THIS WEEK: Minot State travels to Northern State for its midweek series, playing a day later than originally scheduled due to weather in Aberdeen, S.D. MSU plays at NSU Thursday with games at 1/3 p.m. Minot State plays host to Concordia-St. Paul Saturday (1/3 p.m.) and No. 10 ranked Minnesota State Sunday (12/2 p.m.).
RECORDS: Minot State comes into the week with a 20-17 overall record and is 12-12 in league play currently in 10th place overall. NSU is 27-20-1 overall and 12-11-1 in NSIC play and is in eighth place. CSP comes into the week 7-19 in league play and 15-32 overall. Minnesota State is leading the league with a 24-2 record and is 46-6 overall.
COACHES CORNER: Minot State's
Bill Triplett is in his 10th season as the head coach at Minot State. The former CaptainU National Coach of the Year has guided Minot State to both the NAIA National Tournament and the NCAA Division II National Tournament. He has a 293-167 overall record. NSU's head coach is Kristi Villar who is 143-173-1 in seven seasons as head coach. Bob Bartel is in his 13th season with CSP and has a 366-324 overall record. Mavericks head coach is Lori Meyer who has an outstanding overall record of 1150-648-3 in 32 years as head coach.
FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: MSU provides live video – with
Leif Bakken serving as the play-by-play announcer – and live stats at msubeavers.com. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube with all feeds accessible at msubeavers.com/stayconnected.
RANKINGS: Minnesota State comes into the week as the No. 10 ranked team in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II Top 25 poll.
RECENT HISTORY: Minot State swept Bemidji State in an important series to start the week and went 1-3 on the team's longest roadtrip of the year, splitting at Upper Iowa and falling twice at the league's second place team, Winona State. NSU split four games on the road on the weekend, falling twice at Minnesota State and topping CSP twice. CSP was beaten twice by Winona State during its midweek double header. Minnesota State rolled to a pair of wins over Upper Iowa in its midweek contest to run its winning streak to 16 straight.
ALL-TIME AT A GLANCE: The Beavers trail Northern State 11-6 since joining NCAA Division II. MSU has a 5-2 lead on Concordia-St. Paul all time and is 0-9 against Minnesota State.
LAST TIME OUT: Minot State dropped a pair of NSIC games at home against Northern State last season, falling 5-1 in game 1 and 2-1 in nine innings in game 2. Minot State swept Concordia-St. Paul in St. Paul last year, winning 7-5 and 14-7, but dropped two games in Mankato, 7-3 and 8-0 in six innings.
NOTING THE WOLVES: Northern State has been up and down all season and are 6-8 in their last 14 games… Kennady Thompson leads the team with a .355 batting average, while Jenna Helgeson is hitting .351 with seven HRs.The Wolves have run well all year, stealing 39 of 45 bases, but don't have one individual with more than eight… Rachel Albright is 4-2 with a 2.66 ERA in 17 games.
NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia-St. Paul struggled in the middle of their season, falling 11 out of 12 games after sweeping Wayne State on April 1… Carlie Hart and Justine Schattner are hitting .348 and .345 respectively… CSP has hit the ball well all year, coming into the week with a .296 batting average… Liz Jarosz has 14 home runs and 40 RBIs.
NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State's Coley Ries has been outstanding, pitching 171.2 innings and allowing just 18 runs for a near perfect .73 ERA… She has 299 strikeouts on the year… Libby Bemis would normally be having an MVP type season if it wasn't for Ries as she is 22-4 with a 1.57 ERA… Jess Meidl and McKenzie Paap are both hitting over .400 with Meidl batting .459 with seven HRs and 41 RBIs. Amber Kral has 11 HRs and 51 RBIs.
SOLID IN THE CIRCLE: Minot State has been good in the pitching department all season long, going with seniors
Jenn Spencer and
Clarissa Ramirez for the bulk of the innings. Spencer leads the team with 12 wins and is 12-9 nine overall. She has 86 strikeouts on the year. Ramirez leads the team in ERA at 3.09 and is 6-7 on the season. The Beavers staff has a solid 3.55 ERA overall.
GRAN(D)T NUMBERS: MSU senior
Jordan Grant is currently 14 th overall all divisions in active career stolen bases with 109 and is fourth in NCAA Division II. Grant is second in the country in stolen bases per game with a 1.00 average. She is second in the nation to fellow NSIC standout Sarah Kennedy of Augustana in batting average at .517 and is seventh overall in on base percentage at .563.
BY THE NUMBERS
6: Doubles and triples for
Lauren Cowden in 37 games. Cowden leads the team with triples with six of the eight overall.
39: Runs batted in for junior
Ashley Hill to pace the Beavers and her 1.03 per game is third in the league.
60: Doubles for the Beavers in 2017.
