PREVIEWING THIS WEEK
•The Southwest Minnesota State University (13-11, 3-9 NSIC) baseball team will have its home opener this Saturday and Sunday with a three-game Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference set versus St. Cloud State University (11-13, 7-4 NSIC) at Legion Field in Marshall.
•The teams will play a doubleheader (7-9) on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m., while Sunday's single-game starts at 12 p.m. 
•Following the games this weekend, SMSU is scheduled to play at Bemidji State next Tuesday and at Northern State on April 3-4.
 
            GAME COVERAGE
•Live stats and video for all three games will be available at SMSUmustangs.com.
 
SMSU HEAD COACH
•Jeremy Ische, the sixth head coach in team history, is in his third season with a record of 63-59. He was named to the position on June 15, 2023.
•SMSU finished 27-23 overall and placed sixth in the NSIC at 20-19 during his first season as head coach in 2024. SMSU won its opening game at the NSIC tournament, earning the program's first conference tournament victory since the 2014 season.
•Prior to SMSU, Ische spent five seasons (2019-23) as head coach at Upper Iowa University compiling a record of 57-125.
•In seven seasons as a head coach he has a career record of 120-184s.
•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. ST. CLOUD STATE
•SMSU is 20-71 all-time versus SCSU with the first game played in 1970.
•SMSU's win last season at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in game three of a four-game series, snapped a 13-game losing streak in the series.
•SCSU holds a 28-3 advantage in the series since the 2015 season.
•The teams last played in Marshall during the 2019 season.  
 
SMSU LAST TIME OUT
•SMSU lost four games, three conference games, at the University of Mary last Friday and Saturday.
•SMSU hit just .172 in the four games and was limited to nine runs.
•Levi Lampert hit .417 in the series with one double and three runs scored.  
 
SMSU NOTES
•As a team, the Mustangs are batting .304, while scoring 7.8 runs per game. SMSU pitchers have recorded a 4.99 ERA with 155 strikeouts in 182 1/3 innings. The Mustangs have committed 25 errors in 784 total chances (.968 fielding pct.).
•SMSU's eight-game winning streak earlier this season was the program's longest since the 2010 season.
•Senior Levi Lampert had a 64-game on-base streak come to an end on March 10 versus Concordia-St. Paul. Lampert reached base safely in all 47 games last season and the first 17 games this spring. 
•Lampert is batting .427 with a team-high eight doubles and team-leading five home runs. He has a team-high 15 multi-hit games and had a 15-game hitting streak earlier this season.
•Redshirt freshman Tanner Rezny is hitting .487 with three doubles and three RBIs. He is tied for the team lead with six multi-RBI games.
•Sophomore Jared Cortez is batting a .388 with six doubles, while ranking on the team with 22 RBIs.  
•Junior Connor Davis has four home runs, a team-leading 23 RBIs, is batting .333 and leads the squad with eight multi-RBI games.
•Redshirt freshman Tanner Rezny had three home runs, three doubles and is batting .385.
•Senior Henry Hammrich has a team-high eight stolen bases and is hitting .288 with six doubles, three home runs and two triples.
•Junior Cody Wichmann has a 3.62 ERA in 32 1/3 innings with 24 strikeouts compiling a 2-1 record in five starts.
•Sophomore Jameson Quinn is 2-3 with a 6.55 ERA in six starts with a team-high 31 strikeouts in 33 innings.
•Freshman Tad Tjaden has recorded 27 strikeouts in 21 innings.
•Junior Ryan Bell has made six starts and is 3-3 with a 5.87 ERA in 30 2/3 innings.
•Sophomore Austin Dent has two wins, and one save in seven appearances out of the bullpen.
 
SMSU IN THE NCAA STATS
•As of March 24, SMSU pitching ranks fourth in Division II in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.77) and third in walks allowed per nine innings (2.76).
•SMSU ranks 32^nd in batting average (.329). 
•Lampert ranks 54^th in runs per game (1.3), 56^th in on-base pct. (.536), 59^th in batting average (.427) and 67^th in hits per game (1.5).
•Bell ranks fourth in walks per nine innings (0.88), 23^rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.67) and 71^st in WHIP (1.14).
 
            WICHMANN EARNS WEEKLY AWARDS
•Junior pitcher Cody Wichmann was named the NSIC Pitcher of the Week and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Region Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 25.
•Wichmann fired a nine-inning complete game, allowing just six hits and one unearned run with six strikeouts and one walk in SMSU's 5-1 victory over Minot State on Feb. 23. He carried a shutout into the ninth and finished the game tossing 100 pitches with 72 for strikes. He faced three or four MSU batters in seven of the nine innings.
 
            SMSU PICKED NINTH IN NSIC POLL
•SMSU was picked to finish ninth in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
•SMSU senior outfielder Levi Lampert and sophomore right-handed pitcher Jameson Quinn were both named 'Players to Watch' this season.
 
NSIC SCHEDULE
•The 15-team NSIC schedule will have feature a variety of three-game series and doubleheaders during the season.
•The schedule format allows for each team to play every opponent at least twice during the regular season.
•SMSU will play nine three-game series (UMC, MISU, CSP, UMARY, SCSU, NSU, MSU, UJ, UMD) and doubleheaders versus (BSU, USF, WSU, WSC, AU).
•All matchups will be doubleheaders with one seven-inning game and one nine-inning game.
•SMSU is 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.
 
             NSIC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO SOUTH DAKOTA
•The 2026 NSIC tournament will be held on May 6-9 in Sioux Falls, S.D., and hosted by the University of Sioux Falls and Augustana University.  
•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 57^th season of baseball in 2026.
•SMSU has played 2,302 games compiling a record of 1,084-1,215-3.
•SMSU has won four NSIC championships (1974, 1994, 1996, 2002), four NSIC tournament titles (1996, 1997, 1999, 2002) and has played in one NCAA tournament (2009).