ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., Concordia-St. Paul baseball (10-10, 8-4 NSIC) will host #7 St. Cloud State (28-2, 12-2 NSIC) in the home opener at Barnes Field on campus.

The Golden Bears have won three of their last four games, all on the road last week while SCSU is coming off a four game weekend sweep at home against Wayne State. The Huskies had split the prior two doubleheaders before sweeping WSC. Concordia and SCSU have provided Wayne State with six consecutive losses after the Wildcats' 7-1 start to the Northern Sun's regular season.

SERIES HISTORY: Concordia 10-20-1 all-time vs SCSU
Contests between Concordia and St. Cloud State date back to 2002 with SCSU leading the series 20-10-1 in 31 meetings. Concordia holds a 2-7-1 record against SCSU at Barnes Field and is 6-15 against the Huskies in Northern Sun contests dating back to 2009. Last year, SCSU took three of four from Concordia at Veterans Field in Minnetonka with Concordia winning the series finale 2-1 to avoid the sweep. SCSU has captured wins in 18 of the last 20 meetings in the series between the clubs.

INDIVIDUAL HITTER NOTES VS SCSU
Kyle Dalton is hitting .333 (11-33) in 11 games against SCSU, scoring four runs with a .421 on base percentage and five walks with strikeouts. He has hit at least .300 all three years against SCSU including .333 (4-12) in last year's four game series ... Ryan Poppitz is hitting .200 (4-20) in seven games against SCSU with a .304 on base percentage and .300 slugging, hitting two doubles with a run and an RBI.

INDIVIDUAL PITCHER NOTES VS SCSU
Zach Rengel is 0-1 in one start against SCSU, working 5.0 innings allowing two runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and a walk last year ... Yuji Suzuki has pitched in one relief appearance last year against SCSU, working 2.0 perfect innings with a strikeout ... Tyler Brekke is 0-1 in two appearances (one start) against the Huskies with a 1.80 ERA in 6.0 innings, holding SCSU to a .190 average with four hits, four walks and two strikeouts. He pitched 5.0 innings, allowing four runs (one earned) in a loss last year, allowing four hits and four walks. Picked up a save in a perfect inning with two strikeouts in 2013.

FUZZY CONTINUES POWER SURGE
Junior shortstop Eric Fasnacht continues to display a career breakout year in terms of power hitting, as he hit .529 (9-17) last week with a .882 slugging percentage. He slugged three doubles and a home run in four road games to lead the Golden Bears to a 3-1 record at Wayne State and Bemidji State. After going 13 scoreless innings at Bemidji State on Saturday, Fasnacht delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning for a 1-0 lead and hit a solo homer in the ninth for insurance in a 2-0 win. He went 3-5 in the second game, and was 3-3 with two doubles in the first game. He ranks fourth in the NSIC in hitting (.435), second in slugging (.783) and ninth in on base percentage (.474). In 18 games this year, he has 11 multi-hit games and four three-hit games while already setting career highs in doubles (8), home runs (4), RBI (22) and stolen bases (3) while only striking out six times in 69 at bats as a thrid year starter at the position.

CONCORDIA STARTING PITCHER NOTES
With the Golden Bears having Friday's games at Bemidji State cancelled, the team is armed with a stable of pitchers for Wednesday as well as this weekend's series at U-Mary. Starting pitchers Zach Rengel and Kevin Woebke worked 5.0 and 8.0 shutout innings at BSU on Saturday, respectively and are likely unavailable for starting duty.

That leaves a combination of the following pitchers who have started NSIC games as possibilities for Wednesday against SCSU (sorted by IP):
Kody Knaus (LHP, Jr., 1-1, 4 GS, 3.91 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 23.0 IP)
Josh Lenz (LHP, So., 1-0, 2 GS, 3.20 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 19.2 IP)
Cody Schacht (RHP, Jr., 2-1, 3 GS, 5.00 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 18.0 IP)
Yuji Suzuki (RHP, Jr., 0-3, 2 GS, 7.64 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, 17.2 IP)
Erik Monson (LHP, So., 0-0, 1 GS, 8.38 ERA, 2.28 WHIP, 9.2 IP)

ABOUT THE HUSKIES
St. Cloud State has put together one of the top resume's in Division II college baseball this season. The Huskies started the year perfect through 23 games and have been a solid 5-2 since. The Huskies have amassed an impressive 238-83 season run differential, an average of 7.9 to 2.8 per game. The offense has hit .333 with a .410 on base and .496 slugging while the pitching has put together a 2.65 staff ERA, holding opponents to a .224/.302/.307 slash. SCSU has hammered out 104 extra base hits including 24 home runs and is 29-40 on the basepaths. All nine regulars are hitting at least .315 and slugging at least .430.

The Huskies rank seventh in the nation in team ERA (2.65) and have shutout the opponent seven times, second most in the country. The pitching staff's 1.17 WHIP is ninth in the country.

Michael Jurgella leads SCSU with a .431/.524/.696 slash with 10 doubles, five home runs, 33 runs scored and 27 RBI while drawing 17 walks to just seven strikeouts. Zak Hoffman and Zach Hoffmann have each also hit five home runs with Hoffman leading the club with 30 RBI and Hoffmann tied with three others with 23 RBI for third on the team. Brandon Arnold has stolen 11 bases while hitting .339 with eight doubles, three triples and three home runs. Eric Loxtercamp leads the team with 36 runs scored and is hitting .315 with just four strikeouts in 124 at bats.

SCSU STARTING PITCHER NOTES
Last weekend's NSIC series were played on Friday and Saturday, giving teams an extra day of rest which could affect this week's projected starting pitchers. Last week, SCSU started Reese Gregory on Tuesday, March 31 at Minnesota State (7.0 IP) and brought him back to start on Saturday in game one against Wayne State (5.0 IP), while Ryan Diers started game two on Tuesday at MSU (4.0 IP) and pitched 5.2 innings of relief on Saturday in a 12 inning series finale win over WSC. The Huskies also will be planning ahead to a four game weekend series against Southwest Minnesota State at home.

The Huskies could turn to their top two starters, Garrett Harrison (LHP, Jr., 4-0, 2.50 ERA, 6 GS) and Sheldon Miks (LHP, Fr., 5-0, 0.87 ERA, 5 GS) or turn to Bryan Rohde (LHP, So., 1-1, 6.75 ERA, 3 GS), Garrett Anderson (RHP, Sr., 1-0, 5.40 ERA, 1 GS) or Miles Nablo (RHP, Jr., 1-0, 6.14 ERA, 1 GS) who are the other three pitchers to start a game this year that haven't started in the past week. Rohde is the last pitcher to start out of that second group, taking a game four loss at Augustana as he allowed four runs on three hits and a hit by pitch without getting an out against the Vikings.