THIS WEEKEND - The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (21-25, 14-16 NSIC) closes the regular season this Friday and Saturday hosting Wayne State College (23-22, 18-14 NSIC) in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference four-game series at Alumni Field in Marshall. Friday's doubleheader begins at 1:30 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader starts at 12 p.m.
SMSU, which defeated Bemidji State University twice on Wednesday, enters the final weekend of the regular season in ninth place in the NSIC standings. The top eight teams qualify for the NSIC/US Bank Tournament on May 6-9 in Sioux Falls, S.D. SMSU is one-game behind eighth place Concordia-St. Paul and three games back of Northern State, Wayne State and Winona State, who are all tied for fifth place.
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. Live stats for all games can be found at SMSUmustangs.com.
SERIES HISTORY - Wayne State leads the series versus Southwest Minnesota State 40-25 with the first meeting coming in 1974. SMSU won all three meetings last season in Marshall. The series is tied 6-6 since the 2011 season. SMSU head coach
Paul Blanchard is 24-39 all-time versus Wayne State.
ABOUT THE WILDCATS - Wayne State begins the weekend 23-22 overall, 18-14 NSIC. The Wildcats lost two games at home to Minnesota State on Wednesday. Last weekend, WSC won three of four games from Upper Iowa in Wayne, Neb. John Roberts is batting a team-high .394 with seven doubles, five home runs and 18 RBIs. Nathan Ackerman is second on the team with a .339 batting average with a team-high 15 doubles, a team-high 14 home runs and a team-leading 47 RBIs. Curtis Bussard is batting .301 with four doubles, while Michael Herman is batting .286 and is second on the squad with 36 RBIs.
The WSC pitching staff is led by Eric Browning who is 4-4 in 10 appearances with nine starts with a 2.87 ERA in 53 1/3 innings with 55 strikeouts and two complete games. Dylan McGill is 6-0 with a 3.88 ERA in 51 innings with one complete game, while Matt Schulz is 2-1 in eight starts with a 5.14 ERA in 42 innings.
WSC is batting .283 with 27 home runs and averaging 5.2 runs per game. The WSC pitching staff has compiled an ERA of 4.74 in 351 innings with 305 strikeouts and 135 walks.
SMSU 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 477-382-2, including 265-186 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 21-25, 14-16 NSIC, following Wednesday's doubleheader sweep over Bemidji State at Alumni Field.
Cameron Knudsen tossed a career-high 5 2/3 innings in game one with a career-high seven strikeouts to earn the win, while in game two,
Alex Jorgensen earned his first career win with a career-best 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Austin Stubbs combined to finish 4 for 7 with five RBIs and four runs scored in the two games, while
Brian Redemske had three hits and three RBIs in the twinbill.
Tanner Neale also had a big day going 5 for 6 with two RBIs and three runs scored.
Redemske leads the team with a .370 batting average with 13 doubles and eight home runs. Stubbs is second with a .353 average and has 14 doubles with team-high 13 home runs and 44 RBIs, while
Jarred Carlson has 15 doubles and a team-leading 47 RBIs.
Patrick Rients is batting .343 with six home runs, 14 doubles, 39 RBIs and a team-high 46 runs scored.
On the mound,
Brandan Alfson is 3-3 in nine appearances (six starts) with a 2.79 ERA in 42 innings.
Mitch Wurm (5-1, 4.58) has tossed a team-leading 57 innings with 52 strikeouts.
Jake Leighton has appeared in a team-high 13 games and has a 3.86 ERA in 21 innings, compiling a 2-1 record and three saves.
Colton Smit is 3-1 with a 6.41 ERA in 10 appearances.
SMSU is batting .304 with 49 home runs, while averaging 6.7 runs per game. The SMSU pitching staff has compiled a 7.35 ERA in 351 2/3 innings with 280 strikeouts and 171 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 - Brandan Alfson has currently reached base in 25 straight games since March 29, which is the longest streak for a Mustang player this season.
Austin Stubbs had the previous long streak of 22 straight games.
Patrick Rients leads the team with 20 multi hit games, while
Jarred Carlson has a team-high 16 multi RBI games and has 16 multi hit games.
Brian Redemske has 17 multi hit games and 10 multi RBI games, while
Austin Stubbs has 15 multi hit games and 10 multi RBI games. Redemske had a team-high 12-game hitting streak snapped on April 25, but has reached base in 20 straight games. Stubbs' 13 home runs ranks tied for seventh in the school single-season record book, while his 116 total bases ranks tied for sixth. Rients set the record for both categories last season with 19 home runs and 144 total bases.
SMSU is 14-1 this season when leading after six innings, 8-1 when leading after seven innings and 8-0 when leading after eight innings. The Mustangs are 4-23 when trailing after six innings, 2-8 when trailing after seven innings and 1-7 when trailing after eight innings.
The SMSU pitching staff has recorded 10 or more strikeouts in six games, including a season-high 12 versus Minot State on March 11.
The SMSU offense has recorded 10 or more hits in 27 of 46 games.
2015 IN THE SINGLE-SEASON RECORDS - The 2015 squad begins the weekend ranked among the top 10 in several offensive and pitching categories in program history. This season's squad ranks fourth all-time in doubles (98), fifth in home runs (49), sixth in hits (458), 10th in runs scored (308). The pitching staff has recorded 280 strikeouts, ranking first in team history.
