GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota baseball team will not play a regular-season game until March of next year, but that does not mean the squad is taking it easy this semester. The Fighting Sioux will begin their NCAA-sanctioned fall practices on Saturday at Kraft Field and will spend the next several weeks working towards getting better for the spring and their first season in the Great West Conference.

The team will cap off the fall practice session with the annual Blue Moose Classic. The three-game series will pit the Green team vs. the Black team. Second-year head coach Jeff Dodson and his coaching staff will divide the team up into two intrasquads for the series that is set for Sept. 25-27 at Kraft Field. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m., while the games on Saturday and Sunday will begin at 1 p.m.

Dodson and his staff will be working with and evaluating 32 players this fall, which is a group that includes 13 newcomers. The Sioux return a core group of players that features their top three hitters from a year ago in rising juniors Jake Magner (.393, 10 HR, 51 RBI) and Aaron Cook (.328, 6 HR, 27 RBI) along with senior Andrew Gudmunson (.314, 5 HR, 25 RBI).  

Rising junior David Spies returns after leading UND a season ago with a 2-0 record, two saves and 3.98 ERA out of the bullpen, while starters Derek Biermaier and David Lind return as well after sharing the team lead with four wins in 2009.