SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team heads to historic Floyd Fitzgerald Field for three games in Rapid City, S.D., meeting MSU Denver. The teams will play a doubleheader on March 16 starting at 1 p.m., before a single game on March 17 at noon. 

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. 

Series History
The Vikings and Roadrunners will meet for the first time in series history

The Roadrunners
MSU Denver enters the weekend 8-11 after taking one of four games against Regis. Three Roadrunners are hitting .400 or better, led by Royce Vandine. Vandine is slashing .419/.509/.767 with four home runs and 18 RBI. The leader of the offense is Cam Yuran, whose 1.436 OPS and 26 runs scored lead the team while his seven home runs and 20 RBI ranks second. 

The Vikings
Augustana is ranked No. 13 in the ABCA poll, No. 14 in the D2Baseball poll and No. 17 in the NCBWA poll after sweeping Bemidji State. The Vikings are 9-5 on the year after dropping a pair to Washburn during the week. 

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 603-271-1. 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. 

The Vikings are first in the country in fielding percentage at 0.991 and fifth in K/9 with 11.1, 10th in stolen bases per game at 3.57, 16th in scoring at 9.2 runs per game, 18th in strikeout to walk ratio at 2.76, 25th with a 1.38 WHIP and 30th in hits per nine with 8.37. 

J.D. Hennen enters the weekend as the reigning National Pitcher of the Week on Thursday afternoon. Hennen was masterful in his start against Bemidji State last Sunday, throwing the first no-hitter in the NSIC while earning a win in Augustana's 15-0 win over Bemidji State. He struck out 15 in a seven innings and forced 25 whiffs on 90 pitches and worked two-strike counts on both hitters that reached base. 

Entering play this week, Hennen holds a has 19 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings of action on the season. For his career, he ranks eighth in program history with 11.87 strikeouts/9 innings and fifth with a .185 opponents batting average.

Jason Axelberg is slashing .396/.474/.833 and is the reigning NSIC Player of the Week after a dominant performance in a Saturday doubleheader against Bemidji State. The senior leads the Vikings with a 1.307 OPS, five home runs and 23 RBI while adding 15 runs scored. 

Also batting .396 is Jack Hines. Hines has driven in 13 runs on 19 singles and two doubles while collecting a .508 on-base percentage. He has stolen a team-high 13 bases and has scored 14 runs while drawing nine walks. 

An emerging bat for the Vikings has Trevor Winterstein, whose .380 batting average ranks third. Winterstein is second on the team with four home runs while stealing seven bases and leads the team with a .522 on base percentage. 

Joshua Koskie has had quite the return to the lineup after redshirting a season ago, hitting .370 with a pair of home runs and nine RBI. The junior has a .486 on base percentage and .667 slugging percentage to rank third on the team with a 1.153 OPS. 

Mariano Gomez leads the rotation with a 1.00 ERA. The first NSIC Pitcher of the Week of the season has struck out 25 in 18 innings and has allowed an opponent batting average of .177 while giving up just two extra base hits. 

Ashton Michek has turned in a good start to the season, holding a 3.71 ERA and .226 opponent batting average while tying with Gomez for the team lead with 25 strikeouts. 

Out of the bullpen, Maddox Foss has struck out four in 4 2/3 scoreless frames while Kai Taylor has allowed a WHIP of 0.86 in 9 1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts. Joel Van De Stroet has allowed just one run in 5 innings while striking out five.  

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 (45), third in total bases (437), fifth in runs scored (186), sixth in slugging percentage (.657), on-base percentage (.469), home runs (37), hits (258) and RBI (184), seventh in batting average (.388) and ninth in stolen bases (57). 

Trevor Winterstein is seventh in program history with 68 stolen bases and Ryan Clementi, who passed the 100 career AB threshold, ranks eighth with a .384 batting average. J.D. Hennen (.185) and Will Henry (.200)  each find themselves among the all-time opponent batting average list, ranking fifth and seventh respectively, minimum 25 innings pitched.

Mariano Gomez, Henry, Hennen and Ethan Cole have all established themselves with swing-and-miss stuff. Gomez is second all-time with 12.90 strikeouts per nine innings while Henry is sixth with 12.43, Hennen is eighth with 11.87 and Cole is ninth with 11.77.
 
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 20 pickoffs. His two full seasons at Augustana are the top two seasons in program history in terms of pickoffs (six in 2023, 11 in 2024.)