ON TAPNorth Dakota retruns to Western Athletic Conference play Friday at UT Rio Grande Valley (formerly UT-Pan American). UND will then play nine straight at home and 14 of fthe next 17 at Kraft Memorial Field.
ALL-TIME SERIES WITH UTRGVThe Vaqueros, formerly the UTPA Broncs, recently underwent a name change. UTPA was a member of the Great West Conference with UND as well as the teams have met 23 times with UND on the winning end 12 of those instances. North Dakota won two of three last season (at home), winning 5-3 and 2-0 before a 10-inning 4-3 loss in the finale.
FIFTEEN THERE'S STILL TIME FOR YOUNorth Dakota scored a season-high 15 runs in the Sunday win over Seattle. The game featured the two biggest innings for UND this year as well with an eight-run third and a six-run first inning. UND's run total was its highest in its WAC history and most since a 25-5 romp of NJIT on May 10, 2013.
MUCK LEADS THE WAC IN KsJunior left-hander
Zach Muckenhirn continues to lead the Western Athletic Conference in strikeouts with 54 in his seven starts. He vaulted to the top of the league with a career-high 14 strikeout performance on Mar. 25 at Sacramento State, the most by a WAC pitcher this season. His 54 Ks this year give him 154 for his career, already seventh-most in school history.
Ks FOR DAYSMuckenhirn (14) and
Brett DeGagne' (9) each set new career highs in strikeouts in the series at Sacramento State. UND starters struck out 26 batters and walked just four combined in the series.
FIRST ROUND-TRIPPERSJunior
Ellery Bresnahan and redshirt freshman
Miles Lewis each logged their first collegiate home runs in the Utah Valley series. UND has now hit six homers as a team from six different batters.
LOCKHERT GETTING ABOARDSenior
Daniel Lockhert currently leads the team with 15 straight games in which he's reached base. He's failed to reach base just twice in 22 starts this season.
MILES CITYRedshirt freshman
Miles Lewis leads UND in batting average with a .363 clip and is tied for fifth in the conference in that statistic. He also sets the pace on the team in hits (33), RBI (12) and total bases (42).
DEJA LEWIS Lewis has a team-leading 11 multi-hit games this season in just 24 games. Included in that total is a pair of three-hit games and a four-hit outing.
FOUR BY FOURLewis generated four hits in the 7-2 win over Saint Louis Mar. 13. UND has had three players notch four hits in a game this season as
Ben Reznicek turned the trick on Feb. 21 at Southern California and
Ellery Bresnahan did so last week at Utah Valley.
IN THE MUCK Lefty
Zach Muckenhirn, fresh off a three-hit shutout gem at USC in the season opener, again was dominant in his second start (at Alabama). He threw eight innings without allowing an earned run while striking out a career-high 12 at Alabama.
ZACH ATTACKJunior
Zach Muckenhirn had quite the opening night start, blanking the 12th-ranked USC Trojans for a complete-game, three-hit shutout. He struck out a career-high nine in the win, walking just one. It was his second shutout of his career (Apr. 25, 2015 vs. Sac State).
RANK AND FILENorth Dakota's two wins over the 12th-ranked Trojans on the opening weekend marked the first over a ranked team in the team's Division I history.
PAC-12 POPPERSUND now has three wins over PAC-12 teams in the past two seasons. North Dakota defeated Washington, 6-4 in 10 innings for the first winA of last season. UND defeated USC, 1-0 and 5-4 on Feb. 19 and 20 this year for a 3-4 record against the PAC-12 in the past two season.
BACK-TO-BACK JACKSenior
Daniel Lockhert and redshirt freshman
Connor Trygstad homered back-to-back in UND's 5-4 win at USC Feb. 20. They were the first homers for UND on the season.
ROCK THE VOTEUND appeared in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll for the first time in school history after the first week of action. North Dakota was among 25 schools receiving votes just outside the top 30.
DeGAGNE' DECISIONBrett DeGagne' was unlucky in decisions last season, getting several no-decisions and earning just one win despite throwing well. The senior righty worked around some jams in a win at No. 12 Southern California to throw 5.1 innings with just two hits and four strikeouts in the win. He worked around four walks and a pair of hit batters, allowing three earned runs in his fifth career win.
PASSING THE BUCKJeff Dodson notched career win No. 100 in the 6-4 win at Washington Feb. 27, moving him past
Gene Roebuck for victories as a UND skipper. He is now third for career wins among UND baseball coaches all-time. Roebuck coached the team from 1990-93 and led the team to the 1993 NCAA North Central Regional. Roebuck was also a Hall of Fame women's basketball coach at UND (1987-2012).
All-time winningest UND baseball coaches
COACH WINS YEARS
Kelvin Ziegler 326 1994-2007
Pinky Kraft 207 1956-81
Jeff Dodson 129 2009-pres.
Gene Roebuck 99 1990-93
DODSON MILESTONES Some of Coach Dodson's biggest wins have come on milestone occasions. His first win at UND was a 10-7 victory at Missouri State, UND's first as a Division I team (2009). Here's a look at some milestone wins for Dodson:
Win Opp.
1 at Missouri St. (2009) 10-7
5 at Creighton (2009) 7-6
25 No. Colorado (2010) 10-7
50 at NJIT (2012) 6-3
75 at No. Colo. (2013) 23-7
99 vs. NDSU (2014) 3-2
100 at Washington (2015) 6-4
STAFF NOTESHead coach
Jeff Dodson and assistant coach
Brian DeVillers have been together for the entire past seven seasons. DeVillers was a holdover from the previous staff and is entering his ninth season on the UND coaching staff after a standout playing career at North Dakota.
Zack Trygstad is in his second year as a volunteer assistant while
Mitch Mormann is the new assistant coach in his first season.
NORTH DAKOTA PICKED NINTH IN THE WAC PRESEASON POLL... AGAINUND will have to prove doubters wrong again as they were selected ninth in the ten-team Western Athletic Conference preseason coaches poll. North Dakota was also picked ninth last season, but finished in a tie for fourth with a 16-11 league mark, including sweeps of Chicago State, Northern Colorado, and New Mexico State.
UND TO REDUCE NUMBER OF VARSITY SPORTSThe University of North Dakota Athletics Department announced on April 12 that it will discontinue its varsity baseball and men's golf programs, effective following the 2015-16 season, as part of the University's overall budget restructuring process. Through expense reductions and revenue increases, the UND Athletics Department will see an estimated 2.4 million dollar budget impact for 2016-17. The decision was reached based upon forecasted state revenue shortfalls, conference core sport sponsorship requirements, and Title IX compliance.
“There are realities to the amount of funding the state can provide. In fact, all of our revenue sources will be under pressure for the foreseeable future. This requires us to focus, to prioritize, to plan and to make the tough decisions,” said University Interim President Edward T. Schafer.
UND Athletics will honor all athletics scholarships at their present equivalencies for returning student-athletes in the affected sports. In addition, UND Athletics will assist all student-athletes who desire to transfer to another institution if they wish to continue their playing careers.
