No. 15 Dixie State Red Storm (25-11, 20-4 PacWest)
at Saint Martin's Saints (13-25, 7-17 GNAC)
April 17-19, 2015
Saints Field – Lacey, Wash.
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Game Times (Mountain):
Friday - 3 p.m.
Saturday (DH) - 2 p.m., 5 p.m.
Sunday - 1 p.m.
Video:Â None
Live Stats:Â Saint Martin's Live Stats
Twitter: @DixieAthletics | #DixieBase
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The Dixie State baseball team heads to the Apple State this weekend for non-league play when they travel for the first time to Lacey, Wash., to take on the Saint Martin's University Saints. First pitch for game one of the series on Friday is set for 2 p.m. Pacific (3 p.m. Mountain). The Storm (25-11, 20-4) remained atop the PacWest standings despite losing its first conference series in two years last weekend against CBU. SMU (13-25, 7-17 GNAC) has lost eight straight and 11 of its last 12 games heading into this home series.
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DIXIE STATE PROJECTED STARTERS:
Friday – Dylan File (St. George, UT/Desert Hills); 5-1, 2.65 ERA
Saturday (G1) – Aaron Pope (Chubbuck, ID/Highland); 3-2, 2.68 ERA
Saturday (G2) – John Conquy (Las Vegas, NV/Durango); 4-1, 5.52 ERA
Sunday – Porter Clayton (Idaho Falls, ID/Bonneville); 4-3, 5.26 ERA
BALLPARK AND PARKING INFO
Saints Field is located just north of Pacific Avenue and west of the main's campus entrance at Gaul Drive. From Pacific, turn right onto Gaul and then make the first right toward Parking Lot R (overflow parking). The lot is adjacent to the baseball field.
CAMPUS MAP
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FOLLOW LIVE
This weekend's set from SMU will have live stats available here.
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DSU vs. SMU – BY THE NUMBERS
Dixie State is third in the PacWest in team batting average (.301), fourth in ERA (3.96) and first in fielding percentage (.974). Saint Martin's is fourth in the GNAC in hitting (.263), ERA (5.62) and fielding (.956).
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STORM RANKINGS
NCBWA: 2nd in the West, 15th nationally
D2BaseballNews.com: 4th in the West, 27th nationally
PerfectGame.org: Not ranked
College Baseball Not ranked
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WEEKEND IN REVIEW
Dixie State extended its season-long winning streak to 13 games after defeating California Baptist in last weekend's series opener, 9-4. CBU won the final three games of the set, handing DSU its first PacWest series loss since a 3-1 defeat at Fresno Pacific in April 2013. Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) led the Storm with eight hits and five runs scored. Donald Glover (Las Vegas, NV/Legacy) posted team highs with six runs batted in and three doubles. Dylan File (St. George, UT/Desert Hills) picked up the lone winning decision for the pitchers by holding CBU to three runs despite allowing 12 hits. Kolton Brost (Monsa, UT/Payson) and John Conquy (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) each tallied four strikeouts in the series. Four relievers did not allow an earned run – Rustin Sveum (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain), Bronson Anderson (Lehi, UT/Lehi), Jeremy Alderman (Cheney, WA/Cheney) and Jordan Dreibelbis (Las Vegas, NV/Faith Lutheran).
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HITTERS WITH STREAKS
Donald Glover (Las Vegas, NV/Legacy) currently has the Storm's longest hitting streak at five games. Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) and Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) each hit safely in every game of the CBU series to have four-game streaks. The longest hit streak of the season belongs to Kline at 16 games.
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SACRIFICING FOR THE TEAM
Dixie State slipped to second in the nation with 52 team sacrifice bunts (one behind Wilmington) and infielder Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) tops all of Division II with 15 sac bunts.
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DOUBLE DIGIT WIN STREAKS
This season, DSU baseball has used two double-digit win streaks to accounts for its 25 wins. After starting the season with seven losses, the Storm began a 12-game string with a home win over Colorado Mesa on Feb. 15. Dixie State followed with sweeps of Montana State Billings, Minot State and Hawaii Hilo before dropping the final game of a four-game series at Hawaii Pacific on March 15. Following the HPU loss, 13 consecutive wins followed beginning with sweeps of Holy Names, Academy of Art and Fresno Pacific.
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PFATE CLOSING IN ON 100 WINS IN YEAR THREE
Head coach Chris Pfatenhauer is closing in on his 100th coaching victory as the DSU skipper. Entering this weekend, Pfatenhauer has 93 coaching wins and needs just seven more victories to reach triple figures. He 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.
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.
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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 each comes from Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and Idaho while single players hail from California and Washington.
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LOOKING AT THE SAINTS
Saint Martin's comes into the weekend looking to end an eight-game skid in GNAC play. The Saints were swept on the road by Western Oregon last weekend in a series that included a pair of one-run games. SMU sits in fifth place in the GNAC, two games behind fourth place Central Washington. They were picked to place third in the league's preseason poll and received a first-place vote. The Saints are 3-7 at home this year and 9-19 in away/neutral games. Offensively, the Saints are led by the one-two punch of Chander Tracy and Carl Svanevik. Tracy is tied for 18th in the nation with 12 home runs while posting a .370 batting average and .790 slugging percentage. Twenty-five of his 44 overall hits have gone for extra bases (12 2B, 1 3B, 12 HR). Svanevik leads the team in hits (45), doubles (13) and runs batted in (35). On the mound, the Saints combine for a team 5.62 ERA, worst in the GNAC. Only one starter, Riley Moore (.294), has an opponent batting average under the .300-mark. SMU has allowed 378 hits in 304.1 innings. Ken Garland is in his sixth year as the head coach at Saint Martin's.
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SERIES HISTORY
Dixie State leads the all-time series, 3-1, after winning a home series against the Saints in March 2014. Four players – Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain), Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)), Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) and Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei) – hit .400 or better in the series. Kline had a monster weekend hitting .400 with two doubles, two home runs, five runs scored and 12 runs batted in. The Storm hit .325 collectively for the series.
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UP NEXTÂ
Dixie State hits the road again for a critical four-game PacWest series at Azusa Pacific beginning Thursday, April 23 at the Cougar Baseball Field.
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