SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team continues a six-game home stand with a midweek doubleheader against Wayne State. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m., at Ronken Field. 

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 are 49-54-1 all-time against the Wildcats after sweeping a midweek doubleheader and earning an NSIC Tournament victory last season. The Vikings are 24-18 at home and have won 13 of the last 17 games in the series.

The Wildcats
Wayne State enters the weekend third in the NSIC with a 20-14 overall record and are 16-9 in the NSIC after sweeping Concordia-St. Paul. Cam Madsen is hitting .352 with 31 runs scored while Max Heard has a team-high 23 extra base hits while slashing .322/.410/.612. Braden Cannon has six saves and a 3.27 ERA in 11 innings of work while striking out 10 batters. Kyler Hanson (6.19 ERA) and Brooks Kneifl (7.20 ERA) are in line to start the two games. 

The Vikings
Augustana is unranked taking four games against Winona State. The Vikings are 24-11 on the year and 18-7 in the NSIC 

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 618-277-1. 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 fifth in K/9 at 10.2, 10th in the country in fielding percentage at 0.977, 11th in scoring at 9.4 runs per game, 12th in batting average at .340, 16th in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.31, 20th in on base percentage at .435 and 22nd in stolen bases per game at 2.80.

The last eight games have seen the emergence of Carter Heinsch. The freshman from Moorhead, Minnesota has tallied six multi-hit games over that stretch, including five with at least three hits. After going 5 for 7 in two games against UMary last Sunday, he went on a tear this week. 

Heinsch slashed .565/.615/.826 (13 for 23) with a home run, a double, a triple, seven runs scored and eight RBI in six games against Sioux Falls and Winona State. The highlight of his week came Sunday, starting with a 4 for 5 game one and followed that with three hits, including a game-tying, two-run home run, three RBI and three runs scored in a comeback victory over the Warriors

Jack Hines has 41 hits over a 22 game on-base streak and is batting .461 (fourth nationally) with 40 RBI and 35 runs scored. The reigning National Player of the Year has seven doubles, a triple and four home runs and has a .514 on base percentage while going a perfect 19-19 on stolen bases. 

His 1.69 hits per game also ranks 14th in the country and his 19 stolen bases are the fifth most in the country without getting caught. 

Trevor Winterstein has reached base to lead off his last 10 games and is second on the team with a .394 average and seven home runs. Winterstein is third on the team with a 1.123 OPS while scoring a team-high 52 runs. He is 11th in the country with 1.49 runs scored per game.

Jason Axelberg is slashing .368/.452/.702 and leads the Vikings with 10 home runs while adding 38 RBI and 33 runs scored with a 1.154 OPS. He saw a team-best 30 game on-base streak snap on Sunday. 

Joshua Koskie third on the team with a .380 average. His 1.077 OPS is fourth on the team and he has three home runs and 19 RBI to go along with a .500 on-base percentage.  

The freshmen have made major contributions to the offense this season. Bjorn Lind is hitting .339 in 20 games this season and has five multi-hit games since he was regularly inserted into the starting lineup. Kobe Eikmeier is hitting .292 in 26 games and 19 starts and hit his first career home run on Sunday against Winona State. Nate Soelter is 15 for 43 with 13 RBI in his young career, hitting his first career home run on March 27 against Minnesota Duluth. 

Ashton Michek has turned in a good start to the season, holding a .226 opponent batting average while ranking second on the team with 44 strikeouts. J.D. Hennen threw a no-hitter on March 9 against Bemidji State and has racked up 54 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings. Hennen ranks fifth in the country with 5.26 H/9 allowed and 11th with 12.90 K/9 after allowing two hits and striking out 13 in six innings against the Warriors. 

Harry Blum continued a strong stretch this past weekend, throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings last Saturday against UMary. He has struck out 29 in 29 1/3 innings after earning a start on Wednesday and is the only pitcher on staff with multiple saves (3).

Jack Sutton has turned in a 1.29 ERA over seven innings with 10 strikeouts. Kai Taylor has been dominant of late, holding a 2.25 ERA over 20 innings and has allowed just one earned run in his last 10 2/3 innings. 

Mariano Gomez leads the rotation with a 2.45 ERA. The first NSIC Pitcher of the Week of the season has struck out 33 in 22 innings and has allowed an opponent batting average of .192 while giving up just four extra base hits. 

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 (15) and times hit by pitch (47), second in total bases (494) and RBI (211), third in runs scored (213), batting average (.400) and hits (296), fourth in on-base percentage (.474), and slugging percentage (.668), fifth in home runs (41), and eighth in stolen bases (63) and doubles (45). 

Trevor Winterstein is fourth in program history with 78 stolen bases. J.D. Hennen (.182) and Will Henry (.192) each find themselves among the all-time opponent batting average list, ranking third and seventh respectively, minimum 25 innings pitched.

Mariano Gomez, Henry and Hennen have all established themselves with swing-and-miss stuff. Gomez is second all-time with 13.16 strikeouts per nine innings while Henry is fifth with 12.54 and Hennen is eighth 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 22 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). He has also recently shot himself onto the all-time strikeout list, moving to ninth with 188 strikeouts.