North Dakota State Welcomes Western Illinois to Newman Outdoor Field for Weekend Series

Friday, April 18

Fargo, N.D.

6:30 p.m.

North Dakota State

Western Illinois

Photo by: Jim Trewin

North Dakota State Welcomes Western Illinois to Newman Outdoor Field for Weekend Series

4/16/2014 1:53:00 PM | Baseball

SETTING THE SCENE: The North Dakota State baseball team welcomes the Western Illinois Leathernecks to Newman Outdoor Field this weekend for a four-game Summit League series. NDSU and WIU will play a single game Friday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. before continuing the series with a doubleheader Saturday, April 19 beginning at 1 p.m. The Bison and Leathernecks will conclude the set Sunday, April 20 with a single contest at 1 p.m.

MEDIA COVERAGE: Friday and Sunday's contests can be heard live on KNDS 96.3 FM in Fargo while Saturday's doubleheader will be streamed live on KNDSradio.com. A live, pay-per-view, high definition webcast will also be available at GoBison.com/allaccess. Live statistics for each game can be accessed at GoBison.com.

THE SERIES: The four-game series with the Leathernecks will be meetings 37-40 in the all-time series that dates back to 2005. NDSU trails WIU, 14-22, in the series. The Bison fell to the Leathernecks on March 30 in Macomb, Ill., 4-3 and 9-8, with both losses occurring on walk-off hits. NDSU's last victory over WIU was May 25, 2013, a 3-0 win in The Summit League tournament.

ABOUT WESTERN ILLINOIS: The Leathernecks enter Friday's series opener with an overall record of 10-19 and a Summit League mark of 5-3. WIU is coming off an 8-6 victory over Iowa on April 15 in Iowa City. Tanner Glore is hitting .322 with 29 hits in 90 at bats. He has five doubles and 15 RBI. Neil DeCook is batting .287 for WIU and is 11-for-12 in stolen base attempts while Jack Moore and Adam McGinnis lead the team with two homers each. Zack Burling has stolen a team-and Summit League-best 14 bases in 18 attempts. On the mound, Aaron Michel is 3-4 with a 2.92 ERA in 49.1 innings pitched. He has a team-and Summit League-high two shutouts in eight starts for the Leathernecks. Michel has allowed 39 hits while striking out 36 and walking 23. Tyler Willman is 2-2 with a 3.26 ERA in 49.2 innings of work. He has pitched one shutout in eight starts. Willman has allowed 42 hits with 24 strikeouts and 23 walks. As a team, the Leathernecks are hitting .273 while allowing their opponents to hit .276. WIU has a team ERA of 5.23 while its opponents ERA is 4.07.

NDSU FALLS AT MINNESOTA, 5-3: The North Dakota State baseball team (8-16) fell to the Minnesota Golden Gophers (18-14), 5-3, Tuesday, April 15 at Siebert Field in Minneapolis. Trailing 5-1 in the eighth inning, NDSU's David Ernst stepped to the plate and drove a two-out, bases-loaded RBI single to centerfield, scoring Kyle Kleinendorst and Wes Satzinger to trim the Gopher advantage to 5-3. Satzinger started the inning with a single to right-center before Kleinendorst induced a walk. Nick Altavilla struck out and Logan Swann flied out before Jon Hechtner loaded the bases with another walk. The comeback effort would fall short though, as NDSU could not score in the top of the ninth, resulting in the 5-3 setback. Ernst went 1-for-1 in the contest while Tim Colwell, Ben Petersen, Satzinger, Swann, Michael Leach and Andy Wicklund each recorded hits for NDSU. Kevin Folman took the loss on the mound for the Bison, allowing three runs, two earned, on three hits to dip to 0-3 on the season. The Gophers' Toby Anderson picked up the win to improve to 2-0 overall on the season.

WEEKLY HONORS: North Dakota State has four Summit League award winners this season. Kyle Kleinendorst was named co-Player of the Week after going 7-for-12 (.583) with three triples, two RBIs and five runs scored in a four-game series at Northern Colorado March 7-9. Wes Satzinger was co-Player of the Week after hitting 5-for-11 (.455) in three games at Murray State, where he homered and drove in two runs in a 4-1 win Friday, Feb. 28, and doubled twice with two runs scored in a 3-2 win Saturday, March 1. David Ernst was named Pitcher of the Week after allowing just three singles in seven scoreless innings in the 4-1 win at Murray State. Parker Trewin was tabbed Pitcher of the Week after pitching a career-high seven innings and striking out a career-best 10 batters with one walk and five hits in the Bison's 13-1 win over Maine March 16.

CATCHING UP WITH THE BISON: NDSU is 8-16 overall and 0-6 in Summit League competition entering the four-game series against Western Illinois this weekend. Nick Altavilla is hitting .339 with 21 hits in 62 at bats. He has seven doubles and 10 RBI in 22 games-played. Tim Colwell has a .337 batting average with a team-high 31 hits in 92 at bats. Colwell has three doubles and triples to go along with one homer and seven RBI. He is also a team-best 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts. Kyle Kleinendorst leads the team and is tied for The Summit League lead in triples with four while Wes Satzinger has a team-and league-high 12 doubles. On the mound, David Ernst is 2-2 and leads both the team and league with a 2.30 ERA in eight appearances and starts. He has pitched 47.0 innings, allowing 43 hits while striking out 20 and walking 17. Ernst also has six RBI as a DH for the Bison. Parker Trewin has a 2.61 ERA and is 2-1 overall in seven appearances and six starts. Trewin has a team-high 27 strikeouts in 31.0 innings of work. He has allowed 28 hits and walked 12. Trent Keefer is 3-4 with a 4.88 ERA in eight appearances and seven starts for the Bison. He has allowed 45 hits in 31.1 innings pitched while walking 16 and striking out 25. As a team, the Bison are fifth in The Summit League in batting with a .239 average and third in the league in pitching with an ERA of 5.01.

140 AND COUNTING: North Dakota State senior Tim Colwell has started in 140 consecutive games dating back to his freshman season in 2011, ranking him among the national leaders in consecutive games-started. He has started all 24 games this season, 53 games in 2013, 60 in 2012 and made 44 starts out of 47 contests in 2011.

COLWELL SELECTED AS CANDIDATE FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Tim Colwell was one of 30 NCAA baseball student-athletes who excel both on and off the diamond selected Wednesday, March 19, as candidates for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award in collegiate baseball To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2014 College World Series® in June.

RECORD CHASE: North Dakota State seniors Tim Colwell and Wes Satzinger continue to move up the Bison career record lists in several categories. Colwell ranks second in at-bats (717), third in total bases (322) and runs (146), second in hits (245) and has already owns the triples record (17). Satzinger ranks second in doubles (52), fifth in at-bats (627), sixth in sac bunts (14) and hits (193), and defensively is fourth in assists (387). Both players are tied for the career lead in sac flies (10).

SCORELESS STREAK: Starting pitcher David Ernst had a streak of 29 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings snapped March 8. Ernst pitched seven scoreless innings each of his first two starts at Southern California and Murray State before a one-out homer in the second at Northern Colorado. He pitched a two-hit shutout against Western Illinois in last year's Summit League tournament and blanked Fort Wayne the final five innings of his last regular season appearance of 2013.

PRESEASON PICKS: North Dakota State was picked third in The Summit League in a preseason poll of the league's five head coaches. Defending regular season champion Omaha was first, tournament champion South Dakota State was second, Western Illinois fourth and Fort Wayne fifth. NDSU, with 8 of 9 starters back from last year's 26-27 team, was picked as Baseball America's team to beat in its Summit League preview.

FOUR STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASONS: North Dakota State has reached the 20-win mark four straight seasons and qualified for three straight Summit League tournaments reaching the championship game each of the past two years. This is NDSU's seventh season in The Summit League after three seasons as a Division I independent. The Summit League tournament is scheduled for May 22-24 at Sioux Falls Stadium in Sioux Falls, S.D. The four-team double-elimination tournament will not include Omaha, which is reclassifying from Division II and not eligible for postseason play in baseball until 2016.

THE COACH: North Dakota State head coach Tod Brown (Arizona, 1994) is in his seventh season with a 149-183 record, the second most wins in school history. Brown previously was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for eight seasons at Bowling Green, where he was part of two division titles and a regular-season title in the Mid-American Conference. Brown began his collegiate coaching career in 1999 as a volunteer assistant at Arizona. He was a left-handed pitcher for the Wildcats under Hall of Fame coach Jerry Kindall and a member of the 1992 Pac-10 champs.