Tori Kniesche's pitching dominance for South Dakota State softball by the numbers
When South Dakota State lost the first game of last Sunday’s Summit League tournament championship, forcing a winner-take-all deciding game, the top-seeded and heavily favored Jackrabbits were not as nervous as one might expect.
Yes, they had just been shutout by Omaha pitcher Kamryn Meyer, who was set to take the circle again in the second game, and were suddenly a loss away from seeing their bid for consecutive NCAA tournament appearances end abruptly. But Tori Kniesche was pitching. That meant the Jacks knew they would be nearly unbeatable.
Sure enough, the 5-foot-10 sophomore went out and carved a masterpiece, striking out 16 Mavericks on the way to a one-hit shutout that clinched SDSU’s second straight Summit League championship and trip to the NCAA tournament – the first two of each in program history.
SDSU sports: South Dakota State wins Summit League softball title, will take on Michigan
It was just the latest in what’s been a remarkable season for Kniesche, one that is only getting better as the weather warms up and the season winds down.
You could argue she’s not even the best pitcher on her team – Grace Glanzer was just named Summit League pitcher of the year (Kniesche won it last year), and is closing in on many of SDSU’s career pitching records. Glanzer takes a 20-5 record and 1.78 ERA into this weekend’s regional in Orlando, where the Jacks will face Michigan on Friday. But nobody is hotter than Kniesche right now.
She heads to Florida ranked second in the country in strikeouts per inning and fifth in shutouts, carrying a team-best 1.45 ERA, 18-5 record and 253 strikeouts, and she’s been especially dominant of late.
“Just attacking the zone has really helped,” Kniesche said when asked what’s been the key to her recent dominance. “Just relaxing and trusting my offense and knowing that my defense also has my back has helped, and just believing in myself.”
Here’s a closer look at all that Kniesche has accomplished this season and down the stretch as SDSU prepares to take on the Wolverines.
South Dakota State softball's Tori Kniesche by the numbers
► She’s thrown either a no-hitter or one-hitter in each of her last five starts – all shutouts.
There was a relief appearance against NDSU mixed in there where Kniesche gave up a run, but the last five times she’s been in the circle to start the game, the opposing batters might as well have been swinging a guitar at the plate. Back-to-back no-hitters against St. Thomas, a one-hit shutout of UND in the final series of the regular season, and a pair of one-hitters in the conference tournament, against NDSU and Omaha.
► She’s thrown three no-hitters, including in consecutive starts.
Kniesche has five career no-hitters in two seasons at SDSU. The first this year came against Western Illinois in a game shortened to five innings by run rule, then less than a month later she threw no-no’s on consecutive days against St. Thomas.
► She’s obliterated the single-game school strikeout record.
The first of Kniesche’s consecutive no-hitters against St. Thomas was a five-inning game, and she still managed to tie the school record for strikeouts with 13. Her no-hitter the next day needed all seven innings, and Kniesche whiffed a whopping 20 batters, recording only one out via a ball in play. Her strikeout totals in the three starts since: 15, 10 and 16.
► She’s reached double-digits in strikeouts 15 times. Her 253 whiffs on the season are two shy of the school record held by Allison Sempsis. Sempsis did it in 246 innings. Kniesche has worked 153 innings.
► She has a single-season school-record 10 complete-game shutouts, and has come on in relief to pick up three saves.
► In her last 11 appearances, covering 61.2 innings, she has a 0.57 ERA.
► Vastly improving her command has sparked her late-season surge.
Kniesche walked 18 batters in her first three starts and later walked eight in a loss to Wichita State. But she has fewer walks (37) in her last 20 outings than in her first nine (38).
“She had quite a few walks in (non-conference play),” said coach Krista Wood. “She wasn’t attacking the zone. And when you walk people you get your pitch count up so she was getting tired at the end of games. If you look back in April she’s limited her free bases and attacked the zone and made people chase. If she can do that, they have to string two or three hits in a row together to score a run.”
As dominant as Kniesche has been, it’s not a foregone conclusion she’ll be the Game 1 starter against Michigan. While she’s been the fireballing strikeout artist, Glanzer is more of a finesse pitcher, and has been equally as successful. And as dominant as Kniesche has been, she had a couple rough outings; in starts against Iowa State and Wichita State she gave up 15 runs in eight combined innings (her ERA would be 0.77 without those two outings).
Glanzer, who once threw a no-hitter against Oregon State, has had slightly more success against power conference foes.
“Since we’re so different it makes it really hard for other teams to prepare for us,” Glanzer said. “They don’t know if they need to prepare for speed up in the zone from TK or off-speed and curves from me.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State pitcher Tori Kniesche's dominance by the numbers
