Game Times (Mountain):
MSUB Series: Thursday – 6 p.m. | Friday (DH) – 4 p.m.
Minot Series: Saturday – 4 p.m | Monday (DH) 4 p.m.

Radio: None
Video: SouthernUtahLive.com Baseball
Live Stats: Dixie State Baseball Stats
Twitter: @DixieAthletics | #DixieBase

DIXIE STATE PROJECTED STARTERS:
THUR: Aaron Pope (Chubbuck, ID/Highland)
FRI (2): Porter Clayton (Idaho Falls, ID/Bonneville), Chance Abrath (Salt Lake City, UT/West)
SAT: Tanner Howell (Boulder City, NV/Boulder City)
MON (2): Dylan File (St. George, UT/Desert Hills), TBA

DIXIE STATE AGAINST MSUB: Dixie State leads the all-time series, 13-3, with every game being played in St. George. The Storm took three of four games from the Yellowjackets in last year's meeting to spread a winning trend to eight of the last nine.
 
DIXIE STATE AGAINST MINOT: This series mark the first time Dixie State and Minot State have met in NCAA Division II play.

WATCH AND FOLLOW LIVE
SouthernUtahLive.com will have video coverage from Bruce Hurst Field for the entire series. All four of Dixie State's games against CMU this week will feature live stats online, free of charge, with a link available at DixieAthletics.com.
 
DEFENDING NATIONAL RUNNERS-UP START STRONG
Colorado Mesa University baseball began the season ranked No. 4 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers and No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. CMU was the national runner-up last season, falling to preseason No. 1 Southern Indiana 3-2 in 12 innings in the National Championship game. In the World Series last season, the Mavericks defeated presesason No. 2 Tampa, No. 4 Seton Hill, and No. 24 St. Thomas Aquinas in their march to the championship game. Last week, the Mavs swept two games against UC San Diego by identical 2-0 scores.

TOP-THREE FINISHES
Dixie State has finished among the top three in the PacWest Conference since becoming league members seven seasons ago (2008-2014), the only PacWest team to have done so. Under Chris Pfatenhauer, DSU won the league in 2014 and finished third in 2013 with a 23-13 PacWest record. Prior to that, former coach Mike Littlewood (now at BYU) led Dixie State to conference titles in 2009 and 2011.
 
PRESEASON RANKS
Dixie State baseball was selected by the league's coaches to finish second behind California Baptist in the race for the 2015 PacWest title. Five players – Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho), Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei), John Conquy (Las Vegas, NV/Durango), Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)), Evan Parker (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) – earned spots on the Preseason All-PacWest team. In the NCBWA preseason vote, Dixie State ranked fourth in the West Region behind Chico State, UC San Diego and CBU. Kline, Kamachi and Conquy all took regional team recognitions. Conquy was also named to the NCBWA Preseason All-American Third Team.
 
PFATE IN YEAR THREE
Head coach Chris Pfatenhauer was named the 2014 Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year in just his second season at Dixie State by guiding the Red Storm to its third consecutive postseason appearance. Pfatenhauer has led DSU to a 68-34 overall record over the past two seasons, including a 49-19 mark in PacWest competition.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Dixie State's 34-man roster features 11 seniors, 10 juniors, four sophomores and nine freshmen. The Storm is a geographically diverse team with eight U.S. states and two foreign countries (Canada, Japan) represented. Twelve players hail from Utah and 10 others from Nevada. A pair of players come each from Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and Idaho while single players hail from California and Washington.

UP NEXT ... 
Dixie State will have two weeks off before beginning PacWest play in Hawaii on March 10 in Hilo.