GAME NOTES | LIVE STATS

THIS WEEK - The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (17-20, 8-13 NSIC) travels to Crookston, Minn., to face the University of Minnesota Crookston (1-37, 0-26 NSIC) in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference four-game series on Friday and Saturday. Friday's twinbill is set to begin at 1:30 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for 12 p.m. All four games will be played at the UMC baseball field. SMSU is looking to break a seven-game losing streak, its longest since closing the 2012 season with seven straight losses.

SERIES HISTORY - Southwest Minnesota State leads the all-time series versus Minnesota Crookston 39-3 ... SMSU has won the last eight in the series, all played in Crookston ... UMC last played in Marshall during the 2009 season ... SMSU is 25-1 all-time in games played in Crookston ... SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 39-3 all-time versus UMC.

LEADING OFF - SMSU is batting .273 with 27 home runs and averaging 4.9 runs per game ... SMSU pitching has a 5.59 ERA with 201 strikeouts in 288 innings with opponents batting .309 ... SMSU has outscored its opponents 31-15 in the first inning ... SMSU is 15-2 when leading after six innings ... after winning five straight games, SMSU is currently on a season-long five-game losing streak ... Patrick Rients tied school single-game record with three home runs vs. Augustana on April 19 ... Rients and Gary Schleper (vs. Austin College, 1986) are the only two players in program history to hit three in a game ...  Austin Stubbs hit three home runs in a doubleheader at Augustana (April 18) and is batting .354 on the season … Stubbs had a team-high 13-game hitting streak snapped on April 19 ... Rients leads the team with 12 home runs and is also the team leader in batting average (.369), hits (48) and RBIs (35) ... Rients and Ben Korger lead the team with 26 runs scored ... Jon Ellis leads the team lead with 12 doubles ... Korger leads the team with seven stolen bases ... Jordon Kontz has a team-high 16 multi-hit games and ranks third on the team in hitting at .344 ... Rients has a team-leading 10 multi-RBI games ... Kontz drilled his first career home run on April 6 vs. Minnesota Duluth ... Jimmy Callahan tossed a nine-inning shutout vs. Minnesota Duluth (April 5) ... Mitch Wurm tossed a seven-inning three-hit shutout vs. Minnesota Duluth (April 6) and a four-hit shutout vs. Wayne State (April 12) ... Joe Axelson recorded a career-high nine strikeouts vs. Wayne State (April 12) ... Steven Wehr tossed his first career complete game in a 4-2 victory over Bemidji State (March 12) ... Kontz ranks tied for second in school history in hit by pitches with 35 ... Korger ranks sixth in program history with 336 assists … Ellis was named NSIC Player of the Week on Feb. 18 ... Axelson was named NSIC Pitcher of the Week on March 17  and also earned two national pitcher of the week honors for his no-hitter on March 12 versus Bemidji State ... Rients was named Player of the Week on April 15 … SMSU's three-game sweep of Wayne State was the program's first of three or more games versus WSC in program history … SMSU has beaten a pair of ranked teams this season, including No. 17 Missouri Western State on Feb. 15 and No. 2 Minnesota State on March 21 ... SMSU's win over MSU was the program's first since 2009, snapping an 18-game losing streak ... SMSU was picked to finish 10th in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll ... SMSU's games on April 9 were the f