GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The Fighting Sioux take a break from Great West play this week as they travel to South Dakota State to face the Jackrabbits in a Wednesday doubleheader at Huether Field. The teams will play a nine-inning contest at 1 p.m., with a seven-inning tilt to follow. SDSU took three-of-four from UND a year ago. The Jackrabbits will play a return doubleheader at Kraft Field on May 18.
NCC REWIND: The Fighting Sioux are off to a 5-7 start in their inaugural season as Great West Conference members in the Division I ranks, but their next six contests will be played against former North Central Conference rivals. UND and SDSU will resume a rivalry that has seen the teams meet 124 times since 1957. The Jackrabbits own a 63-60-1 edge in the all-time series. In the last 25 meetings, SDSU holds a 14-11 advantage. UND will return home after the mid-week doubleheader in Brookings to face Northern Colorado in Great West Conference action. The Sioux and Bears last met in 2002 when they split a four-game series in Greeley. The teams split two games the last time they met in Grand Forks in 1999.
BACK AT KRAFT: After playing their first 27 games of the season away from Grand Forks, the Fighting Sioux played their first four home games of the season this past weekend against New York Tech. UND earned a split with the Bears after winning the final two games of the series.
THE GREAT UNKNOWN: The Fighting Sioux will play seven first-time opponents during the 2010 season. As UND continues its transition to the Division I level, playing new teams will be the norm. With the Sioux having already faced Wichita State, Oral Roberts, Utah Valley, Texas Pan-American and New York Tech, the two remaining first-time opponents are members of the Great West. The Sioux have remaining series against Chicago State and Houston Baptist as the league embarks on its inaugural baseball season. The GWC also includes NJIT, who the Sioux have a 2-0 edge over in the all-time series and Northern Colorado, a former North Central Conference rival that has split 16 all-time games with UND. Last season, the Sioux faced six first-time opponents in their first DI season.
MAGNER'S MONSTER WEEKEND GARNERS NATIONAL ATTENTION: Junior Jake Magner has earned some national recognition after his monster series against New York Tech this past weekend. Magner went 10-for-18 (.556) at the plate with six home runs and 14 RBI in the Great West series against the Bears. In Saturday's doubleheader, he belted all six of those home runs and drove in 13 runs as the Sioux earned a split with a thrilling 20-19 victory in the nightcap. The Grand Rapids, Minn., native set school single-game records in the second contest with four home runs and nine RBI. He is the first player in Division I this season to smack four homers in a game and his nine RBI equal the most by a DI player during the 2010 campaign. For his efforts, he was named a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the NCBWA's Pro-Line Athletic National Hitter of the Week. Magner also earned the Great West Conference Player of the Week honor.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SIOUX
• The Sioux dropped three-of-four to South Dakota State as the rivalry resumed last season after a two-year break. UND won the first game 12-5 behind the power stroke of designated hitter Aaron Cook. The Erksine, Minn., native deposited two blasts over the right field fence and finished with five RBI. Catcher Andy Sadler also had a home run in the contest as part of a career high four-hit effort.
• Sophomore David Lind picked up the first victory and complete game of his career in the lone win over the Jackrabbits. He yielded three earned runs on eight hits in seven innings of work.
• Senior Josh Nelson led the Sioux hitters with a .583 effort in the series, going 7-for-12 with three runs scored. Cook batted .538 with three home runs, a double and seven RBI.
• As a team, the Sioux outhit the Jackrabbits .391 to .306 in the series, but were outscored 31-29.
• Speaking of Nelson, the Sioux shortstop has hit safely in 12 straight games and is batting .391 (18-for-46) during that stretch. He had four straight multiple-hit games in the New York Tech series and has raised his season average to .341 (second on the team).
• Junior Jake Magner doubled his season home run total over the weekend after mashing six home runs in Saturday's doubleheader. He went from six to 12 in 10 at-bats and increased his RBI total from 18 to 32.
• With his 12 home runs this season, Magner has now moved into eighth place on the UND career charts and tied for third on the single-season charts. Carter Rogalla holds the single-season mark at 20 and Aaron Larsen holds the career mark at 44.
• Junior college transfer Craig Dolmage is batting .417 in his last 10 contests (10-for-24). He opened the season in a 2-for-21 slump. He hit his first DI homer in Saturday's first game of the doubleheader with NYIT.
ABOUT THE JACKRABBITS: Head coach Ritchie Price in his second full season as the leader of the Jackrabbits' program. In his first season, SDSU posted a 26-30 overall record and finished third in the Summit League with a 17-10 mark in conference games. So far this season, the Jackrabbits are 8-4 in the Summit and just two games behind league-leader Oral Roberts and one-and-a-half games behind Centenary. Price played collegiately at Kansas for his father Ritch Price and is one of the youngest coaches in the Division I ranks.
A CLOSER LOOK AT SDSU
• Right fielder John Lee leads the Jackrabbits with a .422 batting average through 35 games. He has also added six home runs and 38 RBI. A season ago, Lee batted .467 in the series vs. UND, including a trio of home runs and five RBI.
• Third baseman Jesse Sawyer hit at least one home run in all four games of last year's series, finishing the four-game set with five round trippers and seven RBI. This season, Sawyear has nine long balls and ranks second on the team with 39 RBI.
• Shortstop Erin Cain is batting .394 with a team-leading 10 home runs and 49 RBI. Cain and his teammates have combined for 47 home runs.
• SDSU is batting .339 as a team, while opponents are hitting .330 off the Jackrabbits' pitchers.
• The Jackrabbits and Sioux have four common opponents on their schedules. SDSU lost a single game at Nebraska (12-6) on March 16 and took two-of-three from their former NCC rival Northern Colorado on March 20-21. UND lost both games in a mid-week series with the Cornhuskers, while the Sioux took three-of-four from North Dakota State and were swept at Oral Roberts. The latter two are Summit League foes that the Jackrabbits have yet to face.
• Closer Trever Vermuelen is putting together an outstanding season out of the bullpen for SDSU. The right-hander is 4-1 with seven saves and a 1.02 ERA in 20 appearances.
• Blake Treinen is 4-0 in seven starts with a 5.04 ERA. He has 41 strike outs in 44.2 innings of work.
