THIS WEEK
•The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (9-23, 4-18 NSIC) continues NSIC play on Thursday with a doubleheader at Augustana University (24-15, 18-6 NSIC) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m.
•SMSU will continue action this Saturday and Sunday hosting the University of Mary (9-26, 5-21 NSIC) for a four-game series at Alumni Field. Saturday's doubleheader begins at 1 p.m., while Sunday's doubleheader starts at 12 p.m.

    MEDIA COVERAGE
•Live statistics for all the games this weekend will be available at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @smsubaseball on Twitter.

    SERIES HISTORY
•Augustana leads the all-time series 52-45 in a match-up that started in 1980.
•SMSU defeated Augustana in the final game of the regular season last year to snap a 13-game losing streak in the series.
•SMSU last won at Augustana on March 30, 2013.
•SMSU is 4-18 in the series since 2012 .
•SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 25-32 versus Augustana.  

    HEAD COACH
•Paul Blanchard, the all-time leader in victories at SMSU, is in his 21st season as head coach and has an overall record of 495-443-2, including 276-229 in conference play.
•He entered the 2017 season ranking 45th in Division II among active coaches in career victories.
•During his tenure, Blanchard has led the program to its only NCAA tournament appearance, one NSIC championship, three NSIC tournament championships, 15 appearances in the NSIC tournament and four 30-win seasons.
•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.

    MUSTANG NOTES
•SMSU is 9-23 overall, 4-18 NSIC.
•SMSU has lost four games in NSIC play via walk-off this season.
•SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is five wins away from 500 in his career at SMSU.
•Cole VanderBeek leads the team with a .323 batting average with five doubles, one triple and 11 RBIs.
•Liam Lopez and Tanner Strommen each have a team-leading seven stolen bases.
•Strommen is batting .306 with six doubles.
•Shane Sellner is batting .280 and has 17 RBIs.
•Derek Branson leads the club with nine doubles and also has a team-high 19 RBIs, while ranking tied for second on the team with 32 base hits.
•Cole VanderBeek has a team-high 10 multi-hit games.
•Strommen has nine multi-hit games.
•Branson ranks first on the team with six multi-hit games.
•Branson had a team-high eight-game hitting streak earlier this season.
•Strommen reached base in 16 straight games earlier this season, while Branson had an 11-game streak.
•Cole Petersen is 4-2 on the season with a 1.83 ERA in 34 1/3 innings.
•Shawn Williams has pitched in a team-high 12 games and  has a 1.74 ERA in 20 2/3 innings with two saves and one victory.
•Justin Clark has made seven starts and has a 4.68 ERA with a team-high 28 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings.
•SMSU is hitting .253 with 10 home runs and 49 doubles.
•SMSU has an ERA of 6.36 with 141 strikeouts in 243 1/3 innings.
•SMSU has a .951 fielding percentage.

    SMSU IN THE NCAA STATS
•The following is where SMSU individuals rank in the latest NCAA statistics (April 16).
•A complete listing of where SMSU ranks in the NCAA stats is on page 7.
•Cole Petersen ranks 28th in ERA (1.83).
•Jayden Fleck ranks 137th in hit by pitch per game (0.25).

    MUSTANGS AT HOME
•SMSU is scheduled to play a total of eight doubleheaders at Alumni Field in 2017.

    NSIC SCHEDULE
•SMSU is scheduled to play a 38-game unbalanced schedule in conference play this season.
•The team will play seven four-game weekend series along with five mid-week doubleheaders.
•The schedule will allow SMSU to play 12 of 14 conference opponents at least twice this season.
•SMSU will not play Minot State or St. Cloud State in conference play.

    SMSU PICKED 12TH IN NSIC POLL
•Southwest Minnesota State University was picked to finish 12th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
•Minnesota State was chosen as the preseason favorite earning 192 points, including 10 first place votes.

    MUSTANG BASEBALL HISTORY
• Southwest Minnesota State is in its 47th season of baseball and has an all-time record of 925-1,026-3 in 1,954 games.
•SMSU won conference championships in 1974, 1994, 1996 and 2002 and has won NSIC tournament championships in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2002.
•SMSU made its only NCAA tournament appearance in 2009.

    MORE MUSTANG STATS
•For career statistics and game-highs for each Mustang player go to SMSUmustangs.com/baseballcareer.

    ABOUT AUGUSTANA
•Wayne State is 24-15 overall, 18-6 NSIC.
•Head Coach Tim Huber, an assistant at SMSU for two seasons (2002-03), earned his 300th career victory last Saturday.
•Patrick O'Donnell leads the team in hitting with a .404 batting average. He is second on the team in home runs with eight and in RBIs with 31. He leads the team in doubles with 14
•Augustana is batting .289 with 32 home runs and 77 doubles.
•Augutana has an 3.40 ERA with 337 strikeouts in 302 innings.

    NEXT UP
•Southwest Minnesota State will host U-Mary in a four-game series at Alumni Field this Saturday and Sunday.