NDSU Baseball to Face Northern Colorado in Three-Game Series

Thursday, February 28

Greeley, Colo.

3 p.m.

North Dakota State Athletics

Northern Colorado

North Dakota State University Bison catcher Jake Malec (19) during a game against the University of Arizona Wildcats at Hi Corbett Field on March 11, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona. (Zachary Lucy Photography)

Photo by: Zachary Lucy

NDSU Baseball to Face Northern Colorado in Three-Game Series

2/27/2019 4:58:00 PM | Baseball

Scene Setter:
The North Dakota State (1-6, 0-0 Summit) baseball team is set to face Northern Colorado (0-6, 0-0 WAC) in a three-game series this weekend in Greeley, Colo. The series was originally set for four games with a Friday start, but due to weather in Colorado, it has been shortened to a three-game series starting on Thursday afternoon. The two teams will then play a doubleheader on Friday.

Media Coverage:
Links for live video and stats for all three games can be found at GoBison.com. All three games will be broadcast on Pluto.tv as well.

Series History:
The series is even at 16-16 between Northern Colorado and North Dakota State. The first game dates back to 1962, a 13-0 Bears victory on April 4. Last year, the Bison and Bears split a four-game series, with Northern Colorado winning the first and last games, while the Bison swept a doubleheader in between.

Previewing 2019:
North Dakota State is scheduled to play 25-straight games on the road or neutral site to start the season. That schedule includes three Summit League road series, as well as a trip to Nebraska before opening Summit League play at Omaha. NDSU is also scheduled to make a pair of trips to the Twin Cities to face Minnesota. The Bison return a pair of players that started all 50 games last season in captains Jayse McLean and Bennett Hostetler. McLean earned All-Summit League Second Team honors last season while hitting .250 with a team-high seven home runs. Hostetler hit .225 with 11 extra base hits and 19 RBI. Tucker Rohde started 47 games last year and has the top returning batting average for NDSU at .269. He drove in 21 runs on 46 hits, with nine of those going for extra bases. Parker Harm (51.1 IP) and Mitch O'Connor (35.0 IP) return for the pitching staff with the most innings tossed last season. Harm struck out 55, while O'Connor added 30 punch outs last season. Zach Smith made three starts last season and finished with a 5.62 ERA and 3-0 record in seven appearances. He'll get the ball to start the season on the bump.

Scouting the Bears:
Thursday will be the home opener for Northern Colorado after playing games in California and Arizona to start the season. The Bears opened the year with three games at UC Davis before facing Washington in three games in Arizona. At 0-6 on the year, the Bears have given up at least nine runs in five of their six games. The Bears scored a season-high eight runs in a 25-8 loss to Washington. Jack Pauley leads the Bears with a .500 average (10-for-20), while driving in three runs with two doubles and four runs scored. Jake Gitter has a .389 batting average with two doubles, a triple and a home run, while driving in five runs and scoring three of his own. Issac Bracken is one of three Bears with two starts, tallying the lowest ERA of the group at 8.64. Bracken has thrown 8.1 innings, giving up 11 hits, eight earned runs and four walks, while striking out five.

Season Opener Streak:
The victory in the season opener at Sacramento State gave NDSU four-straight wins in season openers. Last year, NDSU beat Incarnate Word 8-2. The Bison beat Mississippi Valley State 10-4 in 2017 and Arkansas-Pine Bluff 2-0 in 2016.

Double Vision:
Freshman Peter Brookshaw ranks ninth in the nation with five doubles this season. He is the current leader in the Summit League as well.

Nine-Straight 20 Win Seasons:
North Dakota State has reached the 20-win mark nine straight seasons. The Bison have qualified for seven Summit League tournaments, winning the tournament championship in 2014 and reaching the championship game in four of the last seven seasons. This is NDSU's 12th season in The Summit League after three seasons as a Division I independent.

Summit League Preseason Poll:
The Bison were picked to finish third in the Summit League Preseason Coaches Poll. Oral Roberts received all five of its possible first-place votes for 25 total points. South Dakota State received the final first-place vote and placed second with 21 points. North Dakota State followed in third (17 points) and Western Illinois was in fourth (12 points) while Omaha (9 points) and Fort Wayne (6 points) rounded out the poll. Jayse McLean and Parker Harm were named to the Summit League Players to Watch list.

McLean Voted to 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America Baseball Team:
Jayse McLean was voted to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I Baseball Team, as selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. It was McLean's inaugural selection to the team, as he was also named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District First Team earlier in the year. He was the first NDSU honoree since Tim Colwell in 2014 for the all-district team. McLean boasts a perfect 4.00 grade-point average majoring in mechanical engineering.

The Coach:
Tod Brown is in his 12th season as the head coach for the Bison and has a 273-304 (.473) 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
Won school-record 19 Summit League games in 2017
Combined record of 87-80 (.521) over the last four seasons (2016-19)
54-21 (.720) record at home in the last four seasons
Four Summit League championship game appearances in the past seven seasons
Seven Summit League tournament appearances in the last eight years
25 All-Summit League honorees, including eight first team selections
21 players who have signed professional contracts
Coached three NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients: Wes Satzinger (2014), John Straka (2013) and Kole Zimmerman (2008)