Friday, March 31
Omaha, Neb.
4 p.m.
North Dakota State
at
Omaha
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Photo by: Jim Trewin
North Dakota State Baseball Treks to Omaha for Trio of Summit League Games
3/29/2017 2:55:00 PM | Baseball
Game 1: North Dakota State at Omaha
Friday, March 31 | 4 p.m.
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
Game 2: North Dakota State at Omaha
Saturday, April 1 | 2 p.m.
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
Game 3: North Dakota State at Omaha
Sunday, April 2 | Noon
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
NDSU Game Notes (PDF)
NDSU baseball on Twitter: @NDSUbaseball
SCENE SETTER: The North Dakota State University baseball team is scheduled to travel to Omaha, Neb., March 31 - April 2 for a three-game Summit League series against the Omaha Mavericks. The series opener is slated for 4 p.m. Friday, March 31, with game two scheduled for Saturday, April 1, at 2 p.m. The series finale is slated for noon Sunday, April 2.
MEDIA COVERAGE: Live stats will be available for all games at Omaha. For links, please visit www.GoBison.com. Twitter updates will also be available on the official NDSU baseball Twitter account at Twitter.com/NDSUbaseball.
SERIES RECORD: The three-game series at Omaha will be meetings 67-69 in the all-time series that dates back to 1978. NDSU leads the series, 34-32. Last season, the Bison went 2-4 against the Mavs, dropping two of three games in Omaha and in Fargo. North Dakota State hasn't won a series in Omaha since 2014 when the Bison won three of four games against the Mavericks.
BISON NOTES: The North Dakota State University baseball team enters the weekend at 9-14 overall and 2-4 in Summit League play after winning two of three games at Western Illinois March 24-26 ... Through 23 games, the Bison are led at the plate by juniors Mason Pierzchalski (.322 avg., 16 R, 28 H, 7 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 7 BB) and Logan Busch (.301 avg., 12 R, 22 H, 7 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 18 BB), and senior Ben Petersen (.262 avg., 18 R, 22 H, 4 2B, 6 HR, 17 RBI, 11 BB, 4 SB) ... Busch ranks third in The Summit League in RBIs (19), while Petersen is tied for the league lead in homers (6) ... On the mound, North Dakota State is led by senior RHP Luke Lind (4.63 ERA, 2-2, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 35.0 IP, 30 H, 19 R, 18 ER, 5 BB, 34 SO) and junior LHP Chris Choles (3.00 ERA, 2-1, 1 SV, 21.0 IP, 22 H, 11 R, 7 ER, 8 BB, 15 SO) ... Lind is tied for the league lead in strikeouts (34) ... NDSU has a .236 team batting average, .969 team fielding percentage and 4.85 team ERA through 23 contests.
SCOUTING OMAHA: The Omaha Mavericks enter the weekend at 5-19 overall and 3-3 in Summit League action after falling to Air Force Tuesday, 1-0 ... Through 24 games, UNO is led at the plate by sophomore infielder/RHP Grant Suponchick (.297 avg., 5 R, 19 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 12 BB) and sophomore infielder Parker Smejkal (.260 avg., 6 R, 19 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 7 BB) ... Suponchick is the reigning Summit League Player of the Week ... On the mound, the Mavs are led by junior RHP Corey Binger (4.00 ERA, 2-4, 2 CG, 36.0 IP, 43 H, 24 R, 16 ER, 7 BB, 29 SO) and senior LHP Sam Murphy (6.33 ERA, 1-3, 1 CG, 27.0 IP, 43 H, 30 R, 19 ER, 13 BB, 34 SO) ... Murphy is tied for the league lead in strikeouts and is the reigning Summit League Pitcher of the Week ... The Mavericks have a .226 team batting average, .953 team fielding percentage and a 6.82 team ERA ... Omaha is under the direction of first season head coach Evan Porter.
BUSCH SURGING AT THE PLATE IN LEAGUE ACTION: Logan Busch is hitting a team-best .350 through six Summit League games. He has seven hits, two doubles, one homer, six RBIs, five walks and only five strikeouts entering Friday's series opener at Omaha. In the most recent Summit League overall statistics, Busch is third in RBIs with 19.
PETERSEN POWER: Ben Petersen leads North Dakota State and is tied for The Summit League lead with six home runs this season. The senior from Lino Lakes, Minn., ranks second on the team and fifth in the league in RBIs with 17.
PIERZCHALSKI SIZZLING AT THE PLATE: Mason Pierzchalski leads the Bison and is sixth in The Summit League in hits with 28. He also leads NDSU and ranks eighth in the league with a .322 batting average and has reached base safely in the 22 games he has played in.
WALK THIS WAY: In the latest Summit League statistics, the Bison have two players ranked in the top 10 in walks. Logan Busch is third in the league with 18 free passes, while Drew Fearing is tied for seventh with 12 walks.
TAKE YOUR BASE: Two Bison rank in the top 10 in The Summit League in hit batters. Drew Fearing has been hit a league-high nine times, while Danny Palmiscno has been hit five times, tying him for fourth.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE WELCOMES 14 NEWCOMERS IN 2017: Fourteen newcomers, including eight position players and six pitchers, join the Bison for the 2017 season. Position players include infielders Bennett Hostetler (Bozeman, Mont.), Charley Hesse (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Tucker Rohde (Scottsdale, Ariz.); outfielder Carter Thompson (Fargo, N.D.); catchers Nick Emanuel (Esko, Minn.), Jake Malec (Proctor, Minn.) and Calvin Kalthoff (Cold Spring, Minn.); and infielder/outfielder Axel Twenge (Minnetonka, Minn.). ... Pitchers include left-hander Mitch O'Connor (Bloomington, Minn.), and right-handers Ryan Olson (Halstad, Minn.), Riley Johnson (Apple Valley, Minn.), Devin Foster (Broomfield, Colo.), Austin Truso (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Kyle Ferderer (Savage, Minn.).
DITCH AND KEEFER JOIN NDSU COACHING STAFF: In addition to 14 new student-athletes, the Bison also have two new coaches for 2017. Jeff Ditch, who has coached college baseball for over 24 years, is the new hitting coach for North Dakota State, while former Bison left-handed pitcher Trent Keefer is a volunteer assistant coach. Ditch joined the Bison after serving as head coach for 11 seasons at Indiana University-Pennsylvania, where he was the all-time winningest coach in program history, recording 253 wins. He also spent time at West Virginia, Cincinnati and Penn State as an assistant.
SUMMIT LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Mason Pierzchalski (Feb. 19), Ben Petersen (March 6) and Luke Lind (March 13) have received Summit League Player of the Week honors this season.
BISON 1660 TO BROADCAST MINIMUM OF 24 NDSU BASEBALL GAMES IN 2017: A minimum of 24 North Dakota State University baseball games will air live on Bison 1660 AM during the 2017 season, NDSU athletics and Radio FM Media announced Monday, Feb. 20. Bison 1660 will broadcast 24 regular season contests and all postseason games over the air, online at Bison1660.com, and on the Bison 1660 app. The "Voice of the Bison" Jeff Culhane will call the action, with Bison 1660 on-air personality Keith Brake providing color commentary. All broadcasts will feature a 30-minute pregame show. For a complete broadcast schedule, please visit www.GoBison.com.
SEVEN CONSECUTIVE 20-WIN SEASONS: North Dakota State has reached the 20-win mark seven straight seasons. The Bison have qualified for five Summit League tournaments, winning the tournament championship in 2014 and reaching the championship game in three of the last five seasons. This is NDSU's 10th season in The Summit League after three seasons as a Division I independent.
PRESEASON PICKS: The North Dakota State University baseball team was picked to finish third in The Summit League Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll released on Thursday, Feb. 9, by the league office. The Bison tallied 17 points in the poll, which was voted on by the league's six head coaches. Defending Summit League regular season and tournament champion Oral Roberts was picked first and tallied 25 points with five first-place votes, while South Dakota State was second with 18 points and received the final first-place vote. NDSU was third, followed by Omaha (13 points), Western Illinois (nine points) and Fort Wayne (eight points).
THE COACH: Tod Brown (Arizona, 1994) enters his 10th season as the head coach for the Bison and has a 224-263 record at NDSU. 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.
THE TOD BROWN FILE:
Friday, March 31 | 4 p.m.
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
Game 2: North Dakota State at Omaha
Saturday, April 1 | 2 p.m.
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
Game 3: North Dakota State at Omaha
Sunday, April 2 | Noon
Omaha, Neb. (Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park)
Live Stats
NDSU Game Notes (PDF)
NDSU baseball on Twitter: @NDSUbaseball
SCENE SETTER: The North Dakota State University baseball team is scheduled to travel to Omaha, Neb., March 31 - April 2 for a three-game Summit League series against the Omaha Mavericks. The series opener is slated for 4 p.m. Friday, March 31, with game two scheduled for Saturday, April 1, at 2 p.m. The series finale is slated for noon Sunday, April 2.
MEDIA COVERAGE: Live stats will be available for all games at Omaha. For links, please visit www.GoBison.com. Twitter updates will also be available on the official NDSU baseball Twitter account at Twitter.com/NDSUbaseball.
SERIES RECORD: The three-game series at Omaha will be meetings 67-69 in the all-time series that dates back to 1978. NDSU leads the series, 34-32. Last season, the Bison went 2-4 against the Mavs, dropping two of three games in Omaha and in Fargo. North Dakota State hasn't won a series in Omaha since 2014 when the Bison won three of four games against the Mavericks.
BISON NOTES: The North Dakota State University baseball team enters the weekend at 9-14 overall and 2-4 in Summit League play after winning two of three games at Western Illinois March 24-26 ... Through 23 games, the Bison are led at the plate by juniors Mason Pierzchalski (.322 avg., 16 R, 28 H, 7 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 7 BB) and Logan Busch (.301 avg., 12 R, 22 H, 7 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 18 BB), and senior Ben Petersen (.262 avg., 18 R, 22 H, 4 2B, 6 HR, 17 RBI, 11 BB, 4 SB) ... Busch ranks third in The Summit League in RBIs (19), while Petersen is tied for the league lead in homers (6) ... On the mound, North Dakota State is led by senior RHP Luke Lind (4.63 ERA, 2-2, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 35.0 IP, 30 H, 19 R, 18 ER, 5 BB, 34 SO) and junior LHP Chris Choles (3.00 ERA, 2-1, 1 SV, 21.0 IP, 22 H, 11 R, 7 ER, 8 BB, 15 SO) ... Lind is tied for the league lead in strikeouts (34) ... NDSU has a .236 team batting average, .969 team fielding percentage and 4.85 team ERA through 23 contests.
SCOUTING OMAHA: The Omaha Mavericks enter the weekend at 5-19 overall and 3-3 in Summit League action after falling to Air Force Tuesday, 1-0 ... Through 24 games, UNO is led at the plate by sophomore infielder/RHP Grant Suponchick (.297 avg., 5 R, 19 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 12 BB) and sophomore infielder Parker Smejkal (.260 avg., 6 R, 19 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 7 BB) ... Suponchick is the reigning Summit League Player of the Week ... On the mound, the Mavs are led by junior RHP Corey Binger (4.00 ERA, 2-4, 2 CG, 36.0 IP, 43 H, 24 R, 16 ER, 7 BB, 29 SO) and senior LHP Sam Murphy (6.33 ERA, 1-3, 1 CG, 27.0 IP, 43 H, 30 R, 19 ER, 13 BB, 34 SO) ... Murphy is tied for the league lead in strikeouts and is the reigning Summit League Pitcher of the Week ... The Mavericks have a .226 team batting average, .953 team fielding percentage and a 6.82 team ERA ... Omaha is under the direction of first season head coach Evan Porter.
BUSCH SURGING AT THE PLATE IN LEAGUE ACTION: Logan Busch is hitting a team-best .350 through six Summit League games. He has seven hits, two doubles, one homer, six RBIs, five walks and only five strikeouts entering Friday's series opener at Omaha. In the most recent Summit League overall statistics, Busch is third in RBIs with 19.
PETERSEN POWER: Ben Petersen leads North Dakota State and is tied for The Summit League lead with six home runs this season. The senior from Lino Lakes, Minn., ranks second on the team and fifth in the league in RBIs with 17.
PIERZCHALSKI SIZZLING AT THE PLATE: Mason Pierzchalski leads the Bison and is sixth in The Summit League in hits with 28. He also leads NDSU and ranks eighth in the league with a .322 batting average and has reached base safely in the 22 games he has played in.
WALK THIS WAY: In the latest Summit League statistics, the Bison have two players ranked in the top 10 in walks. Logan Busch is third in the league with 18 free passes, while Drew Fearing is tied for seventh with 12 walks.
TAKE YOUR BASE: Two Bison rank in the top 10 in The Summit League in hit batters. Drew Fearing has been hit a league-high nine times, while Danny Palmiscno has been hit five times, tying him for fourth.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE WELCOMES 14 NEWCOMERS IN 2017: Fourteen newcomers, including eight position players and six pitchers, join the Bison for the 2017 season. Position players include infielders Bennett Hostetler (Bozeman, Mont.), Charley Hesse (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Tucker Rohde (Scottsdale, Ariz.); outfielder Carter Thompson (Fargo, N.D.); catchers Nick Emanuel (Esko, Minn.), Jake Malec (Proctor, Minn.) and Calvin Kalthoff (Cold Spring, Minn.); and infielder/outfielder Axel Twenge (Minnetonka, Minn.). ... Pitchers include left-hander Mitch O'Connor (Bloomington, Minn.), and right-handers Ryan Olson (Halstad, Minn.), Riley Johnson (Apple Valley, Minn.), Devin Foster (Broomfield, Colo.), Austin Truso (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Kyle Ferderer (Savage, Minn.).
DITCH AND KEEFER JOIN NDSU COACHING STAFF: In addition to 14 new student-athletes, the Bison also have two new coaches for 2017. Jeff Ditch, who has coached college baseball for over 24 years, is the new hitting coach for North Dakota State, while former Bison left-handed pitcher Trent Keefer is a volunteer assistant coach. Ditch joined the Bison after serving as head coach for 11 seasons at Indiana University-Pennsylvania, where he was the all-time winningest coach in program history, recording 253 wins. He also spent time at West Virginia, Cincinnati and Penn State as an assistant.
SUMMIT LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Mason Pierzchalski (Feb. 19), Ben Petersen (March 6) and Luke Lind (March 13) have received Summit League Player of the Week honors this season.
BISON 1660 TO BROADCAST MINIMUM OF 24 NDSU BASEBALL GAMES IN 2017: A minimum of 24 North Dakota State University baseball games will air live on Bison 1660 AM during the 2017 season, NDSU athletics and Radio FM Media announced Monday, Feb. 20. Bison 1660 will broadcast 24 regular season contests and all postseason games over the air, online at Bison1660.com, and on the Bison 1660 app. The "Voice of the Bison" Jeff Culhane will call the action, with Bison 1660 on-air personality Keith Brake providing color commentary. All broadcasts will feature a 30-minute pregame show. For a complete broadcast schedule, please visit www.GoBison.com.
SEVEN CONSECUTIVE 20-WIN SEASONS: North Dakota State has reached the 20-win mark seven straight seasons. The Bison have qualified for five Summit League tournaments, winning the tournament championship in 2014 and reaching the championship game in three of the last five seasons. This is NDSU's 10th season in The Summit League after three seasons as a Division I independent.
PRESEASON PICKS: The North Dakota State University baseball team was picked to finish third in The Summit League Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll released on Thursday, Feb. 9, by the league office. The Bison tallied 17 points in the poll, which was voted on by the league's six head coaches. Defending Summit League regular season and tournament champion Oral Roberts was picked first and tallied 25 points with five first-place votes, while South Dakota State was second with 18 points and received the final first-place vote. NDSU was third, followed by Omaha (13 points), Western Illinois (nine points) and Fort Wayne (eight points).
THE COACH: Tod Brown (Arizona, 1994) enters his 10th season as the head coach for the Bison and has a 224-263 record at NDSU. 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.
THE TOD BROWN FILE:
- 2014 Summit League tournament champions
- 2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament Corvallis Regional qualifiers
- Won school-record 40 games in 2012
- Three Summit League championship game appearances in the past five seasons
- Five Summit League tournament appearances in the last six years
- Winning percentage of .520 the past five seasons
- 20 All-Summit League honorees, including seven first team selections
- 19 players who signed professional contracts
- Coached three NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients: Wes Satzinger (2014), John Straka (2013) and Kole Zimmerman (2008)
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