Winona, Minn. - The Winona State University baseball team, coming off a three-game sweep of Southwest Minnesota State, will host Minot State University on Wednesday, April 14 in the cozy confines of Loughrey Field.
The doubleheader, originally scheduled to be played at Minot State, will be held at Winona State (13-10 / 10-8 NSIC) due to forecasted temperatures and playing conditions in Minot. In both games on Wednesday, the Warriors will be the visiting team.
Head coach
Kyle Poock and his team have won their last four ballgames, earning three victories over Southwest Minnesota State and one at St. Cloud State. In a pair of 2-1 wins in Marshall, Minn., the WSU pitching staff was dominant and prevailed in both pitching duels over SMSU. In two other contests, the Warrior offense turned up in timely fashion, scoring some late inning runs to win 5-1 at St. Cloud State and 9-7 at Southwest Minnesota State in the final games against the two teams.
In hosting the Beavers, WSU will see a Minot State (12-7 / 10-4 NSIC) side that sits above them in the NSIC standings and that most recently took two of three games from a nationally ranked Minnesota State squad. Like the Warriors, Minot State has found recent success in both low-scoring contests and offensive shootouts, having beat the Mavericks 1-0 to open their series this past weekend and then outlasting MSU-Mankato in a 11-9 contest in the back half of a doubleheader. The Mavericks won the final game between the two MSU's, 4-2.
On the mound:
Minot State has seen Jordan Chappell go unbeaten this year so far, sitting 3-0 in nine appearances. RJ Martinez came on in relief three times in the past week for Minot State and was credited with a save against the nationally ranked Mavericks coming out of the Beaver bullpen.
For Winona State, some of their best pitching performances have occurred in the last ten days, with
Cameron Kramer,
Dillon Whittaker,
Peter Tveite and
Nicolas Herold earning wins or saves against the last two WSU opponents.
Tveite and Herold both took the hill in the late stages of contests with the game on the line and delivered composed performances for their team. Kramer and Whittaker earned wins with extended starting outings, with Kramer going five full innings in a victory over the Huskies and Whittaker winning with a six-inning effort vs. SMSU.
At the plate and on the run:
The Beaver batting order has been paced recently by Declan Buckle, who was
14-for-27 in games against Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State - Mankato last week. Buckle belted two doubles and a home run over the two series and has at least one hit in seven of the last eight games in which he has participated. Jordan Williams has hit eight home runs for Minot State; he also has 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts.
The WSU offense is paced in the power department by
Derek Baumgartner, who has four triples and three home runs among his nine extra-base hits.
Sam Kohnle, who recently collected his 200th hit as a Warrior, is batting .386 while teammate
Tanner Williams is hitting .315 and has a team-leading nine doubles. On the base paths,
Jake Brill is 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts to lead the team.
Extra bases:
It has been a while since the Beavers and Warriors faced off; the last meeting between the two teams was on May 11, 2019, a 11-10 Minot State win.
Minot State head coach Scott Eul is in his fifth season as the Beaver bench boss and has guided them to success as of late, with a 107-62 overall mark and 76-33 NSIC record.
Winona State's
Kyle Poock is in his 19th year with the Warriors, one of the longest tenured coaches in the league. Poock currently stands at 465-396-2 (.540) over that time; only Southwest Minnesota State's Paul Blanchard has coached longer in the NSIC.
Per NSIC site-reversal rules, Minot State will serve as the home team in both of Wednesday's games, batting in the bottom of the inning in both the 7-inning and 9-inning contests.
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www.WINONASTATEWARRIORS.com and
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About Winona State University Athletics:
The Winona State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, as an integral part of the educational mission of the institution, is committed to offering opportunities to experience academic and athletic excellence for our student-athletes through two simple words:
Graduate Champions.
Fourteen Warrior programs compete at the NCAA Division II level within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Winona State University competes as an affiliate member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in the sport of women's gymnastics.
