ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (7-2) returns to the diamond this weekend with a four game home opening series against Bemidji State (3-13) on Friday and Saturday to open league play at Barnes Field with noon start times each day.

WEATHER BUMPS UP FRIDAY START TIME
Friday's noon start time is a change from the originally scheduled 1:30 start due to a chance after late afternoon/early evening rain in the forecast. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid 40's, with an 18-mile per hour southern wind on Friday and an 11-mph northeastern wind on Saturday. There is a chance of rain in each day's forecast.

LIVE COVERAGE
The series will be covered by Concordia's live in-game statistics feature, as well as live stats sent to mobile devices through Concordia's video portal. Additionally, Concordia plans to webcast the series, weather permitting. With potential for rain each day (stronger chance on Saturday), webcasting will be cancelled at the first sign of precipitation. Filling in for Dan Flanagan, voice of the Golden Bears this weekend will be JW Cox. The main football radio voice of St. Cloud State, Cox has been with Flanagan on Concordia's basketball broadcasts for two seasons as an analyst and fill-in play-by-play voice.
 

CU	STAT	BSU
7-2	W-L	3-13
0-0	Conf	0-0
3-2	Last 5	1-4
7-2	Last 10	2-8
2W	Strk	2L
.288	Avg	.283
.379	Obp	.341
.441	Slg	.374
22	2B	18
3	3B	10
5	HR	5
9-11	SB-A	16-23
7.1	R/G	5.1
5.10	ERA	7.80
1.63	WHIP	1.90
9.0	K/9	5.5
4.0	BB/9	5.5
2.3	K-BB	1.3
.300	OAV	.345
4	opp HR	22
.969	Fld%	.967
8	DP	13
7-11	opp SB	20-30

SERIES HISTORY & MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
The Golden Bears are 31-24 all-time against Bemidji State dating back to 1997 when BSU won the first eight games between the clubs with Concordia snapping the streak with a in on May 2, 2003. Last year, the teams met in Bemidji, Minn. and split a doubleheader as the four game series was shortened due to cold weather. In the last 15 meetings between the two teams, Bemidji State has a 9-6 record. The Golden Bears are 12-10 against the Beavers at Barnes Field and 29-21 against BSU in Northern Sun regular season contests.

Concordia is 28-24 in NSIC opening series' and doubleheaders and 28-18 in home opening series' and doubleheaders under 17th year head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie who was also recently announced as the new director of athletics following the 2015-16 academic year. McKenzie will stay on as head coach through at least the 2017 baseball season in addition to his new role as AD. He has been the program's only baseball coach since making the move to NCAA Division II and joining the NSIC in the 1999-2000 academic year, his first as the team's skipper.

PLAYER NOTES VS BEMIDJI STATE
Eric Fasnacht holds a .393/.433/.643 (11-28) slash in nine games against BSU over the previous three seasons including three runs, four doubles, a home run and four RBI while playing a .971 defense at shortstop. Last year, Fasnacht went 6-8 with two doubles and a home run in the doubleheader ... Ryan Poppitz is a .394/.412/.515 (13-33) hitter in 10 games over three seasons against BSU, scoring nine runs with two doubles, a triple and nine RBI with just one error at the hot corner. Poppitz went 10-21 (.476) in five games against BSU as a sophomore in 2014, scoring nine runs with two doubles, a triple and nine RBI in the season series. Last year, he was 3-8 (.375) in the doubleheader ... Alex LaPorte is a .364/.417/.409 (8-22) hitter in eight games over three seasons against BSU with six runs scored and a double. As a sophomore in 2014, he was 7-15 (.467) with six runs, a double adn a walk in five games (four starts) ...

PITCHER NOTES VS BEMIDJI STATE
Zach Rengel is 1-1 in three starts (14.0 IP) and a 2.57 ERA against BSU, making one start each of the last three years. Last year, Rengel worked 5.0 shutout innings in a no decision, striking out nine while allowing three hits and four walks. His win came during his freshman year in 2013, working 6.0 innings with nine strikeouts, one walk and one run on three hits. Rengel has held the Beavers to a .254 average and 15 hits with a 20-8 K-BB ratio in 14.0 innings ... Josh Lenz had a no decision in a start as a freshman in 2014, working 6.0 innings allowing four runs on five hits with six strikeouts and one walk, holding BSU to a .238 average ... Kody Knaus faced the Beavers in relief last year, working a shutout inning for a save, walking one but facing the minimum three batters ... Yuji Suzuki has made three appearances (one start) against BSU, facing the Beavers once each season over the last three years with a 1-1 record, 5.54 ERA and a 10-4 K-BB ratio in 13.0 innings. Last year, Suzuki allowed an unearned run in 1.2 relief innings with two strikeouts. His top line was a 6.0 inning relief stint as a freshman in 2013, allowing a run on four singles with a 5-0 K-BB ratio ... Kevin Woebke has faced BSU twice, once each of the last two years. He has a 1-1 record with an 8.0 shutout inning start last year, striking out five and walking two while allowing five hits. As a freshman in 2014, Woebke faced BSU in relief, taking the loss allowing two runs in one inning despite not surrenduring a hit. BSU hits just .161 against Woebke in his 9.0 innings of work with a 2.00 ERA.

CONCORDIA RANKED #7 IN NCBWA CENTRAL REGION FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WEEK
After a 5-0 start, the Golden Bears jumped into the NCBWA Central Region Top-10 poll in the seventh spot and stayed there last week after a four game road split at Augustana ... it was Augustana who held the seventh spot the week prior to Concordia moving into the top-10 ... the club held onto the seventh spot this week despite being idle with the Upper Iowa series cancelled due to weather ... Southern Arkansas jumped from 10th into a tie with the Golden Bears this week ... the poll is comprised of baseball sports information directors in the Central Region which is made up of the Northern Sun (NSIC), Mid-American (MIAA) and Great American (GAC) conferences ... the poll is a collection of committee member votes with no formal criteria, and the poll does not influence the official NCAA Central Region Rankings which are released later in the season with a data-driven criteria that selects and seeds the NCAA Central Region Tournament competitors following the conference tournament automatic qualifiers from the three leagues.

CONFERENCE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
The Golden Bears have secured NSIC Player and Pitcher of the Week in consecutive weeks starting with catcher/DH Connor Olson (3/7) followed by LHP Kody Knaus (3/14) ... Knaus picked up a road win at Augustana on Sunday, going the distance (7.0) allowing an unearned run on five singles and a walk with seven strikeouts to move to 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA ... he held a strong Augustana offense to a .185 average with no extra base hits and is now 6-2 with a 3.61 ERA in 62.1 innings in two seasons as a Golden Bear ... last week, Olson earned the nod by hitting .563/.682/.875 (9-16) in five games as Concordia went 5-0 on its spring trip to Tucson ... Olson mashed five doubles, scored and drove in 10 runs each and threw out a pair of baserunners in two attempted steals while hitting safely in all five games.

MOST RECENT ACTION: CSP SPLITS AT AUGUSTANA
The Golden Bears played four nail-biters last weekend in a four game series road split at Augustana two weeks ago, falling by two runs each on Saturday followed by a pair of one run wins on Sunday. In the final three games of the series, the two teams combined to score eight runs each (Sat G2 Augie 4-2; Sun G1 CSP 2-1; Sun G2 CSP 4-3), with the high mark being four by the Vikings in the second game of the series matched by Concordia in the series finale on Sunday. In the only high scoring game of the weekend, it was an Augustana 8-6 win in the opener.

Last weekend, Concordia's trip to Upper Iowa was cancelled due to a poor weather forecast including cold weather, wind and a chance of precipitation.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION: ABOUT THE BEAVERS
Last week, Bemidji State made a seven game trip through Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, posting a 1-6 record with five of the losses by three runs or less including a 10-9 loss at 10th-ranked Lubbock Christian. So far this year, all 16 of BSU's contests have been played in Missouri (10), Oklahoma (5) or Texas (1). BSU's three victories have been a split at Truman State on March, a split at William Jewell on March 5-6 and a split at Northwestern Oklahoma State on March 15-16. Out of Bemidji State's 16 non-conference games thus far, all 16 have been road games as the Beavers have not had their home opener or faced a neutral site opponent.

As a team, BSU averages 5.1 runs per game wiht a .283 average, .341 OBP and 16 stolen bases (one per game). The Beavers are hitting .335 with two outs with 39 two-out RBI while limiting opposing bats to a .235 two out average. The pitching staff has compiled a 7.80 ERA and 1.26 strikeout-walk ratio while opponents have hit .345 against BSU.

Outfielder Tyler Nelson is riding a 14-game hitting streak, the longest for the team since the 2013 season. He leads the Beavers with a .397/.423/.647 slash, 12 runs scored and four triples. Outfielder Scott Litchy leads the club with 14 RBI, is tied for the team lead with 12 runs, and has clubbed a team leading three home runs and swiped three bases. He's also delivered three triples and a pair of doubles.

The Beavers are 0-3 against left handed pitching, putting up a 3-10 mark against righties. BSU has scored first in all three victories this year.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS
Concordia's season is off to a strong start buoyed by a 5-0 run to open the year at the Tucson Invitational Games that included three straight come-from-behind victories over Division II opponents Malone and Southwest Minnesota State. On the year, Concordia is outscoring opponents 281-263 in nine games with a .288/.379/.441 slash compared to a .300/.372/.433 opponent line. Concordia's pitchers have held a 5.10 earned run average compared to a 6.72 mark by opposing hurlers.

Four different hitters are hitting .300 or better: Connor Olson (.406), Andrew Shotwell (.367), Alex LaPorte (.344) and Tanner Holmquist (.333) among players who qualify for NCAA batting leaders (3.0 PA per team game) while two others, Isaac Hormann (.357) and Ben Suits (.348) have hit well in their roles as platoon starters. Another hitter, Eric Fasnacht is off to a .273 start at the plate but is second on the team with six extra base hits and tied for the team lead in RBI (11) with Olson while slugging .545.

The Golden Bears have hit five long balls on the year led by Holmquist with two as he's slugging .593 whileAndrew Shotwell (.533), Fasnacht (.545) and Suits (.609) each have hit one round tripper. Also enjoying a strong start to the year in terms of slugging is Olson at a team-best .625 aided by his team leading seven doubles.

On the bases, Concordia has swiped a base per game while only being caught twice while the Concordia catchers (Olson & David Henke) have held opponents to seven steals in 11 tries. LaPorte leads the team on the bases, stealing four bags in four chances while Fasnacht is 2-2.

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
please note: Each team's projected pitching matchups are based on early season usage, as the teams do not announce starting pitching matchups before a series
GAME 1: FRIDAY, 12:00 PM
CSP: Zach Rengel (Sr., LHP): 1-1, 7.20 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, 2 GS, 10.0 IP, 14-2 SO-BB, .349 OAV
BSU: Terry Hadden (Jr., RHP): 0-2, 9.90 ERA, 2.10 WHIP, 3 GS, 20.0 IP, 12-11 SO-BB, .383 OAV

GAME 2: FRIDAY, 2:00 PM (approx)
CSP: Kody Knaus (Sr., LHP): 2-0, 2.25 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 2 GS, 12.0 IP, 9-6 SO-BB, .220 OAV
BSU: Jack Stigman (Jr., RHP): 1-2, 8.35 ERA, 2.13 WHIP, 4 GS, 18.1 IP, 9-6 SO-BB, .413 OAV

GAME 3: SATURDAY, 12:00 PM
CSP: Kevin Woebke (Jr., LHP): 0-0, 3.27 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 2 GS, 11.0 IP, 12-6 SO-BB, .250 OAV
BSU: Mark Lesinski (Jr., LHP): 0-3, 3.44 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 2 GS, 18.1 IP, 7-3 SO-BB, .275 OAV

GAME 4: SATURDAY, 2:00 PM (approx)
CSP: Gus Varland (Fr., RHP): 1-1, 5.79 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 2 GS, 14.0 IP, 12-2 SO-BB, .298 OAV
BSU: Ryan Fransen (Jr., RHP): 0-2, 9.20 ERA, 2.32 WHIP, 3 GS, 14.2 IP, 8-12 SO-BB, .373 OAV

CONCORDIA BULLPEN NOTES
Senior RHP Yuji Suzuki has been the go-to guy in high leverage and closer situations, earning two saves in three appearances with a 3.00 ERA in 3.0 IP, striking out a pair ... junior LHP Josh Lenz has also picked up two saves in his two appearances in long relief roles covering 5.0 IP with a 3.60 ERA and six strikeouts while limiting opponents to a .250 average ... junior RHP Jake Kounkel has made a pair of appearances working to a 2.45 ERA with a 1-0 record in 3.2 IP with a 6-2 SO-BB ratio in his favor ... redshirt freshman RHP Keanu Mendez started his first game in Tucson in the team's fifth game on the trip, pitching 6.0 IP for the win over Missouri Valley before working a scoreless relief inning last weekend at Augustana ... on the year, Mendez is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in 7.0 IP with five strikeouts and a .280 opponent average.