SIOUX FALLS, S.D.- The Augustana baseball team begins the 2025 season in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, with four games in the HSU Invitational. The Vikings begin play Thursday at 2 p.m., at Ouachita Baptist. 

Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the App Store or Google Play. 

Full Schedule
Augustana at Ouachita Baptist, Thursday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m.
Augustana vs. Southern Arkansas, Friday, Feb. 7, at 1:30 p.m. at Henderson State
Augustana at Henderson State, Saturday, Feb. 8, at 1:30 p.m.
Augustana at Ouachita Baptist, Sunday, Feb. 9, at noon.

Series History
Following the weekend, AU will have matched up with all three teams at least 10 times. The Vikings are 8-6 against Ouachita Baptist all-time, most recently meeting in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Two pitchers appeared in the game that are currently on the roster, with Ethan Cole collecting a strikeout in a perfect eighth inning and Adam Diedrich earning the save. 

The Vikings are 2-7 all-time against Southern Arkansas, with one of those two wins coming in the Central Region Championship game on AU's path to the 2018 National Championship. Augustana and Henderson State are deadlocked at 5-5 all-time and have matched up just once since 2007. 

The Tigers
Ouachita Baptist enters the weekend 1-2 following a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the Dugan Collegiate Baseball Invitational. The Tigers have had three consecutive winning seasons and were picked to finish eighth in the GAC. OBU is led by Preseason All-American Chase Oberle. Oberle has made one start on the season, allowing a pair of runs and striking out two in five innings of work. They are led by Luke Howard, who is 147-130 in seven seasons. 

The Muleriders
Southern Arkansas enters the weekend 3-1 following a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the Dugan Collegiate Baseball Invitational. The Muleriders went 30-20 a season ago and earned a spot in the GAC semifinals. SAU was picked to finish fourth in the GAC. Jeremy Adorno was named GAC Pitcher of the week while three others were named to the Dugan Invitational All-Tournament Team. Adorno threw six shutout innings and allowed just two hits while striking out seven.

The Reddies
Henderson State also went to Hot Springs, Arkansas last weekend and enters this weekend 2-2. The Reddies were selected to finish fifth GAC. Austin Scritchfield led HSU last weekend, going 8 for 14 with seven runs scored, a home run and seven RBI. Also having a big weekend was Jeremy Schork, whose four home runs rank second in the country. 

The Vikings
Augustana entered the 2024 season ranked No. 7 in the ABCA poll, No. 9 in the D2Baseball poll and No. 17 in the NCBWA poll.

Augustana enters the 2025 season on the heels of a 2024 season that saw them win both the NSIC regular season and tournament titles while earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season. Last year's club went 47-10, the second best win percentage and tying the second-most wins in program history. Their 18 game win-streak in the middle of the season also stands as the longest in program history.

Head coach Tim Huber enters his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 594-266-1. Huber is the reigning NSIC Coach of the Year and has led the Vikings to eight national tournament appearances, including the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championship. This season, the Vikings return seven players who started at least 19 games last year and nine arms that threw at least 10 innings.

Jack Hines was selected as the NSIC Preseason Player of the Year for 2025 while also being named a consensus Preseason First Team All-American. The D2CCA and NCBWA National Player of the Year and Consensus First Team All-American hit .445 with a 1.337 OPS while breaking school records with 21 home runs and 89 RBI last season. The consensus Central Region Player of the Year led the NSIC in home runs, triples, RBI and total bases in conference play last season and looks to cement himself as one of the best to ever wear the Augustana uniform.

Ashton Michek was named as the Vikings' NSIC Preseason Pitcher of the Year after earning D2CCA and NCWBA All-Region First Team nods last year. The left-handed pitcher is the returning NSIC Pitcher of the Year after going 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 52 1/3 conference innings pitched. He had a .202 batting average against while leading the league with 66 strikeouts. He also racked up a program-record 11 pickoffs and had a pair of complete games.

Record Watch
Jack Hines has his name scattered across the all-time record list at Augustana and will have one more season to stake his claim. Hines is the all-time leader in triples (14) and times hit by pitch (42), fourth in slugging percentage (.676), fifth in total bases (414), sixth in home runs (37) and RBI (171), seventh in batting average (.387), on-base percentage (.466), runs scored (179), and hits (237). 

Trevor Winterstein is seventh in program history with 61 stolen bases entering his senior season. 

J.D. Hennen (.189) and Aidan Torpey (.206) each find themselves among the all-time opponent batting average list, with Hennen ranking fifth and Torpey 10th, minimum 25 innings pitched. 
Mariano Gomez and Ethan Cole have both established themselves with swing-and-miss stuff, running second (13.03) and sixth (12.41), respectively. 
 
Also climbing the career record books is Adam Diedrich, who ranks third all-time with 20 saves, four away from the record held by Bret Severtson (24, 2008-11).

Ashton Michek is the master of deception, holding the all-time record with 17 pickoffs. His two seasons at Augustana are the top two seasons in program history in terms of pickoffs (six in 2023, 11 in 2024.)

One Last Thing
This Vikings won their season opener in 2024 and look for the first back-to-back season-opening wins for the first time since 2010-11.