THIS WEEK: Minot State split its home opening series last weekend against Upper Iowa and looks to make up ground this weekend against Augustana College in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Saturday's doubleheader against the Vikings is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. at Corbett Field while Sunday's games are scheduled for a 12 p.m. start.
 
RECORDS: Minot State heads into its second home series of the season with an overall record of 8-15 and a conference record of 5-7. Augustana currently holds a 15-12 overall record and it sits at 6-6 in the Northern Sun.
 
COACHES CORNER: Minot State's Brock Weppler is in his eighth season as the head coach of the Beavers as the team enters its third season in NCAA Division II. In Weppler's first year in the NSIC, the Beavers were one of the top hitting teams in the conference, batting .295 as a team, good for fifth in the conference. Minot State has shown consistent improvement under the direction of Weppler since joining the NSIC, and the team is looking for its first NSIC postseason tournament appearance in 2015. Tim Huber is in his seventh season as the manager of Augustana and has enjoyed a high level of success since joining the Vikings. 2014 marked the fifth straight year the Vikings won 30-plus games under Huber's direction and they also set a school record for wins (41) in the 2014 season.
 
FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: Minot State provides live stats and video links on msubeavers.com and live tweets all home and away athletic events. Follow the Beavers on Twitter @msubeavers for live updates.
 
RANKINGS: Neither Minot State nor Augustana received votes in the latest top 25 poll released by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Minot State is currently 12th in the NSIC standings while Augustana is in the 9th position.
 
NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State hosted its first home games of the season this past weekend welcoming Upper Iowa to Corbett Field, and the Beavers got their weekend off to a hot start. In games one and two of the series on Friday, the Beavers combined to score 35 runs including a 24-run performance in game two. Between the two games, Minot State recorded 11 extra base hits including eight home runs among six different players. They ended the day with 33 total hits. Saturday wasn't quite as kind to the Beavers as they dropped the final two games of the series finishing their weekend with a split against the Peacocks. Each of the Minot State starting pitchers on Saturday conceded six or more earned runs and the Beavers' offense took a step back from Friday's production. MSU fell 15-7 in the first game of the day on Saturday and managed to score just two runs in a 9-2 defeat to end the series.
 
NOTING THE VIKINGS: Augustana is in the midst of losing five of its last eight games, but they've played some of the toughest competition in the NSIC over that stretch including a four-game series with No. 3 ranked St. Cloud State. In their most recent series, a midweek doubleheader against Minnesota State, the Vikings fell 9-7 in both games including an extra innings defeat in game one. In a March 31 doubleheader with U-Mary, the Vikings took both games with impressive pitching performances giving up just one run in two games. Despite the team's up-and-down performance so far in 2015, the Vikings are hitting .327 as a team, good for third in the NSIC. They're also fourth in the conference in runs scored, averaging 7.11 runs per game. The Augustana pitching staff has been one of the most consistent staffs in the conference as they're allowing the fourth-lowest batting average against (.276) in the conference.
 
LAST YEAR'S RESULTS: Minot State and Augustana met for a mid-week series in the 2014 season at Corbett Field and both teams walked away from the two-game set with a win. Four different pitchers worked the Beavers to a 9-8 win in game one of the series with Austin Berntson (Jr., P/OF, Minot, N.D.) recording his second win of the 2014 season. In the second game of the series, Augustana got out to an early 9-1 lead after the second inning and never looked back on its way to a 13-3 win.
 
NO SHORTAGE OF OFFENSE: Minot State's 24-run performance last Saturday is the most runs a team has scored in an NSIC game this season and the most runs the Beavers have scored in a single game within the last ten seasons. MSU ranks right near the top in multiple offensive categories in the NSIC including home runs per game (1.09, 2nd), triples per game (0.39, 2nd), plate appearances per game (39.57, T-1st), and slugging percentage (.484, 2nd).
 
HAMMER-ING THE BALL: Nick Hammerl (Sr., SS/2B, West Peoria, Ill.) has been a catalyst and a spark for the Beavers all season batting in the two-hole. Hammerl went 8-for-11 this past weekend against Upper Iowa including a 4-for-4 game three. His batting average of .407 is the highest on the team, he's tied for first on the team in doubles (9), and he has the second-most hits on the team with 35.
 
POWER LAST YEAR VS. THIS YEAR: Minot State is just one home run short of reaching last year's total of 26 home runs and there are still 22 games left in the 2015 season. Seven different players have hit multiple home runs for the Beavers this season equaling last year's total and the Beavers are averaging just over one home run per game in 2015. The team's slugging percentage of .484 this season is 84 points higher than the 2014 campaign.
 
EIGHT ARE GREAT: Eight different players are currently batting over .300 this season for the Beavers and only two of those batters have had fewer than 40 at bats (Gust 29, Holmen 33). At this rate, MSU is on pace to double its number of batters hitting over .300 compared to 2014, and not a single player that hit over .300 last season is on the 2015 roster.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
7.95: While the Minot State bats have done well so far this season, the pitching staff is still sorting things out as it's recorded an earned run average of 7.95.
 
16: In the third inning of game two against Upper Iowa last weekend, Minot State sent 16 batters to the plate as they scored 12 runs in the inning.
 
23: Minot State has played just 23 games so far this season, the second-fewest amount among all teams in the Northern Sun. From now until the end of the regular season, the Beavers will play a mid-week series and a weekend series each week.