For Immediate Release
Monday, March 22, 2016
NSIC Media Relations

NSIC Player of the Week
#12 Lucas Lorenz (OF, 6-0, 220, So., Aberdeen, S.D. / Aberdeen Roncalli HS) - Northern State
- Led the NSU offense with ten hits in Northern’s final five games from Tucson
- Tallied two doubles, two triples, and four homeruns on the week, while hitting .526
- Added nine runs scored, eight RBI, and a stolen base
- His best game of the week came against Minot State, where Lorenz went 3-for-4 with four runs scored, two RBI, a double, and two homeruns
- Currently leads the team with seven homeruns this season and is on an eight game hit streak, while hitting .404 this season

#14 Trevor Buttermore (RHP, 6-1, 230, Sr., R/R, North St. Paul, Minn. / North St. Paul HS) - Minnesota Crookston
- Pitched six shutdown innings in his best pitching performance of his career Thursday against Bentley
- Buttermore gave up no earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts while limiting opponents to .240 batting average
- The win was Buttermore’s first since 2014 when he earned a win over Hillsdale College
- Buttermore had a strikeout to walk ratio of 7-1 and gave up just one extra base hit on the day
- Buttermore is 1-0 with a 4.42 ERA in 18.1 innings pitched this season with 13 strikeouts

Augustana
- The game against Truman State was scheduled as a home game but incliment weather forced the game to be moved to Truman
- The Vikings split their four game series with Truman State winning game one, and dropping game two both days
- Ryan Hamilton pitched a complete game shut out in game one Saturday
- Augustana will host the University of Sioux Falls Tuesday and then be off till they host Minot State April 2-3
 
Bemidji State
- Bemidji State went 1-3 in the latter half of its spring trip, including a split against Northwestern Oklahoma State (a 5-3 win in 12 innings and a 9-14 loss) and losses to No. 10 Lubbock Christian, 10-9, and William Jewell, 5-3
- The Beavers hit .302 from the plate with a .395 slugging percentage and a .385 on base percentage
- The Beavers reached base on 18 walks and five hit by pitches, and went 50 percent on stolen bases, recording four on eight attempts
- Infielder Joey Hanowski led BSU offensively hitting .381 and running out his fourth career triple
- Outfielder Scott Litchy brought power to the lineup with a .625 slugging percentage, including two doubles and his third home run of the season
- Outfielder Tyler Nelson extended his season-opening hitting streak to 14 games
- Relief pitcher Nate Heisick earned Bemidji State’s win in his only appearance of the four-game stretch
- Heisick struck out six batters in 4.0 IP with a 0.00 ERA while allowing two hits and an opposing batting average of .143
- Bemidji State leads the NSIC in triples with 10, while Nelson is tied for the conference lead in triples with four
- Bemidji State throws the first pitch of its NSIC schedule March 25-26 at Concordia-St. Paul in a four-game series

Concordia-St. Paul
- Concordia (7-2) opens the NSIC season hosting Bemidji State (3-13) on Friday and Saturday
- Concordia is 31-24 all-time against BSU dating back to 1997 when the Beavers took the first eight games of the series with Concordia’s first win on May 2, 2003
- The Golden Bears split a road doubleheader with BSU last season
- BSU is 9-6 against Concordia in the last 15 meetings
- Concordia is 12-10 against BSU all-time at home and 29-21 vs BSU in NSIC games
- CSP is 28-24 in NSIC opening series and 28-18 in home opening series under 17th-year head coach Mark “Lunch” McKenzie
- McKenzie was also appointed Concordia’s incoming director of athletics following the academic year and will remain on as head coach for at least the 2017 baseball season

U-Mary
- U-Mary was idle last week
- The Marauders will take on Dickinson State on Wed in a doubleheader
- U-Mary will open NSIC play this weekend versus Sioux Falls

Minnesota Crookston
- The Golden Eagles are off to their best start in program history with two wins over Bentley, one over Grand Valley State and one over Rockhurst
- UMC is currently 7-7 on the season
- UMC hit .340 as a team in Florida with 61 runs scored, 17 doubles, two triples and six home runs with 53 RBI
- The team had a .521 slugging percentage and .454 on-base percentage
- Trevor Buttermore and Wahlberg both had strong performances, while Cody Pamperin and Luke Thoma were strong out of the pen
- Freshman Zach Seipel was impressive with two saves on the week in 2.2 innings with four strikeouts, holding opponents to a .182 batting average

Minnesota Duluth
- UMD will open conference play this week taking on Minnesota State after a two-week break from game action
- The Bulldogs split a four-game series with Minnesota State last season at Wade Stadium, including a 5-1 victory in a no-hitter by senior left-hander Bo Hellquist on April 3, 2015
- After its last outings at the RussMatt Central Florida Invite on Mar. 11, the Bulldogs ranked fourth in the nation in team on-base percentage (.451) and seventh in both batting average (.360) and slugging percentage (.560)
- Senior first baseman Alex Wojciechowski ranks ninth in the country with his eight home runs and second with 26 runs batted in at an average of 2.17 per game
- Senior southpaw Spencer Diedrich leads the Bulldog starting staff with a 2.08 ERA

Minnesota State
- Minnesota State was idle last week
- The Mavericks sit at 8-5 after a 5-5 trip to Florida March 3rd through the 10th
- As a team, MSU is batting a solid .750 when runners are on third with two outs and .329 when runners are in scoring position
 -The Mavericks are scheduled to play a one nine-inning game against Bethany Lutheran College (1-8) at home on March 22

Minot State
-The Minot State baseball team went 2-3 in its trip to the Tucson Invitational
-The Beavers scored at total of 48 runs in five games, averaging 9.6 per game
-MSU won its final two games against Valley City and Hasting College 15-7 and 9-6, respectively
-Jordan Schulz  recorded 8 hits, 7 runs, 8 RBIs, 2 HRs and 4 SB
-Paul Vogelsang brought in 7 runs on 7 hits including 2 HRs while batting .583 in 3 games played
-Minot State will travel to Upper Iowa on Friday, March 25, to begin conference play

Northern State
- In their final week of action from Tucson, the Northern State University baseball team tallied a 2-3 record
- The Wolves recorded their two victories over Minot State in non-conference action
- Northern racked up 61 hits in the five games, with 22 being extra base knocks, and hit .333 as a unit
- The Wolves recorded a season high six doubles versus Minot State on Friday
- Jack Schmidt and Matt Stubbs lead the team hitting .540 and .500 this season, while Lucas Lorenz sits atop the team with seven homeruns
- Colton Boucher leads the NSU pitching staff with two wins this season and 23 strikeouts
- Northern will open the NSIC regular season this Friday and Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State

Sioux Falls
-The Cougars are coming off a 1-3 road trip to California when they lost twice to Bethesda, 3-1 and 4-1 and split with La Sierra as they won 17-1 and dropped a 6-3 decision
- During the recent four-game run, the Cougars hit .333 with a HR, 20 RBI with 22 runs and 41 hits USF had a .472 slugging pct., with a .403 OBP. On the mound, USF had a 5.04 ERA, allowing 14 runs on 25 hits in 25 innings.
- USF will play a nonconference game with Augustana (7-5, 0-0 NSIC) in Sioux Falls on Tuesday, March 23
- After the nonconference matchup with Augustana, the Cougars will host U-Mary (2-9, 0-0) in a four-game home stand to open the NSIC season
- USF and U-Mary will play a doubleheader on both Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 with game times set at noon and 2 p.m. at Harmodon Park in Sioux Falls
- A year ago, USF took four games from U-Mary in Bismarck. The USF wins included 4-2, 4-2, 8-3 and 9-3 decisions. In the 9-3 win, Matthew Minnick had a double, triple and HR with four RBI. In the 8-3 win, Patrick Anderson picked up a win after USF scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning. He went six innings with six strikeouts

SMSU
- SMSU snapped a six-game losing streak in game one on Monday beating Northwestern (Iowa) 8-4
- Jon Leighton batted .500 in two games on Monday at Northwestern (Iowa) with four hits, three RBIs and three runs scored
- Redshirt freshmen pitcher Cole Petersen has earned both SMSU victories this season
- SMSU’s top five pitchers in ERA are either redshirt freshmen or true freshmen
- SMSU is scheduled to open NSIC play on Friday and Saturday hosting Northern State at Alumni Field

St. Cloud State
- SCSU owns a 15-0 overall record and is slated to open NSIC play this weekend at Wayne State, weather permitting
- SCSU rookie Judd Davis paces all NCAA Division II players this spring with a .618 batting average in 2016.  He also leads NCAA DII players with an on base percentage of .690 this year
- The Huskies also lead the nation at the plate with a .393 batting average
- SCSU leads the nation with 3.53 doubles per game in 2016
- SCSU also paces all Division II teams this spring with a scoring average of 11.9 runs per game
- SCSU ranks third among NCAA DII squads this year with a .611 slugging percentage
- Kyle Lieser ranks eighth in the nation with an average of 0.57 doubles per game this spring for the Huskies
- Karl Sorensen paces SCSU this fall with 28 hits and 23 RBI
- Pitcher Sheldon Miks is 4-0 this season with a team leading 27 strikeouts
 
Upper Iowa
- The Peacocks (4-7) had four games cancelled this weekend; the non-conference contests were against Bemidji State and Concordia-St. Paul
- UIU will now open their home and Northern Sun Conference schedule against the Beavers of Minot State University on Friday and Saturday, Mar. 25-26
- The Peacocks and Beavers will play a pair of double headers (9 Inn./7 Inn.) with both days of action starting at noon
- Cody Booker leads the Peacocks with a .400 average thanks to 16 hits including a pair of doubles and 4 triples; he has scored 12 times and has driven in 5 runs
- Mitch Moser and Zach Carstens lead the pitching staff with 17.2 and 13 innings, respectively.  Moser is 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA, while Carstens has an ERA of 2.08 with a save in his three appearances
 
Wayne State
 - Wayne State lost to Neb.-Kearney 12-10 Wednesday in only game of the week
 - Junior third baseman Cody Jenkins was 3 for 6 with a double and 2 RBI
 - Junior left fielder Bodie Jenkins was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and has reached base safely in all 15 games this season
 - Senior right fielder Nate Ackerman was 2 for 5 with a triple and 2 RBI and has reached base safely in 10 straight games
 - WSC is now 0-7 in one run and two run games this season
 - WSC hosts #2 St. Cloud State in NSIC opener Friday and Saturday

 Winona State
- The Warriors were idle last week
- WSU opens NSIC play Friday and Saturday with noon doubleheaders against Minnesota Crookston


NSIC Players of the Week
2/16/16
Player: Brandon Arnold - SCSU
Pitcher: Sheldon Miks - SCSU
2/23/16
Player: Alex Wojciechowski - UMD
Pitcher: Brett Fanning - UIU
3/1/16
Player: Cody Jenkins - WSC
Pitcher: Reese Gregory - SCSU
3/7/16
Player: Connor Olson - CSP
Pitcher: Jake Johnson - U-Mary
3/14/16
Player: Matt Stubbs - NSU
Pitcher: Kody Knaus - CSP
3/22/16
Player: Lucas Lorenz - NSU
Pitcher: Trevor Buttermore - UMC