BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team, under the direction of third-year head coach
Jeremy Ische, was picked ninth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll as voted on by the leagues 15 head coaches. The announcement came Thursday morning from the NSIC office.
Minnesota State, the defending NSIC regular season and tournament champions, were chosen as the preseason favorite earning 190 points, including eight first-place votes (coaches cannot vote for their own team). Augustana was picked to finish second receiving 189 points and seven first-place votes. St. Cloud State was picked to finish third with 163 points, followed by Wayne State in fourth place with 154 and Sioux Falls rounding out the top five with 144 points.
Minnesota Duluth was selected sixth earning 116 points, followed by UMary (115), Minnesota Crookston (112), SMSU (90) and Winona State (89) closing out the top 10. Concordia-St. Paul was picked 11th with 76 points, followed by Jamestown (48), Minot State (44), Northern State (29) and Bemidji State (16).
Augustana senior pitcher Ashton Michek was named the league's preseason Pitcher of the Year, while UMary senior outfielder Isaac Pegors was named the preseason Player of the Year.
SMSU is coming off a 23-24 season in 2025, which includes a ninth-place finish in the NSIC with a record of 18-22.
"We believe we have a balanced mix of experience (12 seniors) and new talent that should help the Mustangs as we have graduated a lot of quality players in the last two seasons," Ische said. "We think we return the right play makers and contributors offensively and have some depth on the mound with some promising younger pitchers who have continued to grow here and get better. We know how good the league is consistently and look forward to the challenge!"
SMSU senior outfielder
Levi Lampert and sophomore right-handed pitcher
Jameson Quinn were both named 'Players to Watch' in the conference this season.
Lampert, a native of Upsala, Minn., earned All-NSIC first team honors last season batting .339 while leading the team in home runs (11), doubles (14), runs (54), total bases (104), hit by pitches (15) and walks (32). He reached base in all 47 games, led the squad with 10 multi-RBI games and was second with 16 multi-hit games.
"Levi is a great young man who is very humble and goes about his business the right way," Ische said. "He's the same guy every day and is very levelheaded. Levi is a big member of our program, a great player on the field, and a tremendous student and we are excited to see him compete his senior year."
Quinn, a native of Eden Prairie, Minn., made 12 appearances with 11 starts last season, finishing 3-3, while recording a 5.72 ERA in 56 2/3 innings. He recorded 50 strikeouts, while opponents hit just .233. He pitched five or more innings in seven of his 11 starts.
"Jameson has continued to work on his game and his physicality since becoming a Mustang and is in a good place going into this season," Ische said. "He has continued to work hard on controlling the game and understanding how to attack certain areas on certain hitters. His arsenal has grown, and he has a skill set we are excited to see in game action."
The Mustangs, who return 18 letter winners from last season's team, are currently conducting practice inside the PE Gym and R/A Facility. SMSU opens its 50-game regular season along with NSIC play on Feb. 14-15 with a four-game series (three NSIC games) versus Minnesota Crookston in Fort Scott, Kan. SMSU will also play Minot State in a four-game set (three NSIC games) in Lincoln, Neb., on Feb. 22-23 before playing at Truman State on Feb. 28-March 1 for a four-game non-conference series.
SMSU will travel to Tucson, Ariz., for several games from March 5-10, before returning to NSIC play on March 14-15 opening its home schedule at Legion Field versus Concordia-St. Paul.
The NSIC tournament will take the top eight teams in the final NSIC standings. The double elimination tournament takes place May 6-9, in Sioux Falls, S.D.
