SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team is set for a heavyweight battle, taking on No. 4/7/5 Minnesota State for a weekend series at Ronken Field. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 1:30 p.m., on Saturday before a noon start on Sunday. Saturday will also serve as Senior Day, with the 11 seniors being honored in between games. 

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 Mavericks lead the all-time series 82-35, with the first match-up occurring during the 1970 season. The Vikings enter on a three-game win streak, taking the final game of their regular season series before winning twice over Minnesota State in the NSIC Tournament, including the NSIC Championship game. 

The Mavericks
Minnesota State enters the weekend first in the NSIC with a 37-4 overall record, 29-3 NSIC a pair of shutout victories over Concordia-St. Paul on Wednesday. Transfer Ike Mezzenga is batting .394 with 15 home runs and 62 RBI to lead the offense. Nathan Culley has anchored the staff with a 2.09 ERA and 1.09 WHIP while holding a 9-0 record in nine starts. 

The Vikings
Augustana is unranked after a midweek sweep over Southwest Minnesota State. Winners of 11 in the last 12, the Vikings are 30-12 on the year and 24-8 in the NSIC.

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 624-278-1. 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 second in the country in K/9 at 10.2, 12th in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.29, 16th in batting average at .335, 17th in scoring at 9.2 runs per game, 17th in fielding percentage at 0.975, 23rd in stolen bases per game at 2.74 and 28th in on base percentage at .428, 

Jack Hines has 56 hits over a 29 game on-base streak and is third in the country with a .467 batting average. He has 46 RBI and 44 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 five home runs and has a .531 on base percentage while going a perfect 23-23 on stolen bases. 

His 1.69 hits per game also ranks 12th in the country and his 23 stolen bases are tied for the third most in the country without getting caught.

The last 14 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 .417 (25 for 60) with a home run, two doubles, a triple, 23 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 .362 average and seven home runs. Winterstein is fourth on the team with a 1.023 OPS while scoring a team-high 57 runs and is second on the team lead with 22 steals. He is 19th in the country with 1.36 runs scored per game.

After a home run in each game on Wednesday, Jason Axelberg is slashing .350/.422/.699 and leads the Vikings with 14 home runs while adding 48 RBI and 43 runs scored with a 1.121 OPS. He saw a team-best 30 game on-base streak snap in mid-April. 

Troy Berg has emerged of late, recording hits in 14 of the last 15 games while moving his season average up to .361. Joshua Koskie fifth on the team with a .344 average and 1.005 OPS. He has four home runs and 25 RBI to go along with a .461 on-base percentage. Ragan Pinnow is batting .463 in his last 13 games and has boosted his season average to .324 with a .902 OPS.

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 31 games and 23 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 18th 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 last weekend. 

Kai Taylor has been nails of late, holding a 1.50 ERA over 30 innings and has allowed just one earned run in his last 20 2/3 innings. He is 3-1 through 11 appearances and three starts and has added three saves. Ryan Clementi has also shoved out of the 'pen, striking out 16 over 11 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 0.82 ERA over 11 innings with 12 strikeouts. Harry Blum has struck out 38 in 35 2/3 innings after a scoreless 1 1/3 on Wednesday and is tied with Taylor for the staff-lead 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 (512), RBI (217) and runs scored (222), third in batting average (.403), home runs (42) and hits (308), fourth in on-base percentage (.479), and slugging percentage (.670), seventh in doubles (48) and eighth in stolen bases (67). 

Trevor Winterstein is fourth in program history with 83 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.