SIOUX FALLS – The University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (13-25, 13-15 NSIC) will conclude their regular season road schedule with a crucial Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference series at Wayne State (15-21, 13-13 NSIC) in Wayne, Neb., on Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28. The USF-WSC doubleheaders start at 1:30/4 p.m. on Saturday and noon/2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Live stats and live video will be available to fans.

USF, which is coming off a home split (winning 4-2 and losing 5-2) against league leader and No. 1 ranked Augustana, sits just .16 percentage points behind Upper Iowa (14-17, 12-13 NSIC) for eighth place in the NSIC and .36 percentage points behind WSC for seventh place in the league. The Cougars are trying to be one of the NSIC's top eight teams and earn their second ever league tournament appearance (2016). After this weekend series with WSC, USF will conclude the regular season with a home series against Concordia St. Paul (17-11, 10-8) on May 4-5 at the Birdcage. CSP currently sits in sixth place. Meanwhile WSC will close with a four-game series at Augustana. Upper Iowa has a four-game series at Minot State on April 28-29 and close at home against Minnesota State. Also in the hunt is Minnesota Duluth at 15-22 overall and 11-14 in the league. They will face a big road series with Northern State (14-16, 7-11) and then host Minnesota Crookston (19-24, 5-19 NSIC) on May 4-5.  
 
USF has defeated Augustana four times in six meetings
Led by the pitching and hitting of senior Dylan Gavin, USF stopped Augustana'sa 12-game winning streak with a 4-2 decision in game one and earned a split of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader with the Vikings at the Birdcage on Wednesday. USF won game one, 4-2, before falling in the nightcap, 5-2, in the city rivalry matchup.

The Cougars have won four of the last six games against their cross town rivals. The victory enabled the Cougars to defeat an NCAA DII No. 1 ranked team for the first time. USF and Augustana have split doubleheaders in each of the past two seasons.

Gavin had a solid outing on the mound as USF won game one. He threw four shutout innings, and had an RBI double in the opener. Gavin, a senior from Pueblo, Colo., finished with four hits in eight at bats with three runs scored and six total bases. Josh Rehwaldt of Burnsville, Minn., also had a pair of hits for the Cougars. Sophomore relief pitcher Jackson Olson of Sioux Falls also had a solid day as he had appearances in both games, earning a save and allowing just one run on four hits in 4 1/3 innings. Over his last nine outings, he has allowed just one run on nine hits in 13 innings with four saves, which ranks third in the NSIC.

Opponent Review - Wayne State
The Wildcats, which dropped a pair of games to Concordia St. Paul on Wednesday (5-3, 8-3), stand seventh in the league at 13-13 and 15-21 overall.  On offense, the Wildcats rank seventh in the NSIC with a .278 batting average with 24 home runs and 160 RBI. They have a .404 slugging percentage and .348 on-base percentage. On the mound, WSC is 13th in the NSIC with a 6.69 ERA with 196 earned runs allowed in 263 2/3 innings, 221 strikeouts and .307 opponent batting average. Fourth-year head coach Alex Koch leads WSC, with an 86-97 overall record and 60-58 in NSIC play.  On offense Bryce Bisenius leads the lead in hitting at .365a with a home run and 22 RBI. Travis Miller is hitting .362 with six home runs. Andrew Hanson is hitting .333 and Tanner Simmons at .315 with both slugging six home runs.  WSC's top starter is Aaron Ras, who is 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA with eight starts.
 
WSC leads USF, 11-5 in series
In NSIC play, Wayne State holds an 11-5 record of USF. In 2013 at Harmodon Park, WSC and USF split with the Wildcats taking 10-4 and 3-2 decisions and USF winning, 2-1 and 5-1. In 2014, USF defeated WSC, 5-4, but lost 13-3, 5-3, and 3-0 in a four-game series in Wayne, Neb. In 2015, WSC swept USF, 10-7, 10-0 at Harmodon Park. USF split with WSC in 2016 in Wayne, Neb., taking a 5-1 decision but falling 12-5. A year ago, USF recorded a 12-6 decision in the opener as Josh Rehwaldt homered and had two hits and Matthew Minnick also had two hits, three runs scored and an RBI. USF then lost, 3-1, 4-3 and 11-10.
 
Quick take on Cougars
Weather has been an issue thus far this spring. The Cougars opened the NSIC with a 2-2 mark against Bemidji State by playing at two high school fields in Omaha and Plattsmouth, Nebraska. In cold conditions on March 22-23, USF defeated Winona State, 14-0 but lost 3-1, 5-1 and 4-3 in 13 innings. In its only win in Winona, USF rolled up a season-high 14 runs with 15 hits in a 14-0 decision. USF, which totaled 19 runs on 38 hits with 17 RBI in the series, dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to Winona State in 13 innings in the season final game of the series. Among the bright spots during the series was 15 2/3 innings of relief pitching in which the Cougars allowed just two runs and 10 hits in the four games against the Warriors. Also sophomore Brandon Roesler threw his second straight complete game in the win and Josh Rehwaldt hammered a grand slam. In splitting a double header with SMSU, Brent Jarvis hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to give USF a 2-1 win. The Cougars lost game two, 8-7.  USF and SCSU split a pair of doubleheaders on March 29-30 with the Cougars taking 3-1 and 10-9 (10 innings) decisions on day two. The Cougars then defeated Minnesota Crookston, 3-1 and 7-3, with timely hitting  and stellar bullpen work. 
 
Dalton Roach of MSU moved to 7-0 by holding USF to six hits in tossing a complete game in a 3-1 victory. Senior Stuart Maes (1-6) took the loss for the Cougars, working 2 2/3 innings and allowing three hits and one earned run with a strikeout and three walks. Rehwaldt, who homered, and Dylan Gavin both had a pair of hits for USF. In game two, senior left-hander Aaron Rozek limited USF to a pair of hits over six innings as MSU captured a 6-0 decision for the sweep. Nick Belzer finished for MSU, allowed a two-out single to Matthew Minnick, who had two of USF's three hits. Sophomore right-hander Keenahn Coyle took the loss for USF, falling to 1-2 on the season. He had a solid outing with a career high seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. 

The Cougars swept U-Mary, 7-2, 6-2 with Matt Graham and Alex Loosbrock earning their first career wins. In the opener, Rehwaldt homered twice and had four RBIs. In game two Alex Elizondo had four hits including his first career home run, a three-run shot. Anthony Lopez also deposited a three-run home run in the game two win. USF dropped 3-of-4 to second place Minot State on April 21-22. USF lost 3-0, 8-1 and 16-7. In a 4-2 win on Saturday, Brandon Roesler earned his third win of the season. Jackson Olson closed for his third save. Against No. 1 Augustana, the Cougars opened up a 4-0 lead behind the pitching of Gavin, who earned his fourth win in nine decision. The Vikings scored two runs late but Olson earned his fourth save by striking out Lucas Barry in the seventh inning and the bases loaded. USF received solid outing from Keenahn Coyle (4 1/3 innings, five hits, one run, four strikeouts) and Jackson Olson (4 innings, three hits, one run, three strikeouts) but fell to the Vikings, 5-2.
 
How USF stands overall
USF ranks 15th in the league with a .237 batting average and have hit 22 home runs, which ranks tied for sixth in the NSIC, in 38 games. USF has a .317 on-base percentage and is slugging at .339. On the mound, the Cougars have a 5.08 ERA, which ranks fifth in the NSIC. The Cougars have allowed 333 hits, 171 earned runs with 197 strikeouts, 138 walks and a .284 batting average in throwing 302 2/3 innings.
 
USF, which was picked 11th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches Poll, is led by head coach Grant Hieb, who is 29-53 in his second season with the program.
 
Rehwaldt ranks third in the NSIC in hitting at .403; hitting 413 with runners on base
Junior first baseman Josh Rehwaldt now ranks fourth in the NSIC in hitting at .403 with eight home runs and 31 RBI. He ranks third in the NSIC in slugging at .664, second in on-base percentage at .477 and fourth in the league with 54 hits. Rehwaldt, who has 16 multi-hit games this season, has 31 RBIs, 89 total bases and six stolen bases.   He has an RBI in 16 different games and multi-RBIs in eight contests. He has a season-best five RBI against Winona State on March 22 on the road. Rehwaldt hit .727 in the opening weekend of play (Metro State, Feb. 16-18) and picked up his first-ever Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Week honor on Feb. 20. Rehwaldt is hitting .483 against right-handers (42-of-87), .255 against left-handers (12-of-47) and 26-of-63 for .413 with runners on base. With runners on third and less than two out, the junior is 5-of-5 and is hitting .340 (17-of-50) hitting with two outs. He also also advancing runners at a .429 success rate.
 
Rehwaldt, a 6-6, 240 pound standout from Burnsville, Minn., registered eight hits in 11 at bats (.727) against Metro State. He also had two home runs, six RBIs and two runs scored. Rehwaldt was named by NSIC coaches as "Player to Watch" in the preseason.  Rehwaldt, a business major at USF, has 18 career HRs, 121 RBI, 200 hits, and 107 runs in making 134 career starts. The home runs and RBIs rank second all-time in USF's DII era with his 200 hits sitting third. He also has the program's top average of .381 and doubles with 45 in the DII era. Rehwaldt has a career slugging mark of .589 with an on-base mark of .428 and 23 steals. He also has 30 multi RBI games and 63 multi-hit games. He has 63 games with two or more hits, 22 games with three or more hits and three with four hits or more, including twice recording five hits in a game. A year ago Rehwaldt was named to the All-NSIC first team after ranking in top 10 in eight NSIC hitting categories. He also became USF's first-ever NCAA DII all-region player with his selection to the 2017 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) DII squad.
 
Dylan Gavin playing at high level in doing double duty
Senior Dylan Gavin is handling double duty for USF. On the season he is hitting .324 with 44 hits, with two home runs and 14 RBI and 19 runs scored. Gavin is slugging .434 with a .374 on-base percentage. Thirteen times, he has multi-hit games. In 10 starts on the mound this season, Gavin has a 4-5 record and 2.62 earned run averaged. Gavin, who has three complete games, has gone at last 5 1/3 innings in eight of nine starts and not allowed more than three runs in any of the starts.  Gavin is hitting .404 against lefties on 19-of-47 hitting and 25-of-89 for .281 average against right-handers. He is hitting .313 with two outs and .714 (5-of-7) with runners on third and less than two out.  On the mound, Gavin is holding right-handed hitters to a .200 average and .237 against lefties. With two outs, opponents are hitting just .211.
 
This and That
The Cougars are 12-0 when leading after six innings and 4-0 when ahead through eight frames. When USF scores first, they are 9-4 and 5-3 when they score in the first inning. USF is 9-6 when out-hitting foes but 4-16 when the opposition holds the hitting edge. Against right-handed starters, the Cougars have an 9-15 record but are 4-10 against southpaws. As for day games, USF is 11-21 but 2-4 at night. Also, USF has a 3-3 record in one-run games, 6-4 in two-run games and 2-1 in extra inning.

Record Notes – USF DII era
Two current USF hitters, Matthew Minnick (205) and Josh Rehwaldt (200) have 200 or more hit in their career. Minnick ranks second and Rehwaldt, third, in USF's NCAA DII era. Rehwaldt's 45 doubles is the most in the DII era with Minnick's total of 42 second. Brent Jarvis ranks third in doubles with 37 and Rob Johnson, fifth. Johnson's nine triples is the most in the DII era with Rehwaldt's five, third; and Jarvis, four, fifth. Minnick has the most home runs with 19, just one ahead of Rehwaldt at 18 and four more than Connor Merriam with 15. Minnick also has the edge in RBIs with 125 while Rehwaldt has 121 for second and Merriam along with Jarvis have 78 to tie for third. Minnick has 310 total bases for most in the DII era but Rehwaldt at 309 is a close second. Jarvis has 83 walks which is the most in the DII era and his 25 hit by pitch is also first with Merriam second in HBP with 22 and Anthony Lopez, third, 20. Rehwaldt has 11 intentional passes. With 40 career steals, Johnson has the most in the DII era with Jarvis one back at 39 and Minnick's 30 is fourth. On the mound, Dylan Gavin has 14 wins, which is the most in the DII era. Jackson Olson's four saves ranks tied for first while Gavin's 41 appearances is second and 39 by Stuart Maes ranks third. Gavin has 28 starts to rank third, just two away from Henry Ojega, who had 30 from 2013-15. Gavin is also third in innings pitched at 160.1.