SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team is set for its regular season finale, taking on Minot State for a weekend series in Minot, N.D. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m., on Friday before a 1 p.m., start on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.

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 28-10, with the first match-up occurring during the 1968 season. The Vikings enter on a three-game win streak, taking all three games to wrap up the 2024 regular season. 

The Beavers
Minot State enters the weekend first in the NSIC with a 17-29 overall record, 11-26 NSIC after splitting a pair with Bemidji State on Tuesday. Oscar Pegg is batting .317 with 13 home runs and 41 RBI to power the offense. Connor Hill had a 4.54 ERA to lead the starting staff while holding a team-best .333 batting average to top the offense. 

The Vikings
Augustana is unranked after a midweek sweep over Northern State but slot in at No. 8 in the Central Region rankings. Winners of 14 in the last 17, the Vikings are 33-14 on the year and 27-10 in the NSIC.

Head coach Tim Huber is in his 17th season at the helm for AU and holds an all-time record of 627-280-1. 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 fourth in the country in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.15, fifth in K/9 at 9.9, 18th in batting average at .331, 22nd in scoring at 8.8 runs per game, 22th in fielding percentage at 0.974 and 23rd in stolen bases per game at 2.66. 

Jack Hines has 60 hits over a 34 game on-base streak and is third in the country with a .452 batting average. He has 50 RBI, 47 runs scored and recently became the program's all-time career RBI leader. 

On April 15 against Wayne State, Hines became the third player in program history to reach 300 career hits. The reigning National Player of the Year has 12 doubles, a triple and five home runs and has a .520 on base percentage while going a perfect 27-28 on stolen bases. His 1.60 hits per game also ranks 28th in the country.

Trevor Winterstein is second on the team with a .389 average and eight home runs after a  solid week at the plate. Over his last five games, Winterstein is 13 for 22 with six runs scored in the leadoff spot. Winterstein is third on the team with a 1.075 OPS while scoring a team-high 63 runs and is second on the team lead with 25 steals. He is 24th in the country with 1.34 runs scored per game.

Jason Axelberg is slashing .352/.419/.692 and leads the Vikings with 15 home runs and 55 RBI while scoring 45 runs with a 1.111 OPS. He has the second longest on-base streak on the team this season and saw his 30 game streak snap in mid-April. 

Joshua Koskie fourth on the team with a .333 average and .976 OPS. He has four home runs and 25 RBI to go along with a .455 on-base percentage. Ragan Pinnow is hitting .310 on the year and had three hits in the doubleheader against the Wolves

Four freshmen have made major contributions to the offense this season. Carter Heinsch is hitting .355 with a .920 OPS with a .433 OPS. Kobe Eikmeier is hitting .333 in 35 games and 26 starts and hit his first career home run April 13 against Winona State. Bjorn Lind is batting .324 in 24 games this season and has a three-game hit streak. 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 .227 opponent batting average while ranking second on the team with 61 strikeouts. J.D. Hennen threw a no-hitter on March 9 against Bemidji State and has racked up 66 strikeouts in 47 innings. Hennen ranks 11th in the country with 6.32 H/9 allowed and 12th with 12.64 K/9 after allowing three hits and striking out six in 5 innings against Minnesota State last weekend. 

Kai Taylor has been nails of late, holding a 1.69 ERA over 32 innings and has allowed just two earned run in his last 22 2/3 innings. He is 3-2 through 13 appearances and three starts and has added three saves. Ryan Clementi has also shoved out of the 'pen, striking out 17 over 14 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 2.38 ERA over 11 1/3  innings with 13 strikeouts. Harry Blum has struck out 43 in 42 1/3 innings after allowing just one run in 6 2/3 innings last week. He has a team-leading four 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 (16), RBI (222) and times hit by pitch (51), second in total bases (516) and runs scored (224), fourth in batting average (.398), home runs (42) and hits (309), fourth in on-base percentage (.474), and slugging percentage (.664), seventh in doubles (49) and in stolen bases (71). 

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.