WEDNESDAY GAMES
•The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (9-13, 4-8 NSIC) continues Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play on Wednesday taking on Wayne State College (9-17, 7-9 NSIC) in Wayne, Nebraska.
•The doubleheader begins at 1:30 p.m. at Pete Chapman Complex.
•SMSU played last Thursday in nearby Wakefield, Nebraska, losing 13-10 and 8-5 to Minnesota Duluth. The losses snapped SMSU's three-game winning streak.  
•SMSU has played 10 of its 12 NSIC games in the state of Nebraska, with games in Omaha (six) and Wakefield (four).
 
            GAME COVERAGE
•Live statistics for Thursday's games will be available at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @smsubaseball on Twitter.
 
            SERIES HISTORY
•WSC leads the all-time series versus SMSU 50-25, and has won the last 10 meetings since the 2015 season.
•This will be the first time SMSU has played at Wayne State since the 2011 season.
•SMSU's last victory in the series came in 2014 when SMSU swept a three-game series in Marshall.  
•SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 24-49 all-time versus WSC. 
 
            HEAD COACH
•Paul Blanchard, the all-time leader in victories at SMSU, is in his 22nd season as head coach and has an overall record of 510-466-2, including 286-247 in conference play.
•Blanchard entered the 2018 season ranking 44th 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 NOTABLES
•SMSU is hitting .286 with 10 home runs and 42 doubles.
•SMSU has an ERA of 4.90 with 180 strikeouts in 176 1/3 innings.
•SMSU has a .959 fielding percentage.
•SMSU is 2-6 in one-run games.
•SMSU is 7-2 when leading after six innings and 3-2 when leading after eight innings.
•SMSU has four players with at least 40 at bats hitting .300 or better.
•Senior Shane Sellner leads the team with a .349 batting average with five doubles, one home run and 15 RBIs.
•Junior Jayden Fleck has a team-leading 22 RBIs with six doubles and a team-high four home runs.
•Sophomore Ben Heichel has recorded a team-high nine doubles with three home runs and 20 RBIs.
•Fleck and Heichel lead the team with nine multi-hit games, while Fleck has a team-leading six multi-RBI games.
•Freshman Jake Hendricks belted his first career home run in the loss to Minnesota Duluth on April 5.
•Redshirt freshman Nathan Kuhn has reached base in nine straight games.
•Sellner's 10-game hitting streak to begin the season is the longest on the team this season.
•Freshman left-hander John Bezdicek is 2-3 on the season with one complete game and has compiled a 2.53 ERA in 32 innings. He has recorded a team-leading 42 strikeouts while opponents are hitting just .197. 
•Alex Jorgensen has a team-high eight relief appearances and has a 3.86 ERA in 16 1/3 innings with a 1-2 record with one save.  
•Chase Meyer recorded a career-high six strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings of relief to earn the victory vs. Concordia-St. Paul on March 30.
 
            MUSTANGS IN THE RECORD BOOK
•Justin Clark ranks seventh in team history with 8.23 strikeouts per nine innings.
•Shane Sellner ranks fourth in both chances (940) and putouts (860).
 
            NCAA STATISTICS
•In the latest Division II statistics through April 9, Ben Heichel ranks 51st in doubles per game (0.41).
•John Bezdicek ranks 40th in strikeouts per nine innings (11.81) and 51st in hits allowed per nine innings (6.47).
•As a team, SMSU ranks 51st in doubles per game (2.0), 37th in strikeouts per nine innings (9.2) and 62nd in shutouts (2).
 
            MUSTANGS AT HOME
•SMSU was scheduled to play a total of 11 doubleheaders at Alumni Field, but five doubleheaders have been relocated or canceled as of April 9.
 
            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.
 
            NSIC DOUBLEHEADERS
•For the eighth straight season the first game of each NSIC doubleheader will be a 7-inning game, while game two is scheduled for a 9-inning game.
•If the first game goes into extra innings, then game two will be changed to a 7-inning game.
 
            SMSU PICKED 14TH IN NSIC POLL
•Southwest Minnesota State University was picked to finish 14th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
•SMSU junior right-handed pitcher Justin Clark and sophomore outfielder Tranner Strommen were both named "Players to Watch" in the conference this season.         
•Minnesota State was chosen as the preseason favorite earning 196 points, including 14 first place votes.
 
            MUSTANG BASEBALL HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State is in its 49th season of baseball and has an all-time record of 940-1,049-3 in 1,992 games.
•SMSU won conference championships in 1974, 1994, 1996 and 2002 and 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.
 
            NEXT UP
•Southwest Minnesota State is scheduled to play at U-Mary in a four-game series this Saturday and Sunday in Bismarck, North Dakota.