MARSHALL The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team (8-31, 6-18 NSIC) concludes the season Friday and Saturday taking on Augustana University (32-14, 23-7 NSIC) in an NSIC four-game home-and-home series. Friday’s doubleheader starts at 3 p.m. at Ronken Field in Sioux Falls, S.D., while Saturday’s doubleheader begins at 1:30 p.m. at Alumni Field in Marshall.

SENIOR DAY

SMSU will honor its three seniors Saturday prior to Game 2. Kyle Graves, Travis McGlauflin and Colton Smith will be playing their final games in the brown and gold.

Graves has played just one season at SMSU and is batting .324 in 15 games with one double and four RBIs.

McGlauflin has appeared in 44 games with 18 starts, recording a 6.89 ERA and a 6-12 record in 141 innings. He ranks tied for 10th in team history with 44 appearances.

Smith has appeared in 32 games with seven starts recording a 4-6 record and a 7.43 ERA in 66 2/3 innings.

SERIES HISTORY

Augustana leads the all-time series 49-44 and has won the last 10 meetings and 15 of the last 16 since 2012. SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard is 24-29 all-time versus Augustana.

MUSTANG

BASEBALL

HISTORY

Southwest Minnesota State is in its 47th season of baseball and has an all-time record of 915-1,000-3 in 1,918 games. SMSU won conference championships in 1974, 1994, 1996 and 2002 and has won NSIC tournament championships in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2002. SMSU made its only NCAA tournament appearance in 2009.

ABOUT AUGUSTANA

The Vikings are 32-14 on the season, including 23-7 in conference play. Augustana lost two games to Sioux Falls on Wednesday, both in walk-off fashion, 5-4 in eight innings and 8-7. Augustana is third in the NSIC standings entering the final weekend and currently ranked fifth in the NCAA Central Region rankings. Patrick O’Donnell is batting .486 with 20 doubles, 11 home runs and 59 RBIs. He has team-leading 31 multi-hit games and is currently on a 19-game hitting streak. Alex Fink, the school’s all-time leader in hits, is batting .392 with 29 doubles and 67 RBIs. As a team, Augustana is batting .358 with 58 home runs and averaging 9.4 runs per game. The Augustana pitching staff has a 5.65 ERA with 306 strikeouts in 353 1/3 innings.

ABOUT THE

MUSTANGS

Southwest Minnesota State is 8-31 overall, 6-18 NSIC, following a doubleheader sweep at Bemidji State on Wednesday. Through 39 games, Jon Leighton leads SMSU with a .378 batting average with 10 doubles, seven home runs and a team-high 33 RBIs. Tanner Picht is batting .331 with 14 doubles and a team-leading nine home runs, while Derek Branson is hitting .348 with 12 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 19 RBIs. On the mound, Justin Clark (2-2) has appeared in 10 games with eight starts and has a team-low 4.10 ERA in 41 2/3 innings. He tossed his first career complete game in a win over Sioux Falls on April 21. Erik Thorvilson (0-2) has tossed 32 2/3 innings in eight appearances with 20 strikeouts, recording a 6.89 ERA. Cole Petersen has pitched a team-high 43 1/3 innings and has a 6.85 ERA and two victories. For the season, SMSU is batting .268 with 26 home runs, averaging 4.7 runs per game and a have a team ERA of 8.84.

MUSTANGS

BY THE NUMBERS

Tanner Picht leads the team with 15 multi-hit games, while Jon Leighton has 13 Leighton has a team-high 13 multi-RBI games with Shane Sellner recording eight multi-RBI games Leighton earlier this season had a 19-game-game hitting streak, which is the longest by a Mustang this season. Derek Branson had a 12-game hitting streak earlier this season Davis Bryan tossed a seven-inning complete game six hitter in defeating Upper Iowa on April 24 Connor Johnson fired a nine-inning complete game in a loss to Upper Iowa on April 23 Erik Thorvilson also pitched nine innings to earn a no-decision versus Upper Iowa on April 24 … Derek Branson finished with a career-high five RBIs in the game two win at Bemidji State on Wednesday … Shawn Williams earned his first career win at Bemidji State on Wednesday.

BRANSON

TIES RECORD

Junior Derek Branson tied a school single-game record in SMSU’s win at Winona State on April 7 with three doubles. He is the ninth player in school history to record three in a game and the first since Jarred Carlson reached the mark during the 2015 season.

Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications