Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend's four game NSIC series between Concordia-St. Paul (21-11, 13-9 NSIC) and Upper Iowa (10-20, 3-13 NSIC) has been moved up one day to Friday and Saturday at Barnes Field. Friday's doubleheader will begin at 1:30 p.m. with Sunday's senior day twinbill starting at noon.

SENIORS TO BE HONORED
Concordia will honor its six seniors following play on Saturday for the final home weekend. Concordia's six seniors are Elliot Powell, Drew Turk, Colton Petron, Adam Kramer, Brooks Beilke and John Hayes. Their career stats can be viewed online and will be updated after each game the rest of the season.

A LOOK AT THE NSIC STANDINGS
The Golden Bears enter the weekend with 10 games to play on the schedule and in fifth place in the 15-team NSIC. The top eight make the NSIC Tournament field for a chance at the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Central Region Tournament, awarded to the conference tournament winner.

Concordia is currently in a virtual tie for fourth when separated by "games" in the standings with Bemidji State (12-8) and Northern State (14-10), but due to the percentage points the Golden Bears are the second of three teams in the virtual tie. Just a half game behind at 13-10 are two more teams, Wayne State and Winona State, to make up the last two of the top eight spots. The top three spots are held by Minnesota State (24-4), Augustana (22-5) and St. Cloud State (17-6).

On the outside looking in are Minnesota Duluth (10-13) in ninth, Sioux Falls (11-17) in 10th and Southwest Minnesota State (8-13) in 11th. Those three teams will have a hard road to climb into the top eight, as UMD is three games behind WSU and WSC, and 3.5 behind the Concordia/BSU/NSU deadlock.

INDIVIDUAL PITCHING NOTES
The Golden Bears strength this season has been the outstanding and deep starting pitching. Seven different players have started at least two games for Concordia with six of those starters posting season earned run averages of under 4.00 and three of them under 3.00. Sophomore Zach Rengel (LHP) leads the staff with a 1.80 ERA on the year with a 4-2 record in seven starts with a staff high 40.0 innings. His ERA ranks second in the league overall. Seniors Adam Kramer (RHP) and John Hayes (RHP) also have four wins each with Kramer ranking 10th in overall ERA (2.72) and Hayes in 14th (3.09).

In the Northern Sun, Hayes leads all pitchers with a 0.93 ERA with a 4-0 record in four NSIC starts. Rengel (2.25, 9th), Kramer (2.82, 14th) and freshman Kevin Woebke (3.13, 17th) all rank in the top-20 in the league in ERA in conference play as well.

Hayes and Woebke each started on Tuesday in Concordia's sweep of Southwest Minnesota State. Hayes threw a complete game shutout with nine strikeouts while Woebke worked into the seventh inning before picking up the victory.  Woebke leads the staff with 25 strikeouts in just 28.1 innings.

Rengel's current 1.80 season ERA would rank as the second lowest in school history if the season were to end today. Only two pitchers have worked at least 20 innings in a season and posted a sub-2.00 ERA: Randy Golnitz with a 1.67 ERA in 1992 in 32.1 innings, and Rob Maslowski with a 1.99 ERA in 2005 in 22.2 innings. Rengel also holds a 2.27 career ERA in 79.1 innings, which is the lowest in school history for pitchers with at least 50.0 innings. He's 7-5 in 15 career starts.

INDIVIDUAL HITTING NOTES
Junior Kyle Dalton leads the team in hitting with a .444 season average and is fresh off a 6-10 doubleheader performance in Tuesday's sweep at SMSU as he went 3-5 in each game. His season average would currently rank as the sixth best in taem history among players with at least 50 at bats. With a .382 career average, Dalton's mark would currently be the 10th best average in program history as well while his 152 hits are the eighth most in a career. He's the third ranked hitter in the NSIC overall and within reach of league leader Tony Viger from Augustana (.449).

In conference play, senior Brooks Beilke leads the team with a .390 average while Beilke, Dalton and Ryan Poppitz rank 12th, 13th and 15th in the league in hitting in NSIC games.

Sophomore Eric Fasnacht has also had a big year as he's second on the team in hitting (.406) and on base percentage (.474) and leads the team in slugging (.535) thanks to four triples.

The team's top run producer has been Poppitz with 35 RBI along with his team leading 14 extra base hits. He leads the team with 10 doubles and two home runs while hitting .344/.407/.508.

TEAM COMPARISON - NSIC PLAY
Concordia is fourth in the league in hitting (.307) and sixth in on base percentage (.370) in conference play while Upper Iowa is hitting .252 (14th) and has a .325 OBP (14th). Concordia is ninth in hits (9.6/game) and fifth in runs (5.3) while the Peacocks are 14th in both (7.5 hits, 3.1 runs). Concordia is also the second toughest team to strikeout, with just 4.7 strikeouts per game while Upper Iowa is 11th at 6.7.

Concordia's pitching staff boasts the fourth ranked ERA in the league at 3.33 while Upper Iowa is 10th at 5.47. Concordia holds opponents to a .260 average, also ranking fourth while UIU is ninth as teams hit .303 against them. The Golden Bears also only issue 2.81 walks per game, fourth best rate in the league while UIU is last (15th) at 4.3 free passes per game.

Defensively, the Golden Bears rank sixth in fielding percentage (.962) while UIU is 15th at .940. Concordia is second in the league with 22 double plays whiel UIU is last with just seven. The Golden Bears have allowed 13 of 19 runners to steal, ranking eighth in stolen bases allowed while Upper Iowa has allowed 19 of 22 runners to steal, ranking fifth in most steals allowed and last in fewest runners thrown out.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
Although Upper Iowa's season record is just 3-13 in the NSIC and 10-20 overall, the Peacocks have been victimized by close losses in 2014. Of their 13 losses in NSIC play, nine have been four runs or less with four one run defeats. The three wins have come against Bemidji State (1-1), U-Mary (1-1) and St. Cloud State (1-3).

Tyler Adams leads UIU with a .448 average, second in the league. He also has a .621 slugging percentage with eight doubles, three triples and two home runs while stealing eight bags in nine attempts. Jose Aguirre has also been strong at the plate, hitting .369 with a .495 on base percentage with 20 walks to 13 strikeouts. Alex George is the team's only other hitter above .300, hitting .348 while playing in 21 of 30 games.

The pitching staff is led by Logan Adams with a 2-0 record in four starts with a 1.69 ERA. He's struck out 26 in 26.2 innings wiht a .243 opponent average. Brett Fanning has a 1-2 reocrd with a 3.63 ERA in four starts (five appearances) with a save in 22.1 innings on the year.  Nine different pitchers have started this year, with eight of those pitchers getting at least two starts. Mason Buster (2-4, 4.91) and Martin Valdez (1-4, 6.81) should also be ready for the weekend series as all four also pitched in last weekend's series against St. Cloud State.