THIS WEEKEND
•The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (13-31, 8-26 NSIC) closes out the 2017 season this Friday and Saturday with a four-game series versus Minnesota Crookston (22-24, 16-18 NSIC) at Alumni Field.
•Friday's doubleheader begins at 1 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader is set to begin at 12 p.m.
•UMC begins the weekend in eighth place in the NSIC standings. The top eight teams qualify for the NSIC Tournament on May 10-14 in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
SENIOR DAY
•Saturday will be "Senior Day" at Alumni Field as SMSU's five seniors will honored prior to Saturday's doubleheader.
•The five seniors include
Derek Branson,
Davis Bryan,
Kody Larson,
Tanner Luebke and
Brian Redemske.
GAME COVERAGE
•Live statistics for this weekend's games will be available at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @smsubaseball on Twitter.
SERIES HISTORY
•SMSU leads the all-time series versus UMC, 43-3, in a match-up that started in 2000.
•SMSU has won 12 straight games in the series since UMC's last victory on April 11, 2009, in Marshall.
•The last 12 meetings have all been played in Crookston.
•The last game in the series in Marshall was on April 11, 2009.
•SMSU is 12-2 all-time in games played in Marshall.
•SMSU head coach
Paul Blanchard is 43-3 versus UMC.
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 499-451-2, including 280-237 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 13-31 overall, 8-26 NSIC.
•SMSU head coach
Paul Blanchard is one win shy from 500 in his career at SMSU.
•SMSU is 10-1 when leading after six innings, but 1-26 when trailing after six innings.
•SMSU ranks last in the NSIC in runs scored with 110.
•
Cole VanderBeek leads the team with a .350 batting average with seven doubles, two triples and 21 RBIs.
•VanderBeek ranks 11th in the NSIC in batting average (.364) and 16th in base hits (40).
•
Liam Lopez has a team-leading nine stolen bases.
•Lopez and
Derek Branson each have a team-leading three home runs.
•
Tanner Strommen is batting .288 with six doubles and 11 RBIs.
•
Shane Sellner is batting .285 and has 21 RBIs.
•
Derek Branson leads the club with nine doubles and also has a team-high 23 RBIs, while ranking second on the team with 46 base hits.
•VanderBeek has a team-high 15 multi-hit games.
•Strommen and Branson each have 11 multi-hit games.
•
Brady Lanoue reached base in 15 straight games earlier this season.
•Branson ranks first on the team with seven multi-RBI games.
•Branson and VanderBeek both had a team-high eight-game hitting streak earlier this season.
•Strommen reached base in 16 straight games earlier this season.
•
Cole Petersen is 5-2 on the season with a 1.53 ERA in 47 innings. •Petersen has a 1.70 ERA in NSIC play, ranking fourth in the league.
•
Shawn Williams has pitched in a team-high 17 games and has a 2.30 ERA in 27 1/3 innings with three saves and two victories. Williams has appeared in 14 NSIC game, ranking sixth in the league.
•
Justin Clark has made a team-high nine starts and has a 4.63 ERA with a team-high 41 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings.
•
Erik Thorvilson has made eight starts and has 31 strikeouts in 34 innings.
•
Jeremy Stouffer is 1-2 in eight starts with a 6.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings with 13 strikeouts.
•SMSU is hitting .269 with 15 home runs and 59 doubles.
•SMSU has an ERA of 6.31 with 203 strikeouts in 329 1/3 innings.
•SMSU has a .947 fielding percentage.
•SMSU has lost four games in NSIC play via walk-off this season.
SMSU IN THE NCAA STATS
•The following is where SMSU individuals rank in the latest NCAA statistics (April 30). Complete rankings on page 8.
•
Cole Petersen ranks 13th in ERA (1.53).
•
Jayden Fleck ranks 97th in hit by pitches (11) and 112th in hit by pitch per game (0.25).
MUSTANGS AT HOME
•SMSU is now scheduled to play a total of nine doubleheaders at Alumni Field in 2017.
NSIC SCHEDULE
•SMSU will play a 38-game unbalanced schedule in conference play this season.
•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.
MUSTANG BASEBALL HISTORY
• Southwest Minnesota State is in its 47th season of baseball and has an all-time record of 929-1,034-3 in 1,966 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 MINNESOTA CROOKSTON
•UMC is 22-24 overall, 16-18 NSIC.
•UMC swept a four-game series at home versus Minnesota Duluth last weekend.
•Reed Hjelle is hitting a team best .341 with seven doubles and 25 RBIs.
•Anthony Stewart is batting .328 with five home runs and seven doubles with a team-high 30 RBIs.
•Ethan Mushitz has a team-leading 10 doubles with 28 RBIs.
•Cody Pamperin is 1-5 with a team-high 11 starts, compiling a 3.03 ERA in 65 1/3 innings with four complete games.
•Zach Seipel has pitched a team-high 21 games with 10 saves a 2.78 ERA. He has a team-high 49 strikeouts.
•Justin Yutrzenka is 4-2 with a 3.99 ERA.
•UMC is batting .254 with nine home runs and 49 doubles.
•UMC has struck out a league-high 273 times.
•UMC has a 4.66 ERA with 272 strikeouts in 369 innings.
