ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul baseball (10-12, 8-6 NSIC) will hit the road for the first four games of a 12 game road stand starting in Bismarck, N.D. against the University of Mary (3-25, 1-13 NSIC) this Saturday and Sunday. The Marauders will host Military Appreciation Day for Saturday's doubleheader scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. first pitch, with a noon start to Sunday's action.

The weekend series is also the last four of a 10-game homestand for U-Mary, dropping the previous six to Augustana (2) and Sioux Falls (4).

SERIES HISTORY: Concordia 18, U-Mary 3
The Golden Bears and Marauders split the first six meetings in the all-time series, which opened in 2007 when U-Mary joined the Northern Sun. Since, it's been all Concordia as the Golden Bears have captured wins in 15-straight meetings including last year's 7-1 and 7-2 doubleheader sweep played in Wayne, Neb. Concordia has played U-Mary eight times on the road in Bismarck, winning six times including a four game road winning streak in a four game weekend sweep in 2012 in the last trip to North Dakota's capital city. The Marauders last win over Concordia was April 6, 2008, sweeping the second day of a weekend series which resulted in a four game split.

INDIVIDUAL HITTER NOTES VS MARY
Kyle Dalton holds a .385/.385/.462 (10-26) career line against U-Mary over six games, scoring five runs, driving in three and delivering two doubles ... Ryan Poppitz hit .333 (3-9) with a .778 slugging percentage, clubbing a home run and a double with four RBI and four runs ... Eric Fasnacht hit .500/.571/.500 (3-6) last year with two runs and two RBI along with a stolen base ... Trevon Bargfrede hit .333 (2-6) with a .429 on base percentage in last year's doubleheader ... Joe Muench hit .333 (2-6) with a run and two RBI in 2014

INDIVIDUAL PITCHER NOTES VS MARY
Zach Rengel tossed 7.0 two-hit shutout innings for a win, striking out eight with four walks, holding the Marauders to a .095 average ... Tyler Brekke worked 2.0 innings in relief, allowing two runs on five hits with two strikeouts last year.

DALTON APPROACHING MILESTONE
Senior center fielder Kyle Dalton is a four year starter for the Golden Bears and has collected 195 career hits with a .377 average (195-517) in 144 games played (all starts). He's already climbed into third on the career hits list and is just five shy of becoming the third to reach the 200 milestone although there is a sizeable gap to the top two of all-time, Brenden Furrow (262) and Bryan Lippincott (254) as Dalton looks to add his name to their elite company. He's hitting .341/.382/.439 (28-82) as a senior with four doubles, two triples and five stolen bases.

KREKLING GETS ON BASE
Senior left fielder Tyler Krekling has been a strong number two hitter this year, hitting .309 (21-68) while getting on base at a .414 clip with 12 walks, three HBP and four sacrifice flies. He's up to 12 RBI which is third on the team after driving in five last Tuesday in a mid-week sweep of Wayne State as he went 3-8 with two runs and a steal. Earlier this year he had five consecutive multiple hit games and has seven on the year.

SHOTWELL PRODUCING IN THE CLUTCH
Redshirt freshman Andrew Shotwell has been a major contributor in his first year as a starter in his third year in the program. His season opened with a walk-off RBI double against Minot State in his first college at bat before adding another walk-off hit to his resume in a win over Minnesota Duluth as he went 6-12 with three RBI in the four game series against the Bulldogs. He went 4-9 last week with two RBI and a double in last week's road sweep at Wayne State. His strong play has allowed the coaching staff to feature him in the third spot in the lineup multiple times as of late as he's hitting .313/.365/.433 (21-67) with five doubles and is tied for second on the team with 14 RBI. He's played primarily first base, but has also seen action in the outfield.

OLSON KEEPS HITTING
Freshman catcher/DH Connor Olson continues to be one of Concordia's top hitters while holding down the cleanup spot in the lineup. On Wednesday against #7 St. Cloud State, he produced a 4-4 day in the first game against two of SCSU's top pitchers and went 5-7 on the day against the Huskies to increase his average to .368 (28-76). He is also tied for second on the team with 14 RBI, is second on the team in on base percentage (.415) and slugging (.500). The rookie has collected eight multi-hit games in 20 starts. He's also second on the team in doubles with seven and is 16th in the NSIC in hitting (.368).

FASNACHT AMONG LEAGUE'S TOP SLUGGERS
Junior shortstop Eric Fasnacht, a three year starter at the position, has had a meteoric rise at the plate throughout his career. As a rookie in 2013, he hit .255/.339/.324 in 34 games with nine runs, five extra base hits and 12 RBI along with 19 strikeouts and eight walks. He improved at the plate considerably as a sophomore, hitting .350/.416/.453 with 32 runs, 19 RBI, 10 extra base hits (6 2B, 4 3B) and drew 14 walks with 20 strikeouts. As a junior, he's raised his numbers by similar margins once again, slashing .446/.481/.784 in 20 games, already setting career-highs in doubles (9), home runs (4), RBI (23) and stolen bases (3). He's cut down on his strikeouts with just seven in 74 at bats while drawing five walks and scoring 21 runs.

He's hit safely in 17 out of 20 games on the year with 12 multiple hit performances. He's second in the league in hitting (.446) behind St. Cloud State's Michael Jurgella (.453), second in slugging percentage (.784) behind Wayne State's Nathan Ackerman and seventh in on base percentage (.481).

While he leads the team in virtually every hitting statistic, his range, arm and glove are even more valuable to the team defensively where he continues to shine having turned over twice as many double plays (16) than errors committed (7) in one of the top defensive infields in the conference.

CONCORDIA PROJECTED STARTING PITCHING
The Golden Bears could be lined up to return to the most recent four game series starting pitching order after the Bemidji State series was shortened to a Saturday doubleheader and the team used Tyler Brekke and Cody Schacht in mid-week starts. If the same order as the UMD series holds, it would be as follows:
GAME 1: Zach Rengel (LHP, Jr., 2-1, 3.68 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 22.0 IP, 4 GS, 33-7 K-BB)
GAME 2: Yuji Suzuki (RHP, Jr., 0-3, 7.64 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, 17.2 IP, 2 GS, 10-9 K-BB)
GAME 3: Kevin Woebke (LHP, So., 2-2, 3.86 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 23.1 IP, 4 GS, 27-7 K-BB)
GAME 4: Kody Knaus (LHP, Jr., 1-1, 3.91 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 23.0 IP, 4 GS, 19-5 K-BB)

U-MARY PROJECTED STARTING PITCHING
The Marauders enter this weekend with regular rest as they did last weekend when they used the following four starting pitchers in order against Sioux Falls:
GAME 1: McKeon Meyhoff (LHP, Jr., 0-5, 6.27 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, 37.1 IP, 6 GS, 24-12 K-BB)
GAME 2: Jake Johnson (RHP, Fr., 0-3, 6.83 ERA, 2.28 WHIP, 27.2 IP, 6 GS, 30-25 K-BB)
GAME 3: Michael Vollrath (LHP, Sr., 1-4, 5.79 ERA, 1.87 WHIP, 32.2 IP, 6 GS, 20-8 K-BB)
GAME 4: Austin Ell (LHP, Fr., 1-2, 5.32 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 22.0 IP, 2 GS, 20-7 K-BB)