Augustana Baseball Begins Journey to Cary

5/26/2021 11:12:00 AM

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Playoff baseball continues for the No. 18-ranked Augustana baseball squad and for the third-consecutive season, the Vikings are off to the regionals. Central Missouri, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, is set to host the NCAA Central Regional Tournament in Warrensburg, Missouri, at Crane Stadium at Tompkins Field.

The Tournament
Augustana, the No. 2 seed, is set to take on the No. 5 seed Southern Arkansas Muleriders Thursday at 7 p.m. in its first matchup of the double elimination tournament. The Muleriders, 27-14 so far this season, fell to Henderson State in the first round of the Great American Conference Tournament. The Vikings, 36-11 on the season, fell to No. 13-ranked Minnesota State in the NSIC Championship, ultimately moving to 3-2 in the season series against the Mavericks.

With a win, Augustana would play the winner of the Minnesota State vs. Arkansas Tech matchup. Minnesota State checks in as the No. 3 seed with Arkansas Tech at No. 4. With a loss, the Vikings would play the loser of the same matchup. Minnesota State, the NSIC Champion, went 37-8 on the season while Arkansas Tech went 28-15 on the season after falling to Henderson State in the GAC Championship.

The final inaugural game of the tournament features the No. 1 seed and host Central Missouri Mules and the No. 6 seed Henderson State Reddies. Central Missouri went 39-6 this season, winning the MIAA regular-season title and MIAA Tournament Championship. Henderson State went 26-17, winning the GAC Championship as the No. 7 seed in the tournament.

The full bracket for the NCAA Central Regional can be found here.

The Vikings
Nationally, the Viking pitching staff continues to rank No. 1 in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.6 and shutouts with eight. Overall, Augustana pitchers have struck out 492 opponents in 47 games and with eight more strikeouts they will join the 2018 National Championship team as the only two teams in school history to achieve 500 strikeouts with the 2018 team logging 559 in 61 games.

The staff is led by sophomore righty Ryan Jares (1.56 ERA with 88 strikeouts), freshman righty Caleb Kranz (1.95 ERA with 48 strikeouts), senior lefty Koby Bishop (2.53 ERA with 72 strikeouts), senior righty Max Steffens (2.81 ERA with 54 strikeouts) and junior lefty Tanner Brown (2.86 ERA with 67 strikeouts).

In addition to their top-five strikeout totals, the Vikings boast five more pitchers with 20-plus strikeouts in Evan Furst, Jed Schmidt, Parker Hanson, Tony Lanier and Thomas Bruss.

On the basepaths, Augustana ranks second in the nation in stolen bases with 121 on the season. 27 of those steals can be attributed to the Vikings' leadoff man, sophomore outfielder Carter Howell. Senior shortstop Sam Baier and senior center fielder Riley Johnson follow Howell with 21 and 20 steals, respectively. Juniors Jaxon Rosencranz and JT Mix have also broken double digit steal totals with 17 and 10, respectively.

At the plate, the Viking offense claims the 16th best batting average in the country with a .328 clip. Howell leads the charge with a ridiculous stat line: a .430 batting average, 80 hits (second in the country), 12 doubles, four triples, nine homers, 44 RBIs, 56 runs scored (12th in the country), a .683 SLG%, a .507 OBP% and the aforementioned 27 steals (seventh in the country).

Junior catcher Will Olson, senior infielder Christian Kuzemka and junior infielder Jordan Barth join Howell as Vikings hitting over .335 with 50-plus hits, 30-plus runs scored, 40-plus RBIs and 15-plus extra-base hits.

Freshman infielder Max Mosser (hitting .412 with 35 hits in 85 at-bats), Baier (hitting .311 with nine homers and 38 RBIs), Johnson (hitting .302 with four homers and 35 RBIs), the red-hot junior outfielder Jaxon Rosencranz (hitting .301 with seven homers and 23 RBIs) and Mix (hitting .286 with nine extra-base hits and a .390 OBP%) round out the rest of the Augustana offense.

-- GoAugie.com --

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