ST. PAUL, Minn. - Over the next eight days, Concordia-St. Paul baseball (16-8, 9-6 NSIC) will host an eight game homestand at Barnes Field starting this Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. with a doubleheader against Northern State (11-14, 4-8 NSIC).

This homestand also features senior day against Minnesota State (18-11, 9-6 NSIC), scheduled for this Sunday following the noon doubleheader against the Mavericks to complete a four game weekend series. The homestand concludes next Wednesday, April 27 against Southwest Minnesota State (3-11, 1-9 NSIC).

ONLINE COVERAGE
Concordia's remaining home games are scheduled to feature live audio broadcasts with the voice of the Golden Bears, Dan Flanagan calling the games. Flanagan is a trained broadcaster with a degree from Fordham University where he gained on-air experience at the Division I level. The St. Paul native has been the voice of the Golden Bears since the 2008-09 academic year. His call will be supplemented by live stats in Concordia's GameCentral portal through Stretch Internet, along with the traditional desktop live stats format. All broadcasts are weather-permitting due to a lack of shelter for the press area at Barnes Field, but live stats will be displayed in both formats regardless of weather conditions.

WEATHER FORECAST
During one of the wettest weeks of the spring season, the Wednesday forecast appears favorable for baseball with a high of 68, low of 50 and 20 percent chance of precipitation and calm winds from ESE at 6 mph. Showers hit the area on Monday and Tuesday leading up to the doubleheader.

TIME FOR A REBOUND
The Golden Bears are in the midst of their longest losing streak of the season, dropping five in a row following Wednesday's first game win at #1 St. Cloud State. The last two games have been 1-run losses at Minnesota Duluth, and in Saturday's doubleheader losses, Concordia had a chance to take a lead in the fifth inning proving the team is still on the cusp of stringing together victories. Prior to the current five game losing streak, Concordia had only lost three games all year with a previous long losing streak of two.

To contrast, Concordia won its first five games of the year and rebounded from back-to-back losses by winning seven in a row for a 12-2 start. Another four game winning streak followed the loss that snapped the seven game winning streak giving the team three winning streaks of four-plus games.

The first half of the season's winning streaks culminated in a program record setting start with a 16-3 record through 19 overall games and a 9-1 record through 10 NSIC games.

NCBWA POLL: GOLDEN BEARS RECEIVE VOTES, BUT FALL FROM TOP-10
After being ranked sixth or seventh for six consecutive weeks in the NCBWA Central Region Top-10 poll, the Golden Bears fell out of this week's ranking but are the top unranked team receiving votes with four points among the eight voters. Last week, Concordia had six road games against teams ranked in the poll, splitting at #1 St. Cloud State before dropping four in a row at #9 Minnesota Duluth. SCSU remains first this week, while UMD moved up a spot to eighth. Concordia's four points trail 10th-ranked Southwestern Oklahoma State by eight.

During the homestand, Northern State and SMSU are not ranked or receiving votes in the poll while the four game weekend series against Minnesota State will feature two of the three teams receiving votes but not ranked in the poll as MSU has one point.

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.
 

RK	School -First-Place Votes-	W-L	Pts.	Previous
1	St. Cloud St. (Minn.) -7-	28-4	79	1
2	Central Missouri -1-	25-10	70	2
3	Missouri Western	28-11	62	4
4	Emporia State (Kan.)	28-11	60	3
5	Arkansas-Monticello	26-11	37	7
6	Missouri Southern	26-13	35	4
	Augustana (S.D.)	22-10	35	8
8	Minnesota-Duluth	21-9	28	9
9	Washburn	25-13	14	NR
10	SW Oklahoma State	27-12	12	RV

Also receiving votes: Concordia-St. Paul, Minn. (16-8) 4 points; Southern Arkansas (25-16) 2 points; Minnesota State (18-11) 1 point.

WEATHER IMPACTING 2016 SEASON
The headline is not exactly breaking news for baseball teams playing in the Upper Midwest, but the Golden Bears have now had eight games cancelled due to weather which consists of over 30 percent of the current 26 scheduled games. The team had a three game non-conference road trip to Upper Iowa wiped out, the second game of a home NSIC doubleheader against Wayne State and most recently a four game weekend NSIC road series at Minnesota Crookston. So far, the team has missed out on three non-conference and five conference games.

GOLDEN BEARS IN THE NCAA & NSIC RANKINGS (source: NCAA.com, games thru 4/17)
The team ranks 14th in the country (2nd NSIC) in fielding percentage (.971), 27th in DII (5th NSIC) in home runs (1.17/game) and 54th in DII (7th NSIC) in slugging (.478), fourth in the NSIC in ERA (5.66) and strikeout-walk ratio (2.0), fifth in the NSIC in fewest hits allowed (11.2 per 9) and WHIP (1.68) and sixth in strikeouts (7.8 per 9) ... individually, Connor Olson ranks 22nd nationally (2nd NSIC) in doubles (0.46/game), 56th DII (9th NSIC) in homers per game (0.29) and 11th NSIC in total home runs (7), 50th in DII (9th NSIC) in slugging (.711), 15th NSIC in runs (1.08/game) and 16th NSIC in RBI (1.08/game) ... Tanner Holmquist ranks 39th in DII (8th NSIC) in homers per game (0.32) and 11th NSIC in total home runs (7) and 19th NSIC in RBI (1.00/game) ... Ben Suits ranks 18th NSIC in homers per game (0.22), 27th NSIC in slugging (.616) and 14th NSIC in HBP (0.22/game) ... Eric Fasnacht ranks 18th NSIC in doubles (0.33/game) ... Alex LaPorte ranks 47th in DII (2nd NSIC) in sacrifice bunts (0.21/game) and 2nd NSIC overall with five and is the 9th toughest player in the NSIC to strikeout (12.0 AB/SO) ... Yuji Suzuki is 68th in DII (2nd NSIC) with four saves ... Zach Rengel is 7th NSIC in strikeouts (8.64 per 9).

SERIES HISTORY VS NORTHERN STATE
The Golden Bears are 43-10 all-time against NSU, 20-2 at home and have won nine in a row at Barnes Field against the Wolves dating back to May, 2008 ... last year, the teams split a mid-week doubleheader in Aberdeen, South Dakota with NSU winning game one 1-0 before Concordia picked up a 5-4 second game win to snap a three game skid against NSU ... nine consecutive games in the head-to-head series have been decided by three runs or less with Concordia holding a 5-4 edge since the 2012 season ... Northern State has not been to Barnes Field since 2011, a two-game sweep for Concordia (7-0 & 9-5).

PLAYER NOTES VS NORTHERN STATE
Eric Fasnacht is a .313/.313/.313 (5-16) hitter against NSU with three runs in five games ... David Henke has played two games against NSU last season, going 3-4 with two walks, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice for a .750 average and .857 on base percentage in eight plate appearances with a stolen base ... Connor Olson was 3-7 with an RBI and a walk last year for a .429 average and .500 obp in last year's doubleheader ... although he's a career .188/.278/.250 (3-16) hitter against Northern State in five games, Ryan Poppitz went 3-7 (.429) last year with a pair of runs, a double and an RBI  while drawing a walk for a .429/.500/.571 line in the doubleheader ...

PITCHER NOTES VS NORTHERN STATE
Zach Rengel has faced NSU once, working 5.0 innings allowing three runs (two earned) for a 3.60 ERA on three hits and no walks (0.60 WHIP) and six strikeouts while holding NSU to a .167 average in a 2013 loss ... Yuji Suzuki has faced Northern State once, last season in relief working 4.0 shutout innings allowing four hits and a walk with three strikeouts to earn the victory ... Kevin Woebke is 0-1 in one start against NSU, allowing five runs (four earned) in 5.1 innings, striking out three while allowing eight hits and four walks in a 2014 start.

SCOUTING NORTHERN STATE
The Wolves enter Wednesday's action having not played a conference game since dropping a four game weekend series at home to Augustana April 9-10, going 10 days between NSIC games. The Wolves had a four game home series against Wayne State cancelled due to weather conditions in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Overall, NSU has dropped eight straight contests, falling in its last action 15-5 on the road against Jamestown in non-conference play last Wednesday. Prior to the Augie weekend series, NSU was swept at home by Bemidji State two weeks ago on April 6. During its current eight game skid, NSU has allowed at least nine runs in all eight games with an average score of 12.0-6.0.

Prior to league play, the Wolves had an extended spring trip to Tucson, Arizona where they played 12 games in 12 days from March 7-18, facing three conference schools (SMSU, Minot State & SCSU) for a 3-2 record in five games.

On the year, Jack Schmidt leads the Wolves in hitting with a .500 average (50-100), adding 11 doubles, a triple and four home runs for a .750 slugging percentage while scoring 34 and driving in 32 runs in 25 contests. He's only struck out seven times in 100 at bats. Matt Stubbs is also having a strong year at the plate with a .443/.495/.794 (43-97) slash including eight doubles and eight home runs with 29 RBI. Lucas Lorenz gives the Wolves three potent bats with a .368/.435/.705 (35-95) line adding four doubles, two triples and eight home runs with 25 RBI. While Tyler Gripentrog is hitting just .239 (22-92), he's getting on base enough (.368) to be a force on the bases with 13 stolen bases in 15 chances to score 23 runs on the year.

NSU has swiped 35 bases in 43 tries as a team, hitting .331/.405/.523 with 32 home runs in 25 games. They rank in the top-six in the NSIC in scoring (7.8 runs, 6th), average (.331, 5th), on base percentage (.405, 5th), triples (0.40/game, 4th), home runs (1.28/game, 3rd), slugging (.523, 4th) and stolen bases (1.4/game, 2nd). But the pitching staff has worked to an 8.0 team ERA to rank 232nd of 254 Division II teams and the team fielding is .943 to rank 225th in the country.

Armed with a rested pitching staff, expect Northern State to trot their top two starting pitchers to the mound on Wednesday (more on them below). The bullpen is led by Dillon Lee (9 app, 1 GS) with a 3.06 ERA in 17.2 innings, striking out 12 while limiting opponents to a .206 average with no home runs against him. He's 0-1 with a pair of saves. Luke Chevalier has appeared in seven games in relief with an 0-1 record, one save and a 4.05 ERA in 13.0 innings with 16 strikeouts but nine walks and 14 hits allowed to a .298 average and one long ball. Andrew Nichols has made eight relief appearances for an 0-2 record and a 7.90 ERA in 13.2 innings, allowing 25 hits at a .397 average.

STARTING 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, WEDNESDAY, 1:30 PM - 7 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Josh Lenz	Jr.	L	4-1	2	4.71	1.57	8-1	21.0	7.3	3.9	.289
NSU	Colton Boucher	Sr.	R	4-1	0	4.95	1.27	6-6	36.1	8.7	3.0	.246
GAME 2, WEDNESDAY, 3:30 - 9 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Keanu Mendez	Fr.	R	3-1	0	4.42	1.58	5-3	18.1	8.4	5.9	.243
NSU	Nick Hoffard	Jr.	R	2-3	0	6.19	1.59	8-5	32.0	2.5	2.5	.339