ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul puts a 12-game road stand in the rearview mirror by opening up a season-ending 8-game homestand at Barnes Field with a four game seriest against Winona State. The Golden Bears and Warriors will play doubleheaders at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. Saturday's game will feature live stats (html and interactive/mobile) while Sunday's doubleheader will be available to watch live online with play-by-play by Dan Flanagan.

POSTSEASON IMPLICATIONS
The series will be critical for both teams, as well as others in the hunt for a playoff berth in the eight team NSIC Tournament to be played May 6-9 in Sioux Falls, S.D. Concordia is currently in a four team tie for seventh place with a .500 record (13-13) in conference play while Winona State holds a two game lead over Concordia and is tied for fifth with Wayne State (15-11). Joining Concordia in the four team tie are Northern State, Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls with Concordia hosting USF next Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season with a four game series.

Overall, Concordia and Winona State are each four games under .500 with the Golden Bears at 15-19 and WSU at 17-21 although the Warriors host Division III St. Mary's in a non-conference game tonight.

Looking around the league, Wayne State is hosting Upper Iowa (9-15), Northern State is hosting Minnesota Crookston (5-23), SMSU has a home/home weekend with Augustana (15-9) and Sioux Falls hosts Minnesota State (21-3).

 

CU	STAT	WSU
15-19	W-L	17-21
13-13	Conf	15-11
0-5	Last 5	3-2
3-7	Last 10	4-6
6L	Strk	3W
.299	Avg	.300
.367	Obp	.373
.383	Slg	.440
49	2B	53
6	3B	3
9	HR	36
28-37	SB-A	17-27
4.8	R/G	5.8
5.46	ERA	5.14
1.65	WHIP	1.63
7.4	K/9	8.4
3.4	BB/9	4.0
2.1	K-BB	2.1
.311	OAV	.295
17	opp HR	16
.956	Fld%	.945
32	DP	25
33-46	opp SB-A	30-52

HOME SWEET HOME: THE PATH TO A STRONG FINISH
The Golden Bears have played just two home games at the friendly confines of Barnes Field, nustled in behind Gangelhoff Center and between Selby Avenue and Carlander Field. The only home games were played against #7 St. Cloud State with the Huskies sweeping the doubleheader. But last season, Concordia went 6-0 at home as the team looks to rekindle its late season magic from a year ago when they finished 9-1 in their last 10 including a four game home sweep of Upper Iowa on April 25-26, the second to last weekend of the regular season. In 2013, Concordia won its final four games to secure and NSIC Tournament spot with a four game road sweep of Upper Iowa.

SERIES HISTORY: Winona State 34, Concordia 25
The Concordia-Winona State series began in 1999, the year before the Golden Bears entered Division II and NSIC competition when the squad was still named the Comets. Concordia is 6-10 against WSU at Barnes Field, splitting their last meeting in St. Paul in 2012. The last time Concordia hosted the Warriors for a weekend series was 2009, when the Golden Bears took three of four on May 2-3. Concordia has won two of the last three games in the series, although WSU won the season series 3-2 last year including defeating Concordia 5-2 in the first round of the NSIC Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. WSU has defeated Concordia in the NSIC Tournament first round each of the last two seasons.

GOLDEN BEAR OFFENSE NOTES
Concordia's offense is led by shortstop Eric Fasnacht with a .368/.406/.607 slash, leading the club in average and slugging and third on the team in on base percentage. He's hit in the middle of the lineup, either fourth or fifth for all 32 of the games he's played. He also either leads or is tied for the team lead in runs (24), doubles (9), triples (2), homers (5), RBI (27), fewest strikeouts (8) and is second with four stolen bases ... freshman Connor Olson has hit either third or fourth in 31 of his 32 starts as a catcher/DH and is slashing .361/.411/.487 as he leads the team in OBP and is second in average and slugging. He's tied for the team lead with nine doubles, is second on the team in homers (2), RBI (25) and fewest strikeouts (13) while adding three stolen bases ... leadoff hitter Kyle Dalton is third on the team with a .346/.400/.425 slash line and is tied for the team high in runs (24) and triples (2) while stealing a team-high seven bases and generating a team-leading 44 hits. He's also second on the team with 11 walks ... Andrew Shotwell is hitting .299/.367/.393 as he's fourth on the team in average and slugging and third on the team in doubles (7) and RBI (17). Shotwell has also produced a pair of walk-off hits, a double in the season opener at Minot State in Tucson, Ariz. and a single against UM Crookston at Veterans Field. Shotwell and Trevon Bargfrede have each hit a home run for the Golden Bears ... Tyler Krekling's .290 average is fifth on the team but he leads the team with 17 walks and holds a .395 on base percentage while tying with Olson for the third most runs (18).

CONCORDIA SITUATIONAL HITTING NOTES
VS LEFT HANDED PITCHERS: Andrew Shotwell leads the team against left handed pitchers, hitting .433 (13-30) followed by Eric Fasnacht at .414 (12-29) and Connor Olson at .387 (12-31) ... Tyler Krekling at .367 (11-30), Trevon Bargfrede at .320 (8-25) and David Henke at .333 (7-21) are all hitting notably higher against lefties than righties this year. VS RIGHT HANDED PITCHERS: Kyle Dalton is hitting .368 (32-87) against right handers to lead the club followed by Eric Fasnacht and Connor Olson at .352 (31-88) with Ryan Poppitz at .287 (25-87) and Alex LaPorte at .280 (21-75) hitting better against righties than lefties. RUNNERS ON: Connor Olson is a tough out with runners on base, hitting .446 (29-65) along with .489 (22-45) with runners in scoring position while reaching base twice in three opportunities with the bases loaded and delivering five RBI in five chances with a runner on third base and less than two outs ... he's also a .410 (16-39) two out hitter and is tied for the team lead with 14 two out RBI with Eric Fasnacht ... Fasnacht is hitting .343 (23-67) with runners on base and .372 (16-43) with runners in scoring position and has delivered six RBI in 11 tries with a runner on third and less than two outs ... Andrew Shotwell is hitting .355 (22-62) with runners on base, .364 (16-44) with runners in scoring position and has six RBI in nine opportunities with a runner on third and less than two outs ... Kyle Dalton and Connor Olson lead the team in advancing runners with a .600 rate, in 60 and 70 opportunities, respectively. BASES EMPTY: Kyle Dalton is getting on base at a .464 clip (26-56) when leading off and is a .355 (27-76) hitter with the bases empty ... Ryan Poppitz leads the team when leading off at .520 (13-25) while hitting .347 (17-49) with the bases empty and Alex LaPorte at .483 (14-29) has also thrived reaching base as leadoff in an inning.

INDIVIDUAL HITTING NOTES VS WINONA STATE
Trevon Bargfrede is hitting .471/.471/.706 (8-17) in eight games (four starts) against the Warriors with a double, a homer and five runs scored, htiting his home run on April 7, 2013 when he hit 7-13 (.538) in six games against WSU that season ... Ryan Poppitz is a .306/.342/.556 (11-36) hitter in 11 games against the Warriors wiht seven runs, three doubles, two home runs and seven RBI, hitting two home runs in a game on April 6, 2013 ... Kyle Dalton is a career .306/.358/.327 hitter (15-49) in 14 games against WSU with five runs, six RBI, four walks and only four strikeouts ... Tyler Krekling hit .375/.444/.500 (3-8) in three games against Winona State last season, scoring two runs and delivering a double ... Eric Fasnacht is hitting .265/.333/.324 (9-34) in 11 games against WSU with three runs, a triple and six RBI with four walks and four strikeouts ... Joe Muench is a .273/.333/.364 (3-11) hitter against WSU with a double an dan RBI in five games (three starts) ... David Henke is 1-5 with a double, an RBI and a run in two games against WSU last season

INDIVIDUAL PITCHING NOTES VS WINONA STATE
Zach Rengel is 1-0 in three appearances (two starts) with a 1.32 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 13.2 innings with 14 strikeouts while holding WSU to a .204 average. He had a complete game win in 2013 (7.0 IP), allowing a run on two hits with nine strikeouts ... Kevin Woebke made a relief appearance against WSU last year, striking out two in two shutout innings for a save while allowing one hit and no walks holding WSU to a .167 average ... Josh Lenz worked two scoreless relief innings against WSU in one appearance last year, striking out four while holding WSU to a .167 average on one hit with two walks ... Tyler Brekke is 1-0 with a save in five career appearances (three starts) against Winona State with a 2.31 ERA in 23.1 innings with a 0.94 WHIP and .154 opponent average ... Adam Fredericks has appeared in three games against WSU with an 0-1 record. He faced WSU once in 2014, retiring the only batter he faced ... Jake Kounkel has faced Winona State once, recording two strikeouts and walking two against five batters in a scoreless inning in 2014 ...

WINONA STATE OFFENSE NOTES
The Warriors are led by Mitchell Heid's .381/.445/.629 slash as he leads the club in all average and slugging and is second in OBP. He's also second on the team with six home runs and leads the team with 28 RBI ... Jesus Cazares leads the team in OBP at .458 despite his third ranked average (.339) thanks to a team-high 22 walks. Cazares is also slugging .475 with four homers, has 25 runs and 22 RBI. Tyler Nehring adds a .343/.383/.518 line with five home runs and is tied for second on the team with 27 RBI ... Travis Evanson has a team-high eight home runs and nine doubles and is second on the team in RBI (27) and slugging (.566) while hitting .324 with a team-leading 12 runs ... Winona State's nine players who have started the most games have all gone deep at least twice while two others have also homered ... six of WSU's top seven players in the lineup are hitting at least .310 with the other, Andrew Geislinger hitting .235 but scoring the second most runs (30) on the team with nine sacrifice bunts.

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
based on past weekend usage, official starting pitchers are not announced by either team

	R/L	Yr.	GP-S	W-L	CG-SHO	SV	ERA	WHIP	IP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	OAV
G1: Zach Rengel, Concordia G1: Chase Blazier, Winona State	L R	Jr. Sr.	6-6 8-8	3-2 3-3	3-0 4-0	0 0	3.06 3.13	1.16 1.35	35.1 46.0	11.2 5.3	2.5 1.4	4.4 3.9	.237 .301
G2: Kevin Woebke, Concordia G2: Hayden Krimmer, Winona State	L R	So. So.	6-6 9-8	2-3 2-5	1-1 1-0	0 0	5.24 5.20	1.63 1.82	34.1 36.1	9.7 7.7	3.1 6.4	3.1 1.2	.324 .284
G3: Kody Knaus, Concordia G3: Lucas Crimmins, Winona State	L R	Jr. Jr.	7-6 9-7	2-2 2-3	1-0 0-0	1 0	5.09 4.97	1.53 1.56	35.1 41.2	6.6 8.0	5.1 2.6	2.2 3.1	.307 .319
G4: Josh Lenz, Concordia G4: Mitchell Stalsberg, Winona State	L L	So. Fr.	7-4 11-5	2-0 2-2	0-0 2-1	1 1	3.54 4.37	1.54 1.49	28.0 35.0	8.4 15.7	6.1 7.2	1.4 2.2	.220 .195