ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul baseball (14-3, 7-1 NSIC) looks to continue its strong start to the 2016 campaign with a Wednesday doubleheader against Wayne State (4-17, 1-5 NSIC) at Barnes Field. First pitch is slated for 1:30 p.m. as the Golden Bears close out a 10-game homestand to start the Northern Sun season.

LONG ROAD AHEAD
Following Concordia's doubleheader against the Wildcats, the team hits the road for a 10-game swing that sends them up north to Minnesota Crookston (13-8, 6-1 NSIC) for four games this weekend, a doubleheader next Wednesday at #1 St. Cloud State (21-0, 6-0 NSIC) and a four game series at Minnesota Duluth (12-8, 5-3 NSIC) on April 16-17. It will be Concordia's first conference road games, although the team did split a non-conference four game series at Augustana in mid-March two weeks before league play commenced.

CLIMATE & GAME COVERAGE
With a forecast calling for temperatures in the mid to upper 40's and a 40 percent chance or rain, the games will not feature an audio or video webcast. Full live stats will be available in either the mobile friendly format or the traditional desktop display.
 

CSP	STAT	WSC
14-3	W-L	4-17
7-1	Conf	1-5
4-1	Last 5	1-4
9-1	Last 10	1-9
2W	Strk	1L
.303	Avg	.306
.377	Obp	.382
.504	Slg	.454
32	2B	38
3	3B	6
22	HR	18
10-15	SB-A	19-28
6.5	R/G	6.9
4.47	ERA	7.36
1.56	WHIP	2.02
8.4	K/9	8.7
3.6	BB/9	4.9
2.3	K-BB	1.8
.295	OAV	.343
10	opp HR	16
.973	Fld%	.948
12	DP	11
13-24	opp SB	27-35

STRONG START
The Golden Bears have matched their best 17-game overall start in Division II/NSIC history with a 14-3 record. The start matches 17th-year head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie's 2005 and 2009 campaigns, and the 7-1 NSIC start ties the 2003 team's best start in Northern Sun play.
2003: 7-1 NSIC start, 14-4 NSIC finish (4th) - NSIC Tournament Co-Champions
2005: 14-3 overall start, 29-12 overall finish - established single season wins record, 17-5 NSIC finish (2nd)
2009: 16-3 overall start, 35-18 overall finish - set single season wins record, 16-15 NSIC finish (8th)
2016: 14-3 overall start, 7-1 NSIC start - 28 scheduled NSIC contests remain

LAST WEEKEND: CONCORDIA WINS SERIES 3-1 OVER U-MARY
Concordia topped U-Mary 3-1 in four games at Barnes Field as the starting rotation pitched into the seventh inning in all four games, compiling a combined 2.31 ERA in 27.1 innings ... sophomore catcher Connor Olson led the offensive attack by hitting .467/.529/1.133 (1.662 OPS), going 7-15 with a double and three home runs while driving in five of Concordia's team 15 RBI on the weekend ... left handed starting pitchers Zach Rengel, Kody Knaus and Kevin Woebke each pitched 7.0 innings, allowing a combined two earned runs on 11 total hits and one walk with 12 strikeouts with Rengel throwing a complete game shutout in the series opener.

SERIES HISTORY VS WAYNE STATE
The Golden Bears are 9-33 all-time against WSC and 1-12 at Barnes Field against the Wildcats ... Concordia swept last year's mid-week doubleheader in Wayne to snap a nine game losing streak against WSC ... Wayne State has won five straight games at Barnes Field, sweeping a 2011 four game series and taking two of three at Barnes Field in 2010, with Concordia winning the middle game of the 2010 series 7-2 on April 1.

PLAYER NOTES VS WAYNE STATE - 2015 NOTES
David Henke went 4-6 (.667), drew two walks for a .750 on base percentage and hit a double for a .833 slugging, scoring four and driving in two runs in the doubleheader ... Andrew Shotwell was 4-9 (.444) with a double, run and two RBI and a walk ... Eric Fasnacht went 3-9 (.333) last year with a double, two runs and an RBI ... Ryan Poppitz was 3-9 (.333) with a run, double and an RBI ... Alex LaPorte went 3-7 (.429) with a walk and two runs scored ... Connor Olson went 2-10 with a double

PITCHER NOTES VS WAYNE STATE - 2015 NOTES
LHP Josh Lenz started game two, working 7.0 innings allowing three unearned runs for the win, allowing the Wildcats just five singles for a .185 average with six strikeouts and two walks ... LHP Erik Monson worked 2.0 innings in relief, allowing an unearned run on three hits with two strikeouts and no walks

ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Historically one of the strongest baseball programs in the Northern Sun, the Wildcats are off to a slow start in 2016 but have had some tough luck along the way. Wayne State, 4-17 overall has dropped 12 of its 17 games by four runs or less including nine losses by one or two runs. In league play, Wayne State opened with the top-ranked team in the country, St. Cloud State and competed with 5-0 and 3-0 losses before the final two games of the series were cancelled due to weather. Last weekend, Wayne State faced an offensively charged Minnesota Crookston squad that scored 45 runs in four games to take three of four games played at Wayne State. The Wildcats put up runs in bunches as well, scoring 50 in the four games, but 20 of those runs came in a 20-9 game three win. The Wildcats dropped the other games by margins of 9-8, 17-13 (10 innings) on the first day before a series finale 10-9 loss as WSC surrendered three unearned runs in the ninth inning after leading 9-7 needing just three outs for the series split.

Offense isn't a problem for WSC as the Wildcats are hitting .306/.382/.454 as a team with 6.9 runs per game and 62 extra base hits including 18 home runs. Cody Jenkins leads the team in hitting at .398/.442/.568 (35-88) with nine doubles, two home runs and 17 RBI. Bodie Cooper brings a strong .338/.414/.595 (25-74) slash to the lineup with a team-high 18 runs along with seven doubles, four home runs and 20 RBI - second on the team in all three categories. Nate Ackerman is hitting just .263, but is still getting on base at a .378 clip and slugging a robust .513 as he's tied for the team lead in runs (18) and triples (2) while belting a team leading five home runs and driving in a team-high 22 runs and leading the team with nine stolen bases in 10 tries.

The pitching staff has yet to find a groove as the staff holds a 7.36 earned run average and allows opponents to hit .343/.427/.486 including 66 extra base hits in 21 games while opponents have stolen 27 bases to WSC's 19.

Saturday's starting pitchers, Keenan Breen (0-3, 12.00 ERA, 5 GS, 15.0 IP) and Matthew Wood (1-2, 5.40 ERA, 5 app, 3 GS, 15.0 IP) combined to work just 3.0 innings against UMC which could make them available for a rare mid-week start. But with the NSIC starting mid-week play this week, starting pitching projections are not available due to lack of past usage.