BURNSVILLE, MINN. – With a program-best 25 overall wins, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (25-25) has earned a berth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Postseason Tournament for the second straight time. This is the third postseason tourney berth for USF in the DII era. The Cougars will be seeded No. 7 and face No. 2 seeded St. Cloud State in the eight-team double-elimination tourney.

"I am very proud of my guys. They battled all season long and had the best season to date in our program history," said USF sixth-year Head Coach Grant Hieb, whose team finished with a program-DII-best 25 wins and 17 NSIC wins with the No. 7 seed for the upcoming NSIC Tourney. "We are excited about the opportunity," said Hieb.

In the postseason tourney, the top eight teams in the final regular season standings will participate in the tournament scheduled to run on May 11-14 in Sioux Falls hosted by Augustana University at Ronken Field and University of Sioux Falls at First National Bank Field in Brandon, SD.  

First Round Series match-ups:
(7) Sioux Falls vs (2) St. Cloud State Ronken Field, Sioux Falls, SD, 6 pm
(8) U-Mary vs (1) Augustana, Ronken Field, Sioux Falls, SD, Noon
(5) Winona State (4) Minot State, First National Bank Field, Brandon, SD, 12:30 pm
(6) Minnesota Duluth vs (3) Minnesota State, First National Bank Field, Brandon, SD, 6:30 pm
 
The winner of the NSIC Baseball Tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. The 39-team NCAA Central Region is made up of teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC). Automatic bids are awarded to the tournament champions from each conference with the final five spots awarded on an at-large basis.

The championship preliminary round competition provides for 16 regional sites that consist of 4-teams, double-elimination tournaments. The winners of these regional-round competitions advance to a super-regional round that consist of two teams competing in a best-of-three series.

The NCAA DII Baseball Selection Show will stream on NCAA.com on Sunday, May 15 at 9 p.m. central time.  

USF Baseball has won 8-of-15 to earn spot

Regardless of what happens this postseason, USF, directed by Head Coach Grant Hieb and assistants Rob Hirrschoff, Gunner Petersen and Keenahn Coyle, has had its best season at the DII level and guaranteed themselves a .500 record with 25-25 mark. With 17 league wins, USF bettered its previous best of 16 a year ago and in 2017. USF is making its third appearance in the NSIC Baseball Tourney (2016, 2021).  USF closed the regular season with eight wins in its final 15 games to qualify for a second straight tourney for the first time in school history.

In 2016, USF lost to Minnesota Duluth, 10-1 in the opening round and 6-4 to Minnesota State in the elimination round. In 2021, USF fell to Minnesota State, 10-4 and 10-6.

STATS – OVERVIEW
Through 50 games, the Cougars had a DII-program-best 25 wins with 14 of 26 coming at home at First National Bank Field in Brandon, S.D. The Cougars finished the regular season with a .278 average and 279 runs on 423 hits with 89 extra base knocks. USF had 26 home runs and 57 doubles. The Cougars had a .375 slugging and .368 OBP with 85 stolen bases. Sophomore Noah Christenson led USF in four offensive categories including average (.354), hits (63), RBI (40) and OBP (.403). He also had a .433 slugging along with 12 steals in 13 attempts. In his first year as a starter, Brady Klehr hit .338 with six home runs and 29 RBI with a team-high .517 slugging while have a .379 OBP. Tyler Cate hit .298 with 54 hits, .390 OBP and 13 stolen bases. Senior Trey Hubers was at .289 for an average with 28 RBI while Grant Lung hit .275 with a .380 OBP and had a team-high 16 steals.

On the hill, USF finished with a 5.95 earned run average and 346 strikeouts in 382.2 innings. Caleb Ditmarson led starters with a 4-3 record, 3.93 earned run average and 51 strikeouts. Alex Krout (0-3) had a 2.86 earned run average and eight saves (program-best 14 in his career).