Winona, Minn. - The Winona State University baseball team, currently in the midst of an eight game winning streak, will host Augustana University on Saturday, April 24 in the cozy confines of Loughrey Field.
The doubleheader represents the first two games of a three-game series between the Warriors (17-10 / 14-8 NSIC) and the Vikings (22-7 / 18-7 NSIC) scheduled over the weekend. The two teams will tangle in a nine-inning contest on Sunday April 25, beginning at noon.
Head coach
Kyle Poock and his team also welcome back alumni, fans, families and friends of the program, for an alumni reunion on Saturday. A focus of the celebration is the recognition of the 2011 Winona State team which went 42-8 and advanced to the NCAA Division II World Series, where they finished in second place, going 3-1 at the tournament.
Recently, Coach Poock chatted with HBC sports director Justin Barrientos about the season and reflected on the 2011 campaign.
Click here for Warrior Lunch Break with Justin Barrientos.
In hosting the Vikings, WSU will see an Augustana side that sits just above them in the NSIC standings but are coming off a loss to the University of Sioux Falls, 6-3. All seven Viking losses have come to NSIC opposition.
On the mound:
Playing a big part of Augustana's 22 wins so far this season has been Max Steffens and Jed Schmidt, who are 5-0 and 4-0 respectively in a combined 12 appearances. Not far behind is Tanner Brownn who is 3-0 on the year and threw a perfect game on March 27, in a 7-inning 4-0 Augustana win over Minot State.
For the Warriors,
Bailey Banaszynski has been lights out lately, a earning 5-2 win against Minot State on April 14, holding the Beavers to three hits while striking out 13 and against Wayne State, where he struck out eight in five innings in a 6-2 WSU victory.
Mitchell Mueller also won against Wayne State, tossing the first four innings in a 11-6 win. In the bullpen, the duo of
Peter Tveite and
Nicolas Herold has been the perfect recipe recently, as the pair of made appearances in the later stages of several WSU wins, including both games of the most recent Warrior sweep of Wayne State.
At the plate and on the run:
The Augustana lineup made national headlines recently thanks to the impressive performance of Sam Baier, who hit seven home runs in an AU doubleheader over Bemidji State earlier this year, as the Vikings won 21- 0 and 24-0. Not surprisingly, Baier leads the Vikings in home runs (8) and is third in RBI (30), while also collecting a triple and four doubles. Carter Howell has the best batting average for Augustana at .459. Not just a home run hitter, Baier has the best success on the base paths for AU, at a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen base attempts, while Howell is 16-for-18. Riley Johnson has 15 steals as well.
The WSU offense is lead by
Derek Baumgartner, who has four triples, four doubles and three home runs, leading to his team-best 24 RBI.
Sam Kohnle, who recently became the all-time leader in singles at Winona State, is batting .389 while teammates
Nick Herbst and
Tanner Williams are hitting .329 and .327, respectively. In the base running department,
Jake Brill is 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts to lead the team, while
Cooper Kapanke is 4-for-4.
Extra bases:
It has been a while since the Augustana and Winona State competed against one another; the last meeting between the two teams was a single, nine-inning game won by AU, 4-1 on May 9, 2019.
Augustana University head coach Tim Huber led his team to the NCAA Division II National Title in 2018 and is 417-209 over 12 seasons with the Vikings.
Winona State's
Kyle Poock is in his 19th year leading the WSU program, one of the longest tenured coaches in the league. Poock's record is 465-396-2 (.540) since taking over in 2003; only Southwest Minnesota State's Paul Blanchard has had a longer NSIC tenure.
WSU will honor several players and alumni in between ballgames today, including Tanner Hassly,
Chad Herbst,
Aaron Mutter, Nick Nalewaski, Andrew Pilner and
Caleb Schoenholz.
For the most up to date news in Warrior Athletics, please visit:
www.WINONASTATEWARRIORS.com and
@WinonaStateATH.
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.
