SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team takes I-90 to 35E for a three game set against Concordia-St. Paul. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m., on Friday before a single game at noon on Saturday at Barnes 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 42-5 all-time against the Golden Bears after a 19-3 win in the NSIC Tournament last season. The Vikings are 10-0 in St. Paul all-time and have won 14 in a row. A season ago, Ryan Clementi had four hits and the Vikings mashed five home runs in the tournament win. 

The Golden Bears
Concordia-St. Paul enters the weekend tied for 10th in the NSIC with a 16-21 overall record and are 12-15 in the NSIC after splitting a midweek with Winona State. Nolan Juliar is hitting .368 with11 doubles and 24 RBI while Preseason All-American Bennett McCollow has a team-high six home runs while batting .321 with a .975 OPS. Ian Senga is 4-2 with 37 strikeouts and a 4.20 ERA in 40 ⅔ innings while primarily throwing doubleheader openers. 

The Vikings
Augustana is unranked after a midweek sweep over Wayne State. After going 6-0 on their most recent homestand and winning 13 of their last 15, the Vikings are 26-11 on the year and 20-7 in the NSIC.

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 620-277-1. 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 10.1, eighth in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.13, 12th in batting average at .340, 14th in scoring at 9.4 runs per game, 18th in on base percentage at .437, 19th in the country in fielding percentage at 0.974 and 21st in stolen bases per game at 2.81.

The last 10 games have seen the emergence of Carter Heinsch. The freshman from Moorhead, Minnesota has tallied seven multi-hit games over that stretch, including five with at least three hits, and a game in which he went 0 for 1 with three walks. 

Over that 10 game stretch, Heinsch has hit .556/.614/.750 (20 for 36) with a home run, two doubles, a triple, 15 runs scored and 11 RBI. The highlight of his stretch came last 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 45 hits over a 24 game on-base streak and is batting .467 (second nationally) with 42 RBI and 37 runs scored. He also became the third player in program history to reach 300 career hits on April 15 against Wayne State. The reigning National Player of the Year has nine doubles, a triple and four home runs and has a .522 on base percentage while going a perfect 20-20 on stolen bases. 

His 1.70 hits per game also ranks ninth in the country and his 20 stolen bases are tied for the fifth most in the country without getting caught. 

Trevor Winterstein is second on the team with a .393 average and seven home runs while seeing a streak of 10 consecutive games leading off on base snapped on Tuesday. Winterstein is third on the team with a 1.123 OPS while scoring a team-high 54 runs and is tied for the team lead with 20 steals. He is 12th in the country with 1.46 runs scored per game.

Jason Axelberg is slashing .361/.438/.697 and leads the Vikings with 11 home runs while adding 41 RBI and 35 runs scored with a 1.135 OPS. He saw a team-best 30 game on-base streak snap last weekend. 

Joshua Koskie third on the team with a .378 average. His 1.081 OPS is fourth on the team and he has three home runs and 21 RBI to go along with a .500 on-base percentage.  

Three other freshmen have joined Heinsch in making 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 .314 in 28 games and 20 starts and hit his first career home run on Sunday against Winona State. Nate Soelter is 16 for 45 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. 

Kai Taylor has been nails of late, holding a 1.82 ERA over 24 2/3  innings and has allowed just one earned run in his last 15 1/3 innings. He is 3-1 through 10 appearances and three starts and has added two saves. Ryan Clementi has also shoved out of the 'pen, allowing two earned runs and striking out 13 over 8 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. 

Jack Sutton has turned in a 2.00 ERA over nine innings with 11 strikeouts. Harry Blum has struck out 30 in 29 2/3 innings after entering in relief on Tuesday and leads the staff with three saves.

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 (500) and RBI (213), third in runs scored (215), batting average (.402) and hits (300), fourth in on-base percentage (.476), and slugging percentage (.669), fifth in home runs (41), seventh in doubles (47) and eighth in stolen bases (64). 

Trevor Winterstein is fourth in program history with 81 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.