Complete Release (PDF)

This Week: The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (15-4, 5-3 NSIC) continues Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play this week with six road games at Bemidji State and Upper Iowa.  SMSU will face Bemidji State University (11-24, 4-13) in a doubleheader on Wednesday, April 15, starting at 2 p.m. in Bemidji, Minn., then will travel to Fayette, Iowa, to take on Upper Iowa University (14-17, 8-6 NSIC) for a four-game series on Saturday, April 18, with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. and Sunday, April 19, with a twinbill at 12 p.m.

About the Mustangs: Southwest Minnesota State is 15-4 overall, 5-3 NSIC and is currently in fifth place in the conference standings.  Sophomore Doug Stearns leads the team with a .542 average (13 for 24) in 10 games, while junior Matt Bauer is batting .500 (23 for 46) in 13 games and is tied for the team lead with four home runs and ranks first with 18 RBI.  Senior Derek West is also hitting .500 (19 for 38)?and is tied with Bauer with four home runs. 
     Sophomore left-hander Curtis Smith is 3-0 in three starts with a 2.55 ERA in 17.2 innings.  Junior right-hander Adam Schrader is 2-1 in three starts with a team-best 1.72 ERA in 15.2 innings.  He also leads the pitching staff with 18 strikeouts.
     SMSU is batting .412 as a team and is averaging 10.9 runs per game, while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.54 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 94 innings.

Mustang Notes: Derek West and Derick Swenson each have a team-high 10 multi-hit games ... Matt Bauer has a team-high eight multii-RBI games ... Andrew Kinney and Derek West have both had team-high nine-game hitting streaks this season ... SMSU has scored 10 or more runs in eight games this season ... the school record for double digits runs scored in a game in one season is 18 set by the 1997 team ... SMSU is 13-0 this season when holding opponents to four runs or less ... SMSU is 14-1 when leading after six innings ... SMSU has outscored its opponents 38-8 this season in the first inning ... SMSU's biggest inning this season has been the fourth inning, scoring 50 runs ... Derick Swenson's grand slam on April 8 was SMSU's first since 2007 ...

About Bemidji State: The Beavers are 11-24 overall, 4-13 NSIC.  Ryan Bohannan is the team's hitting leader with a .338 average (26 of 77), while Josh Juntunen is batting .324 (35 of 108) and leads the team in base hits.  BSU is hitting .272 as a team with nine home runs and is averaging 4.4 runs per game.  The BSU pitching staff has a 7.21 ERA in 242 innings with opponents averaging 6.7 runs per game.

About Upper Iowa: The Peacock are 14-17 overall, 8-6 NSIC.  UIU plays at Wisconsin-Parkside on Tuesday, April 14, in a non-conference doubleheader, before returning to league play with a doubleheader at Winona State on April 15.  Tom Longoni is batting a team-high .408 and leads the team in home runs (6), runs scored (26) and RBI (25).  UIU?is batting .321 as a team and averaging 6.4 runs per game.  The Peacock pitching staff has compiled a 5.64 ERA in 217 innings with 12 complete games.  UIU opponents are averaging 6.0 runs per game.

Last Action: Southwest Minnesota State took three of four games from Minnesota, Crookston over the weekend in Marshall.  SMSU won the first three games of the series, 6-3, 10-0 and 3-0, before UMC?won the series finale 5-2.  SMSU has solid pitching in all four games allowing just eight runs in the four games, including recording two shutouts by Jared Pick and Chris Koep.  Pick pitched a three-hit shutout wiht six strikeouts and faced just three batters over the minimum, while Koep tossed a four-hit shutout with four strikeouts.  Brad Haag also tossed a complete game in the series opener with eight strikeouts while allowing nine hits and one walk.

Back-to-Back Shutouts: SMSU's consecutive shutouts versus Minnesota, Crookston on April 10-11 were the program's first back-to-back shutouts since recording three straight versus UMC?in 2006. 

Head Coach Paul Blanchard: SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is in his 13th season and has an overall record of 337-234-1, including 171-90 in NSIC play.  He is 10 victories shy of tying Jim Denevan for the most coaching victories in school history.  Denevan recorded 347 wins in 21 seasons as a head coach (1971-81, 83-86, 91-96).  Blanchard has led SMSU to 11 winning seasons, one NSIC championship and three NSIC tournament championships.  During his tenure, Blanchard has coached two NSIC Players of the Year, one NSIC Pitcher of the Year, 15 all-region players, SMSU's only NCAA All-America and SMSU's only Major League Baseball draft pick.

Series History: SMSU is 83-53 all-time versus Bemidji State and will be playing in Bemidji for the first time since 2007, when SMSU?swept a four-game series.  SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 31-12 all-time versus BSU. 
     SMSU is 6-8 all-time versus Upper Iowa, including 3-5 in games played in Fayette.  Paul Blanchard is 6-8 all-time versus UIU.
 
West Honored by NSIC: Senior outfielder Derek West was named the NSIC Offensive Player of the Week on March 16.  West finished with a .600 batting average in the four games with nine hits in 15 at bats.  He belted three home runs, two triples, one double and scored nine runs in the four games while finishing with seven RBI and 23 total bases for a 1.533 slugging percentage.

NCBWA Poll: SMSU is ranked eighth in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Central Region poll announced on Monday, April 13.  The NCBWA poll is not the official poll that determines the six-team NCAA regional field announced in May.  The first official NCAA regional rankings will be announced later this month. 
     SMSU, which was ranked No. 5 in last week's poll, received 24 points, seven points behind seventh ranked Winona State.  Mesa State (Colo.), ranked received all eight first place votes and is ranked No. 1 in the regional poll with 80 points.

Mustangs Picked to Finish Seventh: The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team was picked to finish seventh in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Poll as voted on by the league's 13 head coaches.
     Wayne State, last season's conference champion was tabbed the conference favorite earning 149 points, seven ahead of second place and NSIC newcomer Minnesota State, Mankato (142).  WSC earned six first place votes (coaches can't vote for their own team) while Minnesota State received four first place votes.  Concordia-St. Paul was picked to finish third in the league and received three first place votes.  Winona State was picked to finish fourth with 113 points, followed by Upper Iowa (105), St. Cloud State (102) and SMSU (101).  Minnesota Duluth (75), Bemidji State (70), Mary (59), Augustana (58), Northern State (37) and Minnesota, Crookston (24) rounded out the poll.

Mustang Success in the NSIC: Southwest Minnesota State has had tremendous success in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in recent years.  SMSU has finished either first, second or third place in the league standings in 13 of the last 16 seasons and hasn't finished lower than fourth place since the 1989 season.
     The 2009 season marks the 40th year that SMSU has competed in the NSIC compiling an all-time record of 377-340 in 717 conference games.  SMSU has won four conference championships and has finished second in the conference standings seven times.  SMSU has a current streak of 16 straight years of recording a winning record in conference play.

NSIC Schedule for 2009: The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference is scheduled to play a 32-game schedule in 2009 for the third straight season.   The 13 teams in the NSIC will play eight teams in the conference four times for a league schedule of 32 games.  SMSU will not play Wayne State, Concordia,   The top six teams in the conference standings will advance to NSIC tournament in St. Cloud, Minn., on May 7-9.  The winner of the NSIC tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA regional.  

Home Sweet Home: Southwest Minnesota State was scheduled to play 16?home games at Alumni Field this year, but four have already been canceled.  Since moving all of its home games to the on-campus field in 2003, SMSU has racked up a 53-26 home field record. 

A Record Setting Day: SMSU broke four school single-game records in its 34-1 victory over Minnesota Duluth on March 15 in Ft. Myers, Fla.  The Mustangs broke records for hits (32), runs scored (34), doubles (9) and largest margin of victory (33).

Mustangs in the Record Book: The following is where current SMSU players rank in the SMSU career record book.
Andrew Kinney:
Highest fielding pct.: 4th (.991)
Highest slugging pct.: 5th (.639)
Most home runs: 11th (21)
Most runs batted in: 14th (101)

Greg Laughlin
Most assists: 5th (307)
Most hits: 7th (180)
Most at bats: 10th (510)
Most sacrifice hits: t-12th (11)
Most total bases: t-14th (230)
Highest batting avg.: 15th (.353)

Josh Nolan
Most triples: t-6th (6)
Most assists: 15th (208)

Jared Pick
Fewest walks allowed/9 inn game: 10th (3.03)

Adam Schrader
Most strikeouts/9 inn game: 6th (8.40)
Most strikeouts: 8th (141)
Most games started: t-8th (30)
Most walks allowed: 12th (89)
Most wins: 15th (13)

Derick Swenson
Most times hit by pitch: 8th (20)

Derek West
Highest batting avg.: 3rd (.379)
Highest on base pct.: 6th (.467)
Highest slugging pct.: 8th (.611)
Most triples: t-13th (4)
Most times hit by pitch: 15th (13)