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- The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (22-15, 17-13 NSIC), currently fifth place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings, will host its final home games of the season this week with five games at Legion Field.
- SMSU will take on second place Augustana University (28-12, 22-8 NSIC) for a doubleheader on Wednesday starting at 3 p.m.
- On Friday and Saturday, the Mustangs will entertain the University of Mary (18-21, 14-16 NSIC), currently 10th in the league standings, for a three-game series. Saturday’s doubleheader begins at 1:30 p.m. with Sunday’s single game starting at 12 p.m.
- Sunday will be ‘Senior Day’ at the ballpark as SMSU will honor its 11 seniors in a pregame ceremony
- Following this weekend, SMSU will close the regular season with a doubleheader at Sioux Falls on April 29 and a three-game series at Minnesota State on May 2-3.
SMSU LAST TIME OUT
- SMSU lost two of three games at Winona State last Friday and Saturday. SMSU lost 11-7 in game one on Friday, before suffering an 8-7 walk-off loss in 10 innings in game two. SMSU was able to salvage the final game of the series with a 10-8 victory on Saturday.
SERIES HISTORY VS. AUGUSTANA
- AU leads the all-time series, 68-46, with the first match-up occurring during the 1980 season.
- This will be the first time SMSU has hosted AU since the 2016 season.
- AU has won nine straight in the series and 29 of the last 31 since the 2014 season.
- The last time SMSU swept a doubleheader from AU came on March 20, 2012, in a non-conference match-up at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
smsu notes
- As a team, the Mustangs are batting .286 and scoring 6.7 runs per game. SMSU pitchers are carrying a 4.50 ERA with 252 strikeouts in 290 innings. The Mustangs have made 40 errors in 1,232 total chances (.968 fielding pct.).
- Junior Levi Lampert has reached base in all 37 games and is batting a team high .359 with a team-leading 47 hits.
- Lampert has collected a team-high 13 doubles, a team-leading 10 home runs and leads the team lead with 34 RBIs. He has walked a team-high 27 times, is first with nine multi-RBI games and ranks tied for second with 12 multi-hit games.
- Junior Cory Bantam is second with 29 RBIs and is batting .349 with eight doubles. He has reached base in 19 straight games.
- Junior Evan Behn is hitting .337 with five doubles, four home runs and 26 RBIs. He ranks second on the team with eight multi-RBI games.
- Freshman Jared Cortez is batting a .333 with eight doubles, five home runs and 25 RBIs. He leads the club with 14 multi-hit games.
- Freshman Jameson Quinn is 3-1 in nine appearance and eight starts with 44 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings.
- Senior Ryan Chmielewski is 4-2 in eight starts with a 4.11 ERA collecting a team-leading 45 strikeouts in 46 innings.
- Senior Cameron Jensen is 3-1, with five saves in 16 appearances with a 3.04 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings.
- Senior Bennett Knapper has appeared in 16 games and carries a 3.93 ERA in 18 1/3 innings.
- Senior Jerod Cyrus has pitched in 12 games recording 19 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings with a 4.35 ERA.
MUSTANGS IN THE RECORD BOOK
- Senior Ryan Chmielewski ranks fourth in team history in strikeouts (211) and is fourth all-time in innings pitched (221).
- Senior Cameron Jensen ranks third all-time in saves (8).
- Senior Owen Latendresse, along with Mark Lickfelt (1995-97), is tied for first all-time in triples (12), while ranking sixth in hit by pitches (32) and 10th in base hits (181).
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