WINONA, Minn. - The Winona State University baseball team will head to Concordia - St. Paul on Wednesday, May 5, with the opportunity to move up in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) standings as the postseason picture takes shape.
The Warriors (21-14 / 18-12 NSIC) recently beat the University of Sioux Falls on Sunday, May 2, taking a 9-inning game by a 9-6 scoreline, after dropping a doubleheader the day prior by identical 6-4 scores.
The Golden Bears (12-21 / 8-19 NSIC) recently took on the nationally ranked and league-leading Minnesota State, dropping three games to the Mavericks in wrapping up the road portion of their 2021 campaign.
First pitch against Concordia - St. Paul is set for 1:30pm at Barnes Field in St. Paul, Minn. Read on for more regarding the Golden Bears - Warrior doubleheader scheduled for Wednesday, May 5.
On the mound:
Concordia - St. Paul's TJ Johnson and Eric Lundell both lead the Golden Bears with three wins each on the year. Coming out of the CSP bullpen, Connor Hurley has two saves on the year, while Griffin Lapp has thrown the most innings so far at 38.1 innings. No Golden Bear has tossed a complete game yet this season.
Bailey Banaszynski's is 5-2 on the season, leading the Warriors in the 'W' column.
Cameron Kramer has notched three victories this year, while
Austin Savary is 2-2 overall, one of five WSU pitchers with a pair of wins this year.
Nicolas Herold has earned five saves coming out of the bullpen for Winona State. Herold has racked up 35 strikeouts in just under 21 innings pitched.
At the plate and on the run:
CSP's Nick Thimsen is hitting .341 to lead his team this season, and has hit six home runs, tied for the program lead with Jarod Wandersee. Thimsen is also perfect 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts, while Wandersee has the most Golden Bear RBI with 25. Overall, Concordia - St. Paul has four batters hitting .300 or better, with Matt Pietsch and Patrick Bordewick joining Wandersee and Thimsen in that category.
Three Warriors are batting above .300 at this stage of the season, with
Sam Kohnle,
Nick Herbst and
Austin Savary at .384, .330 and .319, respectively.
Tanner Williams is knocking on the door at .299, and his 12 doubles are tied with Kohnle for the team lead in that category.
Derek Baumgartner leads Winona State, and the NSIC, in triples with four on the year. Savary, Herbst and
Jake Brill have five stolen bases each for the Warriors.
Extra bases:
The last time CSP and WSU faced off was May 1, 2019, when the Warriors took both ends of a doubleheader in Winona, winning game one 4-0 and game two 9-1. The two teams have a produced a 41-37 series record in favor of Winona State since April 21, 2000.
Concordia - St. Paul is mathematically eliminated from the Northern Sun postseason picture and will conclude its season with the doubleheader against Winona State on Wednesday, followed by a three-game series against the University of Sioux Falls on May 7 - 8. All remaining Golden Bear games are home contests for CSP.
University of Sioux Falls head coach Neil Lerner is in his second season as the head coach of the CSP program and has been a part of the Golden Bear staff for the past 12 years, first as an assistant and then as an associate head coach.
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 current record is 472-398-2 (.542) since taking over in 2003; only Southwest Minnesota State's Paul Blanchard has had a longer NSIC tenure.
