LIVE STATS
ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul (25-11, 17-9 NSIC) will embark on the regular season finale in a four game series at Sioux Falls (17-28, 11-21 NSIC) with the series pushed back a day to Saturday and Sunday with a noon first pitch. The games were moved back due to extended rain taking a toll on the field at Harmodon Park.
FINAL WEEKEND AROUND THE NSIC
The Golden Bears are in fifth in the NSIC Standings in a crowded race for NSIC Tournament seeding. The top eight teams in the final standings comprise the NSIC Tournament field and the Golden Bears have a magic number of one to clinch a spot in the tournament, meaning either an SMSU or BSU loss or a Concordia victory. The worst Concordia can finish is 17-13, meaning no one under Southwest Minnesota State (14-13) or Bemidji State (13-13) can catch Concordia. SMSU is currently in eighth and plays a Friday/Saturday series against fourth place Northern State (20-10). BSU is in ninth and will play host to 10th-place Minot State (10-13) as Minot is on a six game winning streak.
Of course, in addition to the primary goal of clinching an
NSIC Tournament berth is the battle for seeding in the tournament which will all be settled this weekend. Visit www.northernsun.org and click on
baseball to access the
schedule and
standings links in addition to the NSIC Tournament bracket which will be released following conclusion of games on Sunday.
SERIES HISTORY
Concordia is 3-3 all-time against Sioux Falls with all six games coming at Barnes Field over the last two seasons … last year, the teams split a four game series in the Cougars' first year in the league … they split a doubleheader in 2012 prior to USF joining the NSIC.
CONCORDIA CRACKS NCBWA REGIONAL RANKINGS
For the second time this season, Concordia baseball has earned a ranking in the NCBWA Central Region Poll. The poll is conducted by sports information directors from the region. The Golden Bears are ranked 10th in the most recent rankings following the team's second six game winning streak of the season. After getting off to a 10-2 start, the squad earned the ninth ranking in the poll.
Concordia is not ranked in the NCAA Central Regional rankings, however, which is the only criteria used to determine the field for the NCAA Central Region Tournament. The NCAA regional rankings only rank the top eight, of which the top six comprise the regional tournament field. Of course, the Northern Sun (NSIC), Mid-American (MIAA) and Great American (GAC) conference tournament champions all receive auto-bids as well, leaving three at large spots. Concordia's next goal is to reach the NSIC Tournament to have a chance to compete for the Northern Sun's auto-bid, which it captured in 2008.
NORTHERN SUN INDIVIDUAL HITTING LEADERBOARD (conf.-only games)
Kyle Dalton (.398, 10th),
Brooks Beilke (.382, 15th) and
Ryan Poppitz (.367, 17th) are all in the top-20 in the league in hitting ... Dalton (.443, 17th) and Poppitz (.436, 20th) are in the top-20 in OBP ...
Eric Fasnacht (3) is tied for second in triples, just one off the league lead ...
Alex LaPorte (8, 2nd) and
Drew Turk (7, 3rd) are among the league's best in sacrifice bunts, with LaPorte one off the league lead ... Dalton is fifth in hits per game (1.50) ... Poppitz is 11th in doubles per game (0.36) ... Dalton is third in fewest strikeouts per game (0.15).
NORTHERN SUN INDIVIDUAL PITCHING LEADERBOARD (conf.-only games)
John Hayes is the NSIC leader in ERA (0.93) while
Tyler Brekke (2.25, 11th),
Zach Rengel (2.31, 15th) and
Adam Kramer (2.45, 17th) all rank in the top-20 to give the Golden Bears a deep starting rotation ... Hayes and Brekke have a .204 opponent average, ranking 8th and 9th in the league ... Hayes ranks 11th in the league in wins (4) but is only one win shy of third ...
Colton Petron is eighth in the league in saves (3) and ninth in games finished (6) ... Hayes is second in the league in innings per game (7.25) ... Kramer is seventh in walks allowed (1.53) followed closely by Hayes in eighth (1.55) ... Hayes, Kramer, Rengel and Brekke all rank in the league leaders in at least two of the three categories of extra base hits allowed (2B, 3B, HR) per game with Rengel, Kramer and Hayes appearing in all three top-20 lists ... Brekke is seventh in the league in fewest hits per game (6.43), followed by Hayes in ninth (6.83).
PLAYER & PITCHER SPOTLIGHTS - LAST WEEK
Last week, Concordia had a pair of standout performances as senior pitcher
John Hayes earned Concordia Male Athlete of the Week while junior
Kyle Dalton earned NSIC Player of the Week honors in leading the club to a 6-0 record.
#13 Kyle Dalton (2B/CF, 6-0, 175, Jr., Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins HS)
Kyle Dalton took over the league lead in hitting (overall) by posting a torrid .522 average to lead the Golden Bears to six wins last week. He went 12-23 and hit safely in all six games, leading the team with four runs and second with four RBI from the lead-off spot. He also stole a base, played a perfect center field with 13 put outs and one outfield assist, doubling off a runner from second base against Upper Iowa in a 1-run win. In Concordia's 4-game series sweep of UIU in which Concordia won all four games by one run, Dalton drove in or scored a run in the final three games of the series. He also went 6-10 (3-5 each game) in a doubleheader sweep at SMSU on Tuesday. Dalton is now hitting .446 on the year with a .487 on base percentage. He's hit safely in all but two games this year.
#51 John Hayes (RHP, 6-3, 200, Sr., Lakeville, Minn. / Lakeville North HS)
Emerging as the Northern Sun's ERA leader in league play,
John Hayes had his best outing of the year in a Tuesday road win at SMSU as he went the distance for a complete game shutout. He struck out nine Mustangs, didn't walk anyone and scattered five singles. In four NSIC starts, Hayes is 4-0 with a league-best 0.93 ERA in 29.0 innings. In those four NSIC starts, Hayes has only allowed two extra base hits (both doubles) while pitching at least 7.0 innings in all four starts. He has yet to allow more than two earned runs against SCSU, WSU, UMC and SMSU, and has not went over 100 pitches once in five overall starts this season.
TEAM NOTES - LAST WEEK
Concordia went 6-0 last week, posting a midweek sweep at SMSU (7-0, 7-2) before a four game weekend sweep of Upper Iowa at home … in the UIU series, Concordia won all four games by just a run, winning game one 2-1 each day and winning game two 3-2 each day … in Concordia's six games, the starting pitchers worked at least 6.0 innings in every start … Concordia's bullpen only worked 5.0 innings all week, and didn't issue any runs in the process .. five of Concordia's six wins were recorded by the starting pitchers, who collectively held a 1.29 ERA for the week … Concordia's staff held opponents to a .200 average and registered 31 strikeouts while the offense hit .322 and only struck out 19 times in six games.
ABOUT THE COUGARS
Sioux Falls is reeling, coming into the weekend having posted a 3-17 record over its last 20 games but nine of those losses have been by three runs or less ... last weekend, Sioux Falls was swept in four games at Winona State, dropping a pair of one run games on Friday before falling 8-1 and 6-2 on Saturday ... with a mid-week bye, the Cougars will enter the weekend with all of its pitching at its disposal led by Henry Ojeda (6-5, 2.97) and Derek Fischer (5-4, 3.77), followed by two of the following three: Noah Coleman (1-5, 5.70), Elija Thornquist (1-6, 4.82) and Eric Brothers (1-5, 6.05) ... the lineup features one regular hitting above .300, leadoff hitter and left fielder Noah Durkin (.367/.400/.444) ... he also leads the team in runs (29), doubles (8), RBI (22) but carries an 8-30 BB-K ratio ... Jeremey Varner is the only USF player with multiple home runs, slugging two of the team's six on the season while the pitching staff has surrendered 22 long balls ... outside of Durkin, no other Cougar holds a slugging percentage greater than .390 or an on base percentage above .375 ... Ryan Forbes, the third baseman, typically hits sixth and is hitting .291 with a team high 13 stolen bases and was bumped up to second in the lineup in the final game of the WSU series ... no player on USF's roster has an even or positive BB-K ratio.
