WINONA, Minn. - The Winona State University baseball team returns home to wrap up the regular season on Friday, May 7 and Saturday May 8, hosting the #15 Minnesota State - Mankato Mavericks in a three-game Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) series.
The Warriors (21-14 / 18-12 NSIC) will be looking to hit the re-set button after dropping a midweek doubleheader to Concordia - St. Paul on Wednesday, coming out on the wrong end of two high scoring games, losing 11-10 and 13-6 to the Golden Bears. While the results were not what the Warriors wanted, the WSU offense looked good in the games, racking up six home runs and ten extra-base hits overall in the doubleheader.
In addition to being #15 in the current National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll, the Mavericks (30-6 / 26-5 NSIC) are featured in the most recent NCAA Division II Baseball regional rankings, one of four NSIC squads to make the list of eight teams under consideration at this point of the regular season.
Winona State and Minnesota State will play two on Friday, May 7, with first pitch set for 2:30pm in the cozy confines of Loughrey Field. The two teams will reconvene on Saturday at noon in the third and final game of the season.
On Friday in between games of the doubleheader, Winona State will recognize Warrior baseball players who are graduating this spring with a special on-the-field diploma ceremony. Also, on Saturday, WSU will take a moment to honor the 2021 and 2020 senior classes as a part of the third game program.
Recently, HBC Sports director Justin Barrientos and head coach
Kyle Poock connected to talk all things Warrior baseball. Check out Coach Poock's weekly interview
at this link.
Read on for more regarding the #11 Minnesota State - Winona State NSIC series, starting tomorrow, May 7 at 2:30pm.
Scouting the Minnesota State Mavericks...
On the mound:
Minnesota State's Jon Ludwig, Collin Denk and Brendan Knoll lead a Maverick staff that has put together eight complete games this year; Ludwig and Denk each have seven wins so far, while Knoll has racked up six victories this season. The MSU bullpen is led by Hunter Even, a steady presence with eight saves on the year. Ludwig leads the Mavericks in strikeouts, punching out 81 batters for head coach Matt Magers.
Nicolas Herold leads Winona State in total appearances this season at 17, coming exclusively out of the bullpen, earning five saves for Winona State. Several Warriors have taken on the starting role over the course of the season, led by
Bailey Banaszynski's who is 5-2 on the season, as well as
Cameron Kramer at 3-2.
Justin Firpo,
Dillon Whittaker,
Austin Savary and
Mitchell Mueller each have two victories in 2021, while freshman
Peter Tveite has pitched some key innings in middle relief.
At the plate and on the run:
MSU's Joey Werner is hitting .442, leading the Northern Sun in that category, and he is third in the conference in terms of slugging percentage. When he reaches base, opponents are wary of Werner, as leads Mavericks with 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts. Two other Minnesota State standouts present batting averages over .300, with Teddy Peterson hitting an impressive .385 and Ty Denzer batting .318.
Sam Kohnle lead the WSU lineup with a .376 average and has the most Warrior RBI at 31. He also leads Winona State in free passes, having drawn 22 walks.
Derek Baumgartner's four triples are tied for the league lead, and his five home runs is the top mark in the team.
Tanner Williams is tied with Kohnle for the team lead in doubles at 12, and Williams' forty hits is the second-most in the squad.
Extra bases:
With 81 strikeouts on the year, MSU's Ludwig has nearly 30 more k's than the next best Maverick, Collin Denk with 58. For Winona State,
Bailey Banaszynski leads his team with 67 strikeouts and has only walked 18 batters in over 47 innings pitched.
Minnesota State heads into the weekend series in first place at 25-5 in the NSIC; in 2017, the Mavericks won 35 NSIC ball games en route to the 2017 regular season title. With 21 wins so far this year, Winona State has broken the 20-win plateau two years in a row, having gone 26-23 in 2019, the last full season.
While Winona State was off on Thursday from competition, MSU-Mankato played the back half of their mid-week doubleheader against the University of Sioux Falls on Thursday. The NSIC twin bill scheduled for Wednesday was split in half due to rain, with the Mavericks winning game one 2-0 and returning to the field Thursday to beat the Cougars 7-3 for the sweep.
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 473-402-2 (.542) since taking over in 2003; only Southwest Minnesota State's Paul Blanchard has had a longer NSIC tenure.
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.
