SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team makes the short trek to Marshall, Minnesota for a doubleheader against Southwest Minnesota State. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m.
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 lead the all-time series, 68-46, with the first match-up occurring during the 1980 season. This will be the first time SMSU hosts AU since 2016. The Vikings have won nine straight in the series and 29 of the last 31 since 2014.

The Mustangs
Southwest Minnesota State enters the weekend fifth in the NSIC with a 22-15 overall record, 17-13 NSIC after dropping two of three to Winona State. Levi Lampert has reached base in all 37 games and is batting a team high .359 with a team-leading 47 hits. Cory Bantam is second with 29 RBIs and is batting .349 with eight doubles. He has reached base in 19 straight games. Jameson Quinn (4.46 ERA, 44 strikeouts) and Cody Wichmann (4.32 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) started last week's midweek games. 

The Vikings
Augustana is unranked after a series win over Concordia-St. Paul. After seeing a nine game win streak snapped, the Vikings are 28-12 on the year and 22-8 in the NSIC.

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 622-278-1. 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 third in the country in K/9 at 10.2, 12th in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.28, 15th in batting average at .337, 15th in scoring at 9.3 runs per game, 18th in stolen bases per game at 2.83, 23rd in fielding percentage at 0.974 and 25th in on base percentage at .431, 

Jack Hines has 55 hits over a 28 game on-base streak and leads the country with a .476 batting average. He has 44 RBI and 43 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 10 doubles, a triple and four home runs and has a .529 on base percentage while going a perfect 23-23 on stolen bases. 

His 1.75 hits per game also ranks seventh in the country and his 23 stolen bases are tied for the third most in the country without getting caught. 


The last 12 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 and 0 for 0 with two walks after entering as a pinch hitter. 

Over that 13 game stretch, Heinsch has hit .438 (21 for 48) with a home run, two doubles, a triple, 16 runs scored and 13 RBI. The highlight of his stretch came April 13, 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 Winona State

Trevor Winterstein is second on the team with a .370 average and seven home runs while seeing a streak of 10 consecutive games leading off on base snapped last week. Winterstein is tied for third on the team with a 1.055 OPS while scoring a team-high 55 runs and is second on the team lead with 21 steals. He is 17th in the country with 1.38 runs scored per game.

Jason Axelberg is slashing .351/.427/.679 and leads the Vikings with 12 home runs while adding 44 RBI and 40 runs scored with a 1.106 OPS. He saw a team-best 30 game on-base streak snap in mid-April. 

Joshua Koskie third on the team with a .361 average. His 1.055 OPS is fourth on the team and he has four home runs and 25 RBI to go along with a .477 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 .325 in 30 games and 22 starts and hit his first career home run April 13 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 .225 opponent batting average while ranking second on the team with 58 strikeouts. J.D. Hennen threw a no-hitter on March 9 against Bemidji State and has racked up 60 strikeouts in 42 innings. Hennen ranks 19th in the country with 6.43 H/9 allowed and 13th with 12.86 K/9 after allowing two hits and striking out six in 4 1/3  innings against the Golden Bears. 

Kai Taylor has been nails of late, holding a 1.67 ERA over 27 innings and has allowed just one earned run in his last 17 2/3 innings. He is 3-1 through 11 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 0.96 ERA over 9 1/3 innings with 11 strikeouts. Harry Blum has struck out 36 in 34 1/3 innings after 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief on Friday 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 (508), RBI (213) and runs scored (221), third in batting average (.404) and hits (307), fourth in on-base percentage (.478), and slugging percentage (.669), fifth in home runs (41), seventh in doubles (48) and eighth in stolen bases (67). 

Trevor Winterstein is fourth in program history with 82 stolen bases. Will Henry (.192) and J.D. Hennen (.194) each find themselves among the all-time opponent batting average list, ranking sixth 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 11.80.
 
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 eighth with 186 strikeouts.