MARSHALL — Entering the final stretch of the regular season, every game matters now for the Southwest Minnesota State baseball team. The Mustangs currently sit in seventh place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. With just eight teams making the conference tournament, the Mustangs’ doubleheader against Sioux Falls today and their three games against Minnesota State on Friday and Saturday could prove particularly consequential. 

Heading into today’s doubleheader, the Mustangs have compiled a 24-19 overall record and an 18-16 conference record. Still, they’ve faltered as of late, dropping two out of three games to fall below now-sixth-place UMary this past weekend and losing each of the three games before that against first-place Augustana and ninth-place Winona State.

SMSU will be hosting a highly-motivated opponent in Sioux Falls today. The Cougars are currently on the outside looking in of the postseason picture, occupying 10th place with a 14-20 record. Yet, with their last four series coming against Minnesota State, UMary, Wayne State and Winona State, the Cougars carry an eight-game skid into today’s matchup.

When the Mustangs and Cougars clashed last year, Sioux Falls claimed the first game by a score of 6-2 before SMSU roared back to force a split with a 16-1 victory. Owen Latendresse led SMSU in the second game with four hits, including a triple, and a hit-by-pitch in five at-bats.

Chase McDaniel also had a double, two singles and a walk in four at-bats and Carter Petron pitched all seven innings, allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts.

McDaniel has been the leader for a deep SMSU offense this season, ranking sixth in the NSIC with a 1.158 batting average and 11th in the conference in RBIs with 47. His teammate Isaac Nett has also been raking with 11 home runs — 10th in the NSIC — and a 1.118 OPS to rank ninth in the conference. Latendresse has also been over the 1.000 mark at 1.054. 

For Sioux Falls, Dane Small and Ben Serie are the only Cougars ranking top 50 in the conference, clocking in at No. 46 at .912 and No. 49 at .906 respectively. As a team, Sioux Falls’ 276 rank 13th out of 14 teams in the conference, ahead of only Bemidji State.

Still, the Cougars’ pitching has been solid this season. Their 6.66 ERA ranks eighth in the conference and their 315 strikeouts rank ninth.

The trio of Owen Weadge, Jake Ammann and Reese Gaber have led the Cougars this season with nine starts for Weadge and 10 each for Ammann and Gaber. Weadge’s 4.34 OPS is also 12th in the NSIC while Ammann’s 4.68 mark is right behind him in 14th. Weadge and Gaber also rank 15th and 16th in the conference in strikeouts with 51 and 48 in 45 2/3 and 50 innings respectively.

While the bullpen as a whole has struggled for the Cougars — they have three pitchers with an ERA over 10 and at least nine innings pitched — freshman Tyler Maeyaert has been solid in limited action. The Marshall native has pitched six innings in five appearances over his freshman year, compiling a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts. In an outing against Minnesota State on April 17, Maeyaert pitched two scoreless innings of relief with three strikeouts and just one hit allowed.

For the Mustangs, Carter Petron and Kolby Kiser have been on fire. The pair of aces have led the SMSU pitching staff to a team ERA of 5.51 and 358 strikeouts, ranking fifth and second in the conference respectively.

Individually, Kiser and Petron rank second and third in the NSIC with a 2.87 and 2.92 ERA respectively. They each have also struck out 59 batters each, as has Ryan Chmielewski, to put three Mustang pitchers in a tie for seventh in the NSIC. Kiser has pitched 62 2/3 innings while Petron and Chmielewski have thrown 52 1/3 and 53 1/3.

Since joining the NSIC in 2013, the Cougars have a 12-9 record against the Mustangs and have claimed six of the teams’ nine matchups since 2019. 

The Mustangs haven’t fared much better against their other opponent this week, Minnesota State. The Mavericks have claimed 35 of the teams’ last 36 meetings and they enter Friday and Saturday’s matchups on a 17-game head-to-head winning streak.

Heading into the weekend series, Minnesota State has a 32-15 overall record and their 27-9 conference record slots them second only to Augustana. Minnesota State has also won eight of their last nine games, the exception being a 3-0 loss to the Vikings in a series that the Mavericks claimed two out of three games.

The Mavericks have been dominant on both sides of the ball this year, Their 447 runs are 41 more than the next closest team and their 5.33 ERA is third in the conference to Augustana and St. Cloud State.

A large component of the Mavericks’ success this season has been their plate discipline. Their 267 walks on the season are 49 more than any other team, leading them to a league-best .444 on-base percentage. Once on the bags, they’ve been tough to get off them. Their 89 stolen bases this year rank only behind Wayne State’s 109. The Mavericks have been caught stealing just 16 times.

Louis Magers has been the Mavericks’ leader this year. His .480 on-base percentage and 1.152 OPS rank sixth and seventh in the conference respectively. He also brings pop to the Minnesota State lineup with his 13 homers ranking fourth in the conference. 

Magers is far from the only Maverick that can crush the ball. Ryan Wickman is right behind him with 12 homers and a 1.095 OPS Wickman’s 21 stolen bases are also second in the conference to Wayne State College infielder and Marshall alum Chase Douglas’ 29 while Minnesota State’s Aidan Bynre also ranks fourth with 18 bags.

On the hill for the Mavericks, Mich Gutknecht and Spencer Wright lead the team with a 3.94 and 4.68 ERA respectively, good for ninth and 14th in the NSIC. Gutknecht has struggled as of late, averaging a 5.51 ERA over his last three starts. Still, he’s seen an uptick in his ability to get batters to miss with 11 strikeouts in his last outing against Wayne State and eight and seven strikeouts in the two games prior against Concordia-St. Paul and Sioux Falls. 

Magers has also been an impactful pitcher for the Mavericks. While his 41 2/3 don’t qualify for the conference leaderboard, he’s put together a 4.32 ERA and a 3-2 record on the season over 10 starts.

Today’s doubleheader against Sioux Falls is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., Friday’s one-off game against Minnesota State is scheduled for noon and Saturday’s season-finale doubleheader is slated for 1:30 p.m. Live video and stats for the games are available online at SMSUmustangs.com