SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – After a strong showing over spring break at the Russmatt Central Florida Invitational, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (8-7) will kick off NSIC action with a 10-game home stand as they host Minnesota Crookston (8-11). The Cougars and Golden Eagles will face off in a double header on Saturday, March 19 with games at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm, and then will wrap up the weekend with a 12 pm game on Sunday, March 20. All games will be played at the First National Bank Field in Brandon, S.D.
After opening 4-0 with a sweep of doubleheaders against Southwest Baptist, the Cougars, directed by Head Coach
Grant Hieb, dropped three-of-four games against Metro State-Denver. USF went 3-4 last week in Florida, and now sit at 8-7 on the season. After playing Minnesota Crookston, USF will continue the 10-game home stand against Minot State on Wednesday, March 23 at Brandon, SD.
Follow Along -
Follow USF Baseball on Twitter at @USF_Baseball, Facebook @
this link or on Instagram at usf_baseball. Updates will also be available at USF_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram at usfcoo_athletics. Live stats for the weekend are available
here with live video available
here.
How Things Stand for USF Baseball -
Redshirt freshman
Noah Christenson has continued his strong start to the season by leading USF in hitting .434, which ranks fifth in the NSIC. The redshirt freshman from Buffalo, Minn., who was named the NSIC Player of the Week two weeks ago, has a team-high 23 hits (4th, NSIC) and 16 runs scored (7th, NSIC) along with a .509 slugging plus .467 on-base percentage. Christensen has four doubles and 12 RBI with 27 total bases.
USF has seven players hitting .300 on better which has placed USF fifth in the league with a .299 batting average. Aside from Christenson other USF hitters over .300 include
Tyler Cate at .375;
Brady Klehr, .350;
Trey Hubers, .313;
Tyler Blackburn, .321; and Zach Andreason, .364. Cate is slugging at .429 with a .435 OBP. He has 21 hits, three doubles and six RBI.
Grant Lung, who is hitting .259, has five RBI and two doubles with 14 hits and has 13 runs scored. He has a .296 slugging mark and .369 OBP with a team-best 8-of-8 on stolen bases. Klehr has opened up his first season at USF by hitting .350 with 14 hits, eight RBI, .550 slugging and .381 OBP, while Hubers has a team-best 13 RBI, .375 slugging and .386 OBP. Blackburn is slugging at .536, with six RBI and OBP at .441.
Ben Serie has a team-best two home runs and ranks third on the team with 11 RBI and second on the team with 25 total bases. He is hitting .280 so far this season.
As a team, USF has scored 102 runs with 139 hits, as well as slugged seven home runs. USF has team marks of .402 slugging and .387 on-base percentage with 26 stolen bases in 31 attempts.
Breaking it down for USF
USF has scored 18 runs in the first inning, 19 in the fifth inning and a team-best 21 in the sixth innings. Against left-handed starters, USF is 2-1 with a 6-6 mark vs right-handers. When leading after six innings, USF is 8-0 and is 3-0 after leading through seven hits. When USF has scored at least six runs or more, they are 7-0. USF is 4-2 when scoring in the first inning and 6-1 when they score first. IN terms of situational stats, USF is hitting .284 vs left-handers and .303 against right handers. With runners on base, USF is at .324 as a team led by Christenson's .478 mark. With the bases loaded USF is hitting .259 and own a .314 average with runners in scoring position. Christenson is 7-of-14 for .500 to lead USF while
Tyler Blackburn is 5-of-11 for a .455 with runners in scoring position and
Trey Hubers is 8-of-18 for .444. When hitting with two outs, USF is batting .275 with Christenson at .500 and
Tyler Cate at .462. In terms of advancing runners, USF has been successful 51 percent of the rin. USF has 24 two-oout RBI.
On the mound, USF has recorded 105 strikeouts in 110 innings with 29 walks. The bullpen is led by
Connor McGonigal, who sits at a 0.96 earned run average with four appearances, while Zach Shastay is 1-0 in three appearances with a 3.18 earned run average out of the bullpen.
Alex Krout has three saves to lead USF.
Derek Lundgren and
Andrew Maslowski have each earned a win, while
Caleb Ditmarson has two wins for the Cougars. Ditmarson leads the starters with a 4.24 earned run average and has a team-best 18 strikeouts in 17 innings, which is also a team-high. USF has a 1.9 strikeout to walk watio and average 8.59 strikeouts per game.
History – USF holds 14-4 advantage over Minnesota Crookston
In the overall series, the Cougars sit at a 14-4 advantage over the Golden Eagles, including an eight-game winning streak to start the series. USF lost it's first game to UMC on March 25, 2017, a 9-4 decision in favor of UMC at the Sioux Fall Stadium. The Cougars most recent win over the Golden Eagles was a 3-2 decision on April 3, 2019 in Crookston, Minn. Since then, UMC has won the two most recent matchups, including a 15-3 decision and a 7-5 decision, both played in Brandon, S.D. on March 25, 2021.
Cougars will play home games at First National Bank Field in Brandon, SD
Due to upcoming field upgrades at Sioux Falls Stadium, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team will play its home schedule in 2022 at the First National Bank Stadium in Brandon, S.D.
