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THIS WEEK - The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (27-21, 17-14 NSIC) will compete at the eight-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament on May 7-11 in Sioux Falls, S.D. Games will be held at Ronken Field on the campus of Augustana College and at Sioux Falls Stadium. SMSU, the tournament's No. 7 seed, will take on No. 2 seed, Augustana College (36-14, 25-8 NSIC), on Wednesday starting at 3 p.m. at Ronken Field. If SMSU wins, it will play on Thursday at 2 p.m. versus either No. 3 seed St. Cloud State or No. 6 Northern State. If SMSU loses its first game, it will play Wednesday at 7 p.m. versus the loser of the SCSU/NSU game. SMSU - which has won four NSIC tournament titles - is making its first appearance in the tournament since finishing runner-up in 2010. The entire bracket can be found on page 17.

SERIES HISTORY - Southwest Minnesota State leads the all-time series versus Augustana 44-43 ... the two teams have never met in the NSIC tournament ... Augustana has won nine of the last 10 meetings since April 11, 2012, including winning all four this season on April 18-19 ... St. Cloud State leads the all-time series versus SMSU 43-17 ... the teams last played in 2012, splitting a doubleheader in St. Cloud ... SMSU has won the only meeting between the teams in the NSIC tournament in 2010 ... Southwest Minnesota State leads the all-time series versus Northern State 90-34 ... SMSU has won six of seven meetings this season ... SMSU is 2-0 versus NSU in the NSIC tournament ... SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 24-23 all-time versus Augustana, 8-7 versus St. Cloud State and 52-1

SMSU ALL-TIME IN THE NSIC TOURNAMENT - Southwest Minnesota State has an all-time record of 31-23 in the NSIC tournament since the tournament was formed in 1996. SMSU won tournament titles in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2002 and was runner-up in 1998, 2000, 2005 and 2010. All-time results in the NSIC tournament are listed on page 2.

RIENTS SET SCHOOL RECORDS - Junior Patrick Rients has set four school single-season records this season and also tied one NSIC record. Rients has set season records for home runs (18), total bases (138), triples (6) and is currently first in slugging percentage (.817). He also tied Brenden Furrow's (Concordia-St. Paul) NSIC record (conference games only) of 15 home runs.  

RIENTS AND ELLIS HONORED BY NSIC - Junior designated hitter Patrick Rients has been named first team All-NSIC and the NSIC Newcomer of the Year, while senior outfielder Jon Ellis was named second team All-NSIC. Rients batted .404 (44 for 109) in 31 NSIC games, and tied a conference record with 15 home runs to help SMSU qualify for the NSIC tournament for the first time since 2010. He led the NSIC in slugging percentage (.945), triples (4), total bases (103) and tied for first in RBIs (44), while also ranking eighth in batting average, ninth in hits (44) and 16th in on-base percentage (.445). He is just the second SMSU player (Mike Negen, 2001) to earn the conference Newcomer of the Year award. Ellis batted .317 (33 for 104) in 31 league games with nine doubles, one triple, four home runs and 17 RBIs. He finished fifth in the conference in hit by pitches (nine), tied for 14th in home runs and 20th in slugging percentage (.538).

LEADING OFF - SMSU is batting .286 with 39 home runs and averaging 5.6 runs per game ... SMSU pitching has a 5.29 ERA with 255 strikeouts in 364 innings with opponents batting .304 ... SMSU has outscored its opponents 37-19 in the first inning and 44-23 in the fifth inning ... SMSU has been outscored 23-4 in the eighth inning ... SMSU is 24-2 when leading after six innings ... 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 ... Rients begins the tournament on a team-high 14-game hitting streak ...  Austin Stubbs hit three home runs in a doubleheader at Augustana (April 18) … Rients leads the team with 18 home runs and is also the team leader in batting average (.373), hits (63), runs scored (39) and RBIs (55) ... Ben Korger lead the team lead with 15 doubles ... Korger and Sam Haas lead the team with nine stolen bases ... Jordon Kontz has a team-high 21 multi-hit games and ranks second on the team in hitting at .364 ... Rients has a team-leading 16 multi-RBI games ... Jimmy Callahan tossed a nine-inning shutout vs. Minnesota Duluth (April 5) and a seven-inning shutout vs. Minnesota Crookston (April 26) ... 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) ... Kontz ranks tied for second in school history in hit by pitches with 35 ... Korger ranks sixth in program history with 343 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 … Kontz was named NSIC Player of the Week on May 5 … 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 was picked to finish 10th in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll ... SMSU's games on April 9 were the first played in Marshall since April 29, 2012, snapping a streak of 69 consecutive games played away from Marshall.

THE 2014 CLUB IN THE  PROGRAM RECORD BOOKS - SMSU has set a new team record with 18 triples this season, breaking the previous record of 14 set twice, with last time coming in 1997 ... SMSU has been hit by 66 pitches ranking second all-time and three behind the record of 69 set by the 2002 club ... the pitching staff has the third lowest fewest walks allowed/9 innings in program history at 3.49 ... the pitching staff has tied the 1998 team for the most shutouts in one season with six and has set a program record for most innings pitched at 364 ... SMSU has recorded 255 strikeouts as a staff, ranking 12 shy of tying the team record of 267 set in 2009.