THIS WEEK - The Southwest Minnesota State University (9-11, 2-2 NSIC) baseball team plays its first Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference road doubleheader of the season on Tuesday afternoon taking on Winona State University (7-13, 5-3 NSIC) at Loughrey Field in Winona, Minn. The twinbill will begin at 1:30 p.m.
Following Tuesday's doubleheader, SMSU will play at Northern State University for a four-game series this Friday and Saturday in Aberdeen, S.D.
EARLY HOME START - SMSU's two games versus Northwestern (Iowa) on March 20 was one of the earliest home openers in school history. It was SMSU's first home game in the month of March since the 2005 season when SMSU played Minnesota Crookston on March 29.
MEDIA COVERAGE - Live statistics for all home games can be found at livestats.smsu.edu/baseball, while updates can also be found by following @smsubaseball on Twitter.
Tuesday's games versus Winona State will have live stats, video and audio. Go to SMSUmustangs.com for links
SERIES HISTORY - Southwest Minnesota State and Winona State have played 165 games with WSU holding a 110-55 advantage in a series that started in 1970. SMSU has played WSU more times than any other opponent in program history. Tuesday will be SMSU's first games at Winona since splitting a doubleheader on March 19, 2011. Since the 2009 season, WSU holds a slight 9-8 advantage. Last season, the teams split an NSIC doubleheader in Marshall, before WSU ended SMSU's season in the NSIC tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D., with a 4-3 victory.
SMSU head coach
Paul Blanchard is 33-34 all-time versus Winona State.
ABOUT WINONA STATE - The Warriors are coming off a 3-1 home weekend versus U-Mary this past Saturday and Sunday. Mitchell Heid is batting a team-high .370 with three doubles and two home runs. Tyler Nehring is second on the team with a .358 batting average with four doubles and three home runs, while Jesus Cazares is batting .356.
Winona State is batting .293 with 18 home runs and averaging 5.7 runs per game. The Warrior pitching staff has compiled an ERA of 5.61 in 157 1/3 innings with 135 strikeouts and 78 walks.
HEAD COACH - Paul Blanchard, the all-time leader in victories at SMSU, is in his 19th season as head coach and has an overall record of 465-368-2, including 253-172 in conference play. During his tenure, Blanchard has led the program to its only NCAA tournament appearance, one NSIC championship, three NSIC tournament championships and 15 appearances in the NSIC tournament. Named the fifth coach in SMSU history on July 14, 1996, Blanchard has coached two NSIC Players of the Year, one NSIC Pitcher of the Year, 21 all-region honorees, two Academic All-Americans, one NCAA All-American and two Major League Baseball draft picks. A complete bio on coach Blanchard is on page 5.
ABOUT THE MUSTANGS - SMSU is 9-11, 2-2 entering Tuesday's twinbill, after splitting a four-game series with Minot State in Marshall last weekend.
Austin Stubbs led SMSU in the four games with a .533 batting average with two doubles and two home runs. Stubbs leads the team with a .417 batting average with seven doubles and six home runs.
Brian Redemske is batting .351 with a team-leading seven stolen bases.
Patrick Rients is batting .313 and leads the team with 25 RBIs.
Mitch Wurm (2-1, 4.50) has the lowest ERA among starting pitchers and has tossed a team-leading 28 innings with 24 strikeouts.
SMSU is batting .309 with 23 home runs, while averaging 6.7 runs per game. The SMSU pitching staff has compiled a 7.47 ERA in 160 1/3 innings with 125 strikeouts and 84 walks.
MUSTANG CAREER STATS - For career statistics on each Mustang player see pages 10-14 and for career-highs on each player go to SMSUmustangs.com/baseballcareer.
MUSTANG STREAKS AND MORE - Austin Stubbs had a team-high 11-game hitting streak snapped in game one on March 21 at Northwestern and has reached base in 17 straight games entering Tuesday's games.
Patrick Rients leads the team with eight multi RBI games and ranks second on the team with seven multi hit games.
Brian Redemske has a team-leading eight multi hit games this season.
SMSU is 6-0 this season when leading after six innings, 5-0 when leading after seven innings and 6-0 when leading after eight innings.
