PREVIEWING THE WEEK
•The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (24-19, 18-16 NSIC) concludes the regular season this week with five Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference games at Legion Field in Marshall.
•SMSU, currently seventh in the league standings, will look to secure a top eight finish this week and advance to the NSIC tournament starting on May 8.
•The Mustangs open the week with a doubleheader on Wednesday facing the University of Sioux Falls (21-23, 14-20 NSIC) starting at 1:30 p.m. The two games were originally scheduled to be played on Tuesday, but was delayed a day due to poor weather.
•SMSU closes the regular season with a three-game series versus Minnesota State University (30-14, 25-8 NSIC) with a single-game on Friday at 12 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m.
 
GAME COVERAGE
•Live video and stats for all five games will be available at SMSUmustangs.com.
 
SMSU HEAD COACH
•Jeremy Ische is in his first season as head coach after being named to the position on June 15, 2023. He is the sixth head coach in team history.
•Ische has a career record of 81-144 in six seasons as a head coach after spending the previous five seasons (2019-23) as head coach at Upper Iowa University compiling a record of 57-125. 
•UIU had its best season under Ische in 2023, finishing with a 19-27 record, including 15-19 in NSIC play.
•He was an assistant coach at UIU for two seasons (2017-18) prior to becoming head coach.
•Ische was also an assistant coach at Luther College (2015-16), SMSU (2013-14) and St. Cloud Tech (2012).
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. SIOUX FALLS
•SMSU leads the all-time series 17-13 since first meeting during the 1972 season.
•USF leads the series 12-9 since joining the NSIC in 2013 and has won six of the last nine games since the 2019 season.  
•The teams split a doubleheader last season in Sioux City, Iowa.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. MINNESOTA STATE
•MSU leads the all-time series 69-10 since first meeting in 1973.
•MSU has won the last 17 meetings and 35 of the last 36 since SMSU defeated MSU at the 2009 NCAA tournament.  
•SMSU's last victory was on March 21, 2014, in Sioux City, Iowa.
 
MCDANIEL BECOMES PROGRAM'S ALL-TIME & SINGLE-SEASON HITS LEADER
•Senior Chase McDaniel broke the program's all-time hits record on April 14 with his 214^th career hit. He is just the fourth player in team history to reach 200 career hits and has amassed 227 in 158 career games. Greg Laughlin (2006-09) held the previous record of 213.
•McDaniel has also set the program single-season hits record on April 24 surpassing the record of 70 he tied last season along with Colby Pack (2005). McDaniel has 76 hits in 43 games this season.
 
MUSTANGS BY THE NUMBERS
•SMSU is averaging 7.0 runs per game and batting .315 on the season.
•SMSU has a team ERA of 5.51 in 333 innings with a school single-season record 358 strikeouts. Opponents are averaging 5.4 runs per game and batting .285.
 
MUSTANGS IN THE NCAA STATS
•In the latest NCAA statistics (April 28), SMSU ranks 34^th in slugging pct. (.505), seventh in triples (21), 12^th in strikeouts per nine innings (9.7) and 21^st in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.3).
•Chase McDaniel ranks third in the country in hits per game (1.77), 13^th in total hits (76), 21^st in batting average (.427) and 34^th in total bases (125).
•Kolby Kiser ranks 28^th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.9).
 
MUSTANG EXTRA BASES
•Chase McDaniel is batting a team-high .427 and leads the team lead with 13 doubles, while also ranking first with 47 RBIs.
•McDaniel leads the club in both multi-hit games (26) and multi-RBI games (14).
•Besides holding the school career record for base hits, McDaniel ranks third in total bases (336), fifth in runs scored (147), seventh in assists (359), tied for eighth in doubles (36), 10^th in batting average (.369) and tied for 10^th in stolen bases (35).
•McDaniel has hit two grand slams this season, including a an inside-the-park grand slam in a win over Dakota Wesleyan on March 3. It was SMSU's first inside-the-park home run since Jarred Carlson versus Bemidji State on March 11, 2015.
•Isaac Nett ranks first on the team with 11 home runs, is second in RBIs (42) and first in stolen bases (12). He is batting .364, ranking third on the team.
•Owen Latendresse is hitting .373 with 10 doubles, five triples and five home runs. He missed the final two games at UMary with an injury. He ranks second in team history with 11 triples. Mark Lickfelt holds the career mark with 12 from 1995-98.
•Jake Tauer is hitting .324 with eight doubles and 22 RBIs.
•Keenan Wenzel, who was named the NSIC Player of the Week on March 4, is batting .304 with four triples, six home runs and 25 RBIs.
•Max Kalenberg has walked a team-high 31 times and earlier this season reached base in a team-high 23 straight games.
•Jaxon Haase ranks second on the team with 12 doubles and is batting .286 with three home runs.
 
MUSTANGS FROM THE MOUND
•Kolby Kiser is 5-3 in 10 starts with a 2.87 ERA in 62 2/3 innings and is tied for the team lead with 59 strikeouts. He ranks fourth in team history in strikeouts per nine innings (9.6) and sixth all-time in strikeouts (187).
•Carter Petron has a 2.92 ERA in 52 1/3 innings with 59 strikeouts, while recording a 6-1 record in 10 starts. He tossed a nine-inning six-hit shutout versus Concordia-St. Paul on April 5 with five strikeouts. It was the first nine-inning shutout by an SMSU pitcher since Mitch Wurm in 2015. He also recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts in a victory at Minnesota Crookston on April 13 and at UMary on April 27.
•Ansen Dulas is 2-2 in nine games with eight starts and has recorded 52 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings. He ranks eighth in team history in strikeouts (165) and fifth all-time in strikeouts per nine innings (9.4).
•Ryan Chmielewski has a 3-5 record in nine starts with 59 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings. He fired a career-high eight innings vs. Concordia-St. Paul on April 6 allowing zero earned runs. He has struck out a season-high nine twice this season.
•Shay Endres is 3-2 and has recorded a 5.09 ERA in 11 appearances with four starts, while registering 32 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings.
•Kobe Lovell is tied for first in team history in appearances (58) joining B.J. Richter (1997-2000) atop the list.
 
MCDANIEL NAMED NSIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
•Senior Chase McDaniel was named the NSIC Player of the Week on April 15. In five games versus Wayne State and Minnesota Crookston, he batted .714 (15-of-21) with four home runs, a triple, a double, nine RBIs, scored 10 runs and collected 30 total bases.
 
NETT EARNS NSIC & NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS; TIES SCHOOL RECORD
•Senior Isaac Nett was named the NSIC Player of the Week and was named D2 Baseball Insider and NCBWA National Player of the Week for the week of April 1 following his play in four Mustang victories over Bemidji State on March 29-30.
•Nett batted .588 (10-for-17) with four home runs, three doubles, 17 RBIs, eight runs scored and 25 total bases. He also walked four times, stole two bases and finished with a 1.471 slugging pct. and a .667 on-base pct.
•He tied a school record with three home runs and finished with seven RBIs in SMSU's game one doubleheader victory on Saturday. He is the fourth player in team history to hit three home runs in one game and the first since 2016.
•In game two of the doubleheader on Saturday, Nett belted a home run in his first at bat and walked four times to tie another school single-game record.
 
KISER SETS SCHOOL SINGLE-GAME RECORD; TEAM BREAKS RECORD
•Senior Kolby Kiser set a team single-game record with 16 strikeouts in eight innings earning a no-decision in a 2-1 loss versus Walsh (Ohio) on March 9. Kiser broke the previous record of 15 strikeouts set by Adam Schrader during the 2009 season.
•The 16 strikeouts rank as the third highest in Division II this season.
•Kiser, along with Shay Endres and Cameron Jensen, combined to strikeout 19 batters in the loss setting a team record for strikeouts in a single-game.
 
MUSTANGS EARN POSTSEASON HONORS IN 2023
•SMSU had several players receive accolades following the 2023 season.
•Chase McDaniel was named All-NSIC first team, while Kolby Kiser, Ansen Dulas and Keenan Wenzel were all named All-NSIC second team.
•Ryan Chmielewski was selected to the NSIC All-Defensive team and was also named to the ABCA Central Region All-Defensive team.
•McDaniel and Kiser were both named NCBWA All-Region honorable mention, while McDaniel picked-up CCA All-Region second team honors.
 
NETT NAMED CSC ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN
•Isaac Nett was named to 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® Division II baseball first team as selected by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) last June.
•It's the 28th time in school history and the sixth Mustang baseball student-athlete to earn CSC Academic All-American accolades.  
 
NSIC SCHEDULE
•The 14-team NSIC schedule will have a different look this year featuring a variety of four-game, three-game and two-game series during the season.
•The schedule format allows for each team to play every opponent at least twice during the regular season.
•SMSU is scheduled to play five four-game series (SCSU, UMD, MISU, BSU, CSP), four three-game series (UMC, WSU, UMary, MSU) and doubleheaders versus (WSC, NSU, AU, USF).
•All weekday match-ups will be doubleheaders with one seven-inning game and one nine-inning game.
•SMSU was scheduled to play 40 conference games this season.
 
MORE MUSTANG STATS
•For career statistics and game-highs for each Mustang player go to SMSUmustangs.com/baseballcareer.
 
SMSU PICKED FIFTH IN NSIC PRESEASON POLL
•SMSU was picked to finish fifth in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
•Mustang senior shortstop Chase McDaniel and senior right-handed pitcher Kolby Kiser were both named 'Players to Watch' in the conference this season.
 
NSIC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO NORTH DAKOTA
•The 2024 NSIC Tournament will be held on May 8-11 and hosted by the University of Mary at Veterans Memorial/Municipal Ballparks, in Mandan, N.D., and Bismarck, N.D.
•The top eight teams in the final regular season standings will qualify for the tournament with the champion earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
MUSTANG HISTORY
•SMSU is in its 55th season of baseball in 2024.
•SMSU has played 2,223 games compiling an all-time record of 1,045-1,175-3.
•SMSU has won four NSIC regular season championships, four NSIC tournament titles and has played in one NCAA tournament.