NDSU Baseball Travels to Western Illinois for Weekend Series

Friday, March 22

Macomb, Ill.

3 p.m.

North Dakota State Athletics

Western Illinois

Photo by: Carrie Snyder

NDSU Baseball Travels to Western Illinois for Weekend Series

3/21/2019 6:14:00 PM | Baseball

Scene Setter:
The North Dakota State (2-11, 0-3 Summit) baseball team hits the road for the fifth time this season, as the Bison head to Western Illinois (6-12, 1-2 Summit) for a three-game series starting on Friday, March 22. The two teams will also play games on Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24.

Media Coverage:
Western Illinois will provide live stats for all three games this weekend. The game on Saturday will be broadcast on ESPN3, while the Friday and Sunday games will have a live video stream on the Western Illinois Twitter feed at Twitter.com/WIUBaseball. Sunday's game will also have a live audio feed at WRMSFM.com.

Series History:
The Leathernecks own a 35-31 lead in the all-time series that dates back to 2005. Western Illinois swept a four-game series in the first games played at Western Illinois in the series in 2005. The Bison were 3-4 against the Leathernecks last season, including a 2-0 victory in the Summit League Tournament.

Last Time Out:
Omaha swept a Summit League baseball doubleheader from North Dakota State on Sunday, as the Mavericks won the first game 3-0 before earning a 4-1 win in the nightcap.
NDSU tallied three hits in the nightcap and two in the first game, while Omaha had seven in the series finale and 11 in the first game on Sunday.
The Bison trailed 3-0 into the seventh inning of the second game before scoring their lone run of the game. A two-out single by Peter Brookshaw drove in Charley Hesse for the Bison run. The Mavericks added a run in the bottom of the eighth for the 4-1 victory.
Bennett Hostetler and Hesse also had hits for the Bison in addition to Brookshaw's RBI single. Ben Smith took the loss on the mound, as he dropped to 0-1 on the year. Smith gave up three runs on three hits and two walks, while striking out three in 3.1 innings of work. Hunter Koep and Kyle Ferderer each had a strikeout out of the bullpen.
In the opener on Sunday, Omaha scored all three runs in the first inning on four hits. The first NDSU hit came in the sixth inning, as Brookshaw singled to right field with two outs. The other hit came in the top of the ninth, as Hostetler reached on a two-out single to left field.
Max Loven gave up three runs on 10 hits, while striking out three, as he dropped to 0-2 on the year with the loss in seven innings of work. Jordan Harms had a strikeout in an inning out of the bullpen.

Last Time Against Western Illinois:
Blake Stockert's one-hit, complete-game shutout and stellar defense helped the North Dakota State baseball team earn a 2-0 victory over the Western Illinois Leathernecks Wednesday, May 23, in the opening game of The Summit League tournament at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
North Dakota State (26-22) advanced in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament with the win.
Stockert, a senior left-hander from Alexandria, Minn., went the distance for the second time on the season, tossing nine innings and allowing no earned runs on just one hit with five strikeouts and three walks to improve to 5-3 on the mound.
Sophomore Carter Thompson extended his team-best hitting streak to 14 games with two hits, and added a run scored and RBI, leading the Bison at the plate.
After retiring Western Illinois (17-30) in order through the first two innings, Stockert gave up a walk to WIU's Drue Galassi to lead-off the bottom of the third inning. Galassi was able to advance to third base on a wild pitch and ground out, but Drew Fearing made a diving stop at second base on a ground ball and fired it to catcher Nick Emanuel, who was able to tag Galssi out at the plate, keeping the game scoreless.
North Dakota State jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth after Thompson crossed home plate on Matt Elsenpeter's sacrifice fly to center.
NDSU extended its lead to 2-0 with a run in the sixth when Thompson hit a single to right center that allowed Jayse McLean to score. Elsenpeter put on a defensive clinic at third base in the bottom-half of the inning, recording all three outs to keep Western Illinois off the base paths.
Thompson continued the defensive showcase for the Bison when he made a diving catch in right-center field on a fly ball off the bat of Steve McShane for the third out of the seventh inning.
Deion Thompson recorded the only hit of the game for WIU to lead the Leathernecks offensively.
Western Illinois' Ryan Dunne (4-7) suffered the loss after giving up two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts and five walks in seven inning.

Scouting the Leathernecks:
Western Illinois is 6-12 overall and 1-2 in the Summit League. The Leathernecks will host the Bison in their first Summit League home games of the year, as the series against South Dakota State was played in Springfield, Ill. Earlier this week, the Leathernecks opened the home slate against NCAA Division III Iowa Wesleyan, defeating the Tigers 16-3 in seven innings. Drue Galassi leads the offense for the Leathernecks, as he is hitting .263 on the year with 15 hits, seven of which have gone for extra base hits. Galassi also leads Western Illinois with 17 RBI and four home runs. On the mound, Javin Drake has pitched a season-high 34 innings, holding a 2-3 record with a 3.97 ERA. Along with starting two games, Jace Warkentien has three saves out of the bullpen.

Loven Is Dealin':
Freshman Max Loven ranks 10th in the nation in walks allowed per nine innings at .75, while also ranking 23rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 9.5. Loven ranks 60th in the country in WHIP at .88.

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 274-309 (.470) 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 88-85 (.509) 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)