIs, three doubles, a triple, and nine runs scored with 29 total bases. Against Chadron, she went 2-8 (.250) with two runs scored, a home run, a double, and an RBI.
  • Andrea DeLaTrinidad is the only returning player from last years team that qualified and had an over .200 batting average. She is back this year and is hitting .327 with six RBIs, eight runs scored, and two doubles. DeLaTrinidad has started 19 out of 20 games this year and now has a hit in seven straight games. She went 6-14 versus CSC and had a game in game three where she went 3-for-5 (.600). She also had two RBIs and a runs scored versus the Eagles. 
  • Head Coach Kali Pugh is in her first season as head coach of the Cowgirls and she is 6-14 in her time there. She came to NMHU after spending three years at Arizona’s Yavapai College. There she had a 41-89 record but nearly doubled her win totals every year. She has an overall record of 47-103.

 
SERIES HISTORY

  • BHSU is currently losing the series to NMHU 14-24, but has been on the up and up recently. They have won eight of the last 12 games versus the Cowgirls dating back to 2022. After Highlands started the series up 13-0, BHSU has continued to crawl back.
  • Last season, the Green and Gold took the first three games of the four game series versus NMHU and outscored them 23-7 in the first three games before losing the series finale 5-9. It was the first series win versus NMHU in program history.

 

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