ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul baseball (18-8, 11-6 NSIC) celebrates its 10-player senior class hosting a four game NSIC series against Minnesota State (18-11, 9-6 NSIC) at Barnes Field.

WEEKEND OUTLOOK
The series is scheduled to be played with doubleheaders on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. with senior day on Sunday following the noon doubleheader. The Saturday forecast shows a high in the low 70's with partly cloudy conditions and winds in the 15-25 mph range from SSE. On Sunday, the high is 67 but an 80 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms loom. Due to the unpredictable nature of spring weather in the Upper Midwest, specifically in 2016 please visit cugoldenbears.com or follow @CUGoldenBears for any weather related updates to the weekend schedule.

ONLINE COVERAGE
The weekend series is slated to have an audio broadcast online of all four games through Concordia's GameCentral portal on Stretch Internet with the voice of the Golden Bears Dan Flanagan calling the action. 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.

SENIOR WEEKEND
The tradition of the Golden Bear baseball program is to honor its seniors following the final home weekend game of a season. That falls this Sunday for the 2016 squad, who will honor 10 seniors: Alex Eernisse, Eric Fasnacht, Austin Hebig, David Henke, Kody Knaus, Alex LaPorte, Ryan Poppitz, Zach Rengel, Tyler Schmitz and Yuji Suzuki. As a group, the senior class has led the program back to the NSIC Tournament three years in a row with sights set on a fourth after a four year gap from 2009-12 following the 2008 NSIC Championship season that led the program to its first NCAA Regional Tournament appearance.

Entering the weekend, the seniors carry an 87-61 overall and 63-38 NSIC record with a fourth (2014), fifth (2013) and sixth (2015) conference finish. This year, they're tied for fourth with 14 scheduled games remaining. The group has also set the top two seasons for most conference wins with 20 (2014) and 19 (2015). Senior player notes will accompany the final road series preview in May leading into their last regular season action.

HOMESTAND
Concordia opened an 8-game homestand with a pair of 8-3 wins in a Wednesday doubleheader sweep of Northern State. The club will face Minnesota State in this weekend's four game series and host Southwest Minnesota State next Wednesday, April 27 to close out the home schedule. Concordia opened the home season with a 10-game homestand, going 8-1 with one game cancelled due to weather. The Golden Bears carry a 10-1 home record at Barnes Field this season.
 

CSP	STAT	MSU
18-8	W-L	18-11
11-6	Conf	9-6
2-3	Last 5	3-2
5-5	Last 10	7-3
2W	Strk	1L
.298	Avg	.300
.372	Obp	.392
.488	Slg	.435
46	2B	53
4	3B	11
33	HR	18
12-17	SB-A	21-29
6.5	R/G	6.9
5.43	ERA	4.81
1.65	WHIP	1.55
7.8	K/9	7.9
3.9	BB/9	3.6
2.0	K-BB	2.2
.304	OAV	.287
23	opp HR	23
.971	Fld%	.958
19	DP	25
19-32	opp SB-A	30-41

RECORD PACE START TO 2016
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 on the year.

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.

A look at Concordia's weekly rankings in the NCBWA Central Region Poll:
Date, W-L, Rk, Pts
Pre, 0-0, NR
2/16, 0-0, NR
2/23, 0-0, NR
3/1, 0-0, NR
3/8, 5-0, 7th, 22
3/15, 7-2, 7th, 24
3/22, 7-2, t-7th, 21
3/29, 11-2, 6th, 23
4/5, 12-3, 7th, 26
4/12, 15-3, 6th, 31
4/19, 16-8, RV, 4

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 Fasnachtranks 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 MINNESOTA STATE
Concordia enters the weekend with a 4-24 all-time record against MSU including 0-6 at Barnes Field. The Mavericks have won seven straight against CSP dating back to April, 2012. MSU hasn't been to Barnes Field since 2011. Last year, the Mavericks took a four game series in Mankato by scores of 1-0, 10-0, 8-5 and 10-4. This marks the first time that Concordia will face an unranked MSU squad since the 2011 season which was the Mavericks' last trip to Barnes Field. MSU was ranked #23 when the teams played in 2012, #12 in 2013, #3 in 2014 and #5 in 2015.

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, SATURDAY, 1:30 PM - 7 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Zach Rengel	Jr.	L	2-2	0	6.84	1.60	5-5	25.0	8.6	3.2	.295
MSU	Mitchell Bauer	Sr.	R	3-2	0	3.00	1.40	7-6	30.0	6.3	2.1	.276
GAME 2, SATURDAY, 3:30 - 9 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Gus Varland	Fr.	R	1-3	0	6.82	1.79	5-5	30.1	6.8	2.7	.362
MSU	Josh Matheson	Jr.	R	3-0	0	4.91	1.53	9-3	18.1	7.4	3.0	.319

 

GAME 1, SUNDAY, 12:00 PM - 7 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Kody Knaus	Sr.	L	4-0	0	4.50	1.50	5-5	26.0	7.6	3.1	.294
MSU	Aaron Rozek	Sr.	R	3-1	0	5.93	1.79	6-5	27.1	6.3	4.0	.327
GAME 2, SUNDAY, 2:00 - 9 innings
Team	Pitcher	Yr.	R/L	W-L	Sv	ERA	WHIP	App-GS	IP	K/9	BB/9	Oav
CSP	Kevin Woebke	Jr.	L	1-1	1	4.20	1.47	6-5	30.0	7.2	4.5	.264
MSU	Jon Ludwig	Jr.	R	0-2	0	4.03	1.30	6-3	22.1	7.7	1.6	.272