Augustana Baseball Finishes Road Trip With Doubleheader Against Northern State

4/13/2021 11:17:00 AM

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The Augustana baseball team caps off its 10-game road trip Wednesday afternoon with a doubleheader at the Wolves of Northern State. The Vikings enter the matchup at 17-5 on the season and 13-5 within the NSIC.

The Games
First pitch for Wednesday's doubleheader is set for 1:30 p.m. at Fossum Field in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Live video and live stats will be available on GoAugie.com/Live.

The Wolves
Picked to finish ninth in the NSIC, Northern State comes into its matchup with Augustana at 10-9 on the season. The Wolves have swept Concordia-St. Paul and Winona State, took one game from Sioux Falls with game two of the doubleheader resulting in a rainout and split with Mount Marty. They have also dropped three-game series to Upper Iowa and Wayne State and were swept by Minnesota State and Minnesota Duluth in doubleheaders.

The Vikings
Propelled by a red-hot offense and a pitching staff with elite strikeout talent, Augustana comes into its matchup with Northern State ranked No. 3 in the NSIC standings.

The Viking offense leads the NSIC in most major hitting categories, including batting average, runs, hits, doubles, triples, homers, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage, stolen bases and they have the fewest amount of strikeouts in the conference.

Nationally, Augustana's .343 batting average ranks 10th and its 62 stolen bases ranks ninth.

Individually, sophomore outfielder Carter Howell leads the conference in batting average, runs scored, hits and OBP%. Howell joins senior shortstop Sam Baier, senior outfielder Riley Johnson, junior infielder Jordan Barth and senior infielder Christian Kuzemka as Vikings who are hitting above .375 with nine-plus extra-base hits and 20-plus RBIs.

On the mound, Augustana pitchers rank fourth nationally with 12.3 strikeouts per game while leading the conference with 238 strikeouts through 22 games.

Individually, sophomore righty Ryan Jares leads the staff with 40 strikeouts, followed by junior southpaw Tanner Brown with 35 and senior southpaw Koby Bishop with 29.

Overall, nine Viking arms own double-digit strikeout totals with six of those wings at 20-plus strikeouts.

Players to Watch
Junior catcher Will Olson and senior infielder Chrisitan Kuzemka have been heating up at the plate, each hitting a pair of homers in last week's action.

One Last Thing
The Vikings are 57-9 in the all-time series with the Wolves. On the road, Augustana is a perfect 18-0 against Northern State.

-- GoAugie.com --

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