WEEKEND MATCH-UP
•The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (14-22, 9-17 NSIC) concludes the regular season this Friday and Saturday with a four-game home series versus Bemidji State University (7-33, 5-21 NSIC) at Alumni Field.
•Friday's doubleheader is set to begin at 1 p.m., while Saturday's twinbill will start at 12 p.m.
•SMSU is coming off a strong weekend, in which it won three of four road games versus Minnesota Crookston.
•This weekend will be SMSU's first and only home games of the season after playing its first 36 games away from Marshall.
•SMSU begins the weekend in 12^th place in the NSIC standings, while BSU is in 14^th place.
 
            GAME COVERAGE
•Live statistics for the weekend games will be available at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @smsubaseball on Twitter.
 
            SERIES HISTORY
•SMSU holds a 100-64 all-time series advantage versus BSU in a series that started in 1970.
•BSU swept a four-game series from SMSU last season in Marshall.
•Prior to last season, SMSU had won five straight in the series, including four straight in conference play.
•SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 48-23 all-time versus BSU.
 
            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 515-475-2, including 291-256 in conference play.
•Blanchard entered the 2018 season ranking 44th for career victories in Division II?among active coaches.
•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. 
 
            CLARK EARNS NSIC AWARD
•Junior right-handed pitcher Justin Clark was named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday following a dominate performance in a road victory over the University of Minnesota Crookston last Saturday afternoon.
•Clark helped SMSU to a 9-0 victory over UMC tossing a two-hit, seven-inning shutout, with a career-high 14 strikeouts. He walked two batters and did not allow a UMC runner to reach third base in recording his first career shutout.
•He is the first SMSU player to earn an NSIC weekly award since the 2014 season.
 
MUSTANG NOTABLES
•SMSU is hitting .279 with 16 home runs and 65 doubles.
•SMSU has an ERA of 5.26 with 269 strikeouts in 282 1/3 innings.
•SMSU has a .956 fielding percentage.
•SMSU is 3-9 in one-run games.
•SMSU is 10-2 when leading after six innings and 5-3 when leading after eight innings.
•SMSU has three players hitting .300 or better on the season.
•Senior Shane Sellner is hitting .331 with nine doubles, one home run and 21 RBIs.
•Junior Jayden Fleck is batting a team-high .338 and also has a team-high 32 RBIs with nine doubles and a team-high six home runs.
•Sophomore Ben Heichel has recorded a team-high 16 doubles with three home runs and 26 RBIs.
•Fleck leads the team with 16 multi-hit games and also has a team-leading eight multi-RBI games.
•Sellner and Heichel both had 10-game hitting streaks this season, which are the longest on the team this season.
•Sellner is currently on team season-high 12-game reached base streak.
•Junior Connor Johnson's three-run, walk-off home run at Winona State on April 22, was the program's first walk-off homer since Patrick Rients in 2014.
•Senior Josh Cook has a 1-1 record in nine relief appearances with 14 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings and has compiled a 1.84 ERA.
•Junior Cole Petersen is 2-2 on the season with a 3.71 ERA in 34 innings.
•Freshman left-hander John Bezdicek is 2-4 on the season with one complete game and has compiled a 3.75 ERA in a team-high 47 1/3 innings. He has recorded a team-leading 59 strikeouts while opponents are hitting .238. 
•Junior Alex Jorgensen has a team-high 13 relief appearances and has a 3.24 ERA in 25 innings with a 2-3 record and one save. 
•Sophomore Jeremy Stouffer tossed a career-high 7 1/3 innings in last Sunday's game two win over UMC and recorded his first victory of the season.
•Chase Meyer, who leads the team with three victories, 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 fifth in team history with 8.78 strikeouts per nine innings and is 10th all-time with 134 strikeouts.
•Shane Sellner ranks second in chances (1,045) and third in putouts (958).
 
            NCAA STATISTICS
•In the latest Division II statistics through May 1, Ben Heichel is 28^th in doubles per game (0.42) and 79^th with 16 doubles.
•John Bezdicek ranks 52nd in strikeouts per nine innings (11.06), while Justin Clark is 61^st (10.84).
•As a team, SMSU ranks 62nd in strikeouts per nine innings (8.6).
 
            MUSTANGS AT HOME
•SMSU was scheduled to play a total of 11 doubleheaders at Alumni Field, but nine doubleheaders have been relocated or canceled.
 
            NSIC SCHEDULE
•SMSU was scheduled to play a 38-game unbalanced schedule in conference play this season.
•The team was scheduled to 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 945-1,058-3 in 2,006 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.