LAWRENCE, Kan. - After eight days off, the North Dakota baseball team returns to the Sunflower State for two more contests in mid-week action. The Sioux will take on the Kansas Jayhawks in single, nine-inning games on Tuesday and Wednesday. First pitch for both contests is scheduled for 3 p.m.

• UND is playing at Kansas for the third time in the past four seasons. The Jayhawks own a 3-0 all-time lead in the series, including a 5-3 victory last season (March 9). The teams met twice during the 2009 season.

• Junior Kris Kwak (Maple Grove, Minn.) hit his first collegiate home run at Hoglund Ballpark in the top of the third inning of that contest. Kwak would go on to lead all Great West second baseman with five home runs and earn All-GWC second team honors.

• Jake Magner (Grand Rapids, Minn.) belted a two-run double in the eighth to make things interesting, pulling UND within a run, but the Jayhawks would add an unearned tally in their half of the eighth to post the two-run victory.

• Fourth-year head coach Jeff Dodson's 27-man roster is filled with 10 returning letterwinners, three redshirt freshmen and 14 newcomers (11 true freshmen). Three of those 14 newcomers will be sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules.

• The Sioux were swept in their season-opening series against Wichita State. The Shockers scored 62 runs in the four-game set and outhit the Sioux .417 to .133. 

• Senior Kevin Auth (Cambridge, Minn.) was the most effective of the UND starters, holding the Shockers to three earned runs on five hits in a 7-1 loss in the series opener.

• Classmate Kyle Bolander (Hermantown, Minn.) provided the lone run in that contest with his first career home run.

• Freshman Jeff Campbell (Clearwater, Fla.) led UND with four hits in the series, hitting at a .286 clip (14 at-bats) with a pair of doubles and his first collegiate RBI. The right-hander also started game four of the series.

• Redshirt freshman Mark Bearmon (St. Louis Park, Minn.) collected three hits in his first action for UND. Bearmon started all four games in left field.

• Kwak is the team's top returning hitter after batting .339 with a team-leading 25 extra-base hits in 2011. He went just 1-for-11 in a slow start against WSU. 

• He raised his batting average 14 points from his freshman season and added a team-leading 17 doubles - third most in a single season in UND history.

• Kwak is joined by Bolander, Zack Trygstad (catcher; Wayzata, Minn.) and Seth Means (rightfielder, Gillette, Wyo.) as returning starters for Dodson. Bolander started the first three games at designated hitter and moved over to first base when Campbell went to the mound. Means got two starts against Wichita State in right field (0-for-6).

• Trygstad started 42 games behind the dish as a true freshman. He hit .277 overall and increased that average to .347 in Great West play. He drove in 20 of his 25 runs in league action as well. He started three of the four games at catcher against Wichita State.

• Dodson has 12 active players listed as a pitcher on his roster and eight of those are true freshman. Three of them started a game in the series against the Shockers.

• Auth, who will start Tuesday's game against Kansas, has appeared in 27 games during his career at UND, but this will be only his fourth start. His two previous starts before the season came against a South Dakota State team coached by current KU assistant Richie Price. Auth was 1-1 with a 2.92 ERA in those outings against the Jackrabbits.

• No pitcher on the current UND roster has seen action against the Jayhawks.

• With a 23-man active roster, there will be more opportunities for players to be used in dual roles throughout the season. Two of the weekend starters - Tyler Ruemmele (Eden Prarie, Minn.) and Jeff Campbell (Clearwater, Fla.) - are likely to earn starts in the infield as well throughout the season. Campbell started three games at first base against the Shockers.

• Campbell posted a 7-2 record from the hill as a senior and batted .323 with three home runs at Central Catholic (Fla.) High School.

• Ruemmele went 9-0 on the mound as a senior at Eden Prarie High School and hit .462 at the plate en route to earning Minnesota Class 3A All-State honors.

• The third true freshman to earn a start during the weekend is the tallest of the bunch at six-foot-4. Right-hander Andrew Thome (St. Cloud, Minn.) started game three for the Sioux. He went 6.1 innings, which was the most by a UND starter in Wichita.

• Thome helped lead is St. Cloud High School team to the Minnesota Class 2A State Championship as a senior. His 14 wins tied for the fourth most in a single season in Minnesota prep history. Those efforts helped him earn Minnesota Class 2A Player of the Year accolades.

• As on the mound, Dodson will have to sprinkle in some new faces into his lineup this season. That starts with freshman Tyler Follis (Bemidji, Minn.), who will play shortstop for the Fighting Sioux. Follis also earned Minnesota Class 3A All-State honors after batting .368 for his Bemidji High School team.

• Junior Riley Beck (Munich, N.D.) earned a pair of starts in right field and two more in center field against Wichita State. He went 2-for-10 at the plate and had one of three RBI for the Sioux during the series.

• Left-hander Ben Clark (White Bear Lake, Minn.) will start Wednesday's game against KU. It will be his first career start after seeing action in a relief role at Wichita State. Clark did not allow a hit to the Shockers in 2.1 innings of relief, while striking out two.

• Freshman Alex Twenge (Minnetonka, Minn.) fanned a team-high five Shockers in two outings. He did allow four earned runs in his four innings.

KU is coached by Ritch Price, who enters his 10th season leading the program. Price has led the Jayhawks to 30-plus wins in seven of his nine seasons in Lawrence and has his son and former KU standout Ritchie Price on his coaching staff this season. The younger Price spent the last htree seasons as the head coach at South Dakota State. Kansas enters the week with a 5-5 record after dropping three straight and five of its last six.  The Jayhawks opened the season with four straight wins, including a 3-0 record at the Music City Classic hosted by Middle Tennessee State. KU's top hitter so far this season is shortstop Kevin Kuntz. He is batting .400 through 10 games (14-for-35) and has five RBI. Third baseman Zac Elgie is the team's top RBI man so far with eight. Right-hander Frank Duncan has two of KU's five wins and owns a 3.86 ERA with a team-best 14 punchouts.

 

The Fighting Sioux will be embarking on their third season in Great West Conference play in 2012.  Utah Valley won the league's inaugural regular season and tournament titles in 2010 and 2011. The conference season will culminate in Orem, Utah with the GWC Tournament May 22-26 at Brent Brown Ballpark.

The other six members of the league are Chicago State, Houston Baptist, New York Tech, NJIT, Northern Colorado and Texas-Pan American. The Great West is the second conference affiliation for UND in program history. UND spent its Division II years playing in the North Central Conference. New York Tech and Northern Colorado are associate members for baseball.