this weekend
- The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (19-10, 14-8 NSIC), currently in third place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings, continues league action this weekend with a three-game series at home versus the University of Minnesota Crookston (14-18, 11-11 NSIC) at Legion Field in Marshall.
- Saturday’s doubleheader will begin at 1:30 p.m. with Sunday’s single game starting at 12 p.m.
- UMC is currently tied for eighth in the NSIC standings.
- SMSU has played six ‘home’ games this season, all victories, at Yankee Field in Milroy, Minn., as Legion Field finishes up offseason field upgrades.
SMSU LAST TIME OUT
- SMSU swept a doubleheader from Wayne State on Wednesday in Milroy, winning 5-4 and 12-4.
- Jared Cortez hit a tie-breaking solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to give SMSU the victory in game one, while Cody Wichmann fired seven-plus innings to earn his first career victory in game two.
- Cory Bantam had three hits in each game to pace the Mustangs.
SERIES HISTORY VS. MINNESOTA CROOKSTON
- SMSU leads the all-time series, 54-14, with the first match-up occurring during the 2000 season.
- UMC holds a 7-5 advantage since the 2021 season, including winning two of three regular season games last season in Crookston.
- SMSU defeated UMC, 6-0, in the opening round of the NSIC tournament last season in Bismarck, N.D.
- The last time the two teams played in Marshall, UMC swept a three-game series to close the 2023 regular season.
smsu notes
- As a team, the Mustangs are batting .296 and scoring 7.1 runs per game. SMSU pitchers are carrying a 3.90 ERA with 198 strikeouts in 226 innings of work. The Mustangs have made 34 errors in 966 total chances (.965 fielding pct.).
- SMSU has belted six grand slams this season.
- Junior Levi Lampert has reached base in all 29 games and is batting .396 with a team-leading 40 hits. He has collected a team-high 11 doubles, a team-leading nine home runs and leads the team lead with 28 RBIs. He has walked a team-high 24 times, is tied for the lead with 12 multi-hit games and is tied for first with eight multi-RBI games.
- Lampert hit home runs in four consecutive games versus Minot State on March 27-28. He is the first SMSU player to hit home runs in four straight games since Austin Stubbs in 2015.•Freshman Jared Cortez is batting a .388 with seven doubles, five home runs and 23 RBIs.
- Junior Cory Bantam is second with 27 RBIs and is batting .381 with seven doubles.
- Junior Evan Behn is hitting .351 with five doubles, four home runs and 24 RBIs. He ranks tied for first on the team with eight multi-RBI games.
- Junior Henry Hammrich, junior Tyler Froland, junior Carter Lang and Cortez have all belted five home runs to rank second on the team.
- Senior Carter Petron has a 2.40 ERA in 30 innings with 26 strikeouts compiling a 4-2 record in six starts.
- Freshman Jameson Quinn is 3-1 in seven starts with a team-high 41 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings.
- Senior Ryan Chmielewski is 3-1 in six starts with a 3.35 ERA collecting a team-leading 39 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings. He tied a career-high with eight innings in his last start on April 5 at Concordia-St. Paul.
- Senior Jerod Cyrus has pitched in 10 games recording 15 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings with a 2.60 ERA.
- Senior Cameron Jensen has three saves in 11 appearances with a 1.02 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings.•Senior Bennett Knapper has appeared in a team-high 12 games and carries a 3.07 ERA.
MUSTANGS IN THE RECORD BOOK
- Senior Ryan Chmielewski ranks fifth in team history with 205 strikeouts and is sixth all-time in innings pitched at 212 2/3.
- Senior Cameron Jensen is tied for sixth all-time with six saves.
- Senior Owen Latendresse is tied for first all-time with 12 triples along with Mark Lickfelt (1995-98), ranks eighth in hit by pitches with 29 and is 15th in base hits with 170.
GAME LINKS