Driving fourth at the preview Baseball battle with the Bulldogs

By CHARLIE GROEBNER Staff Writer

After three long months of playing on the road, the day has finally arrived to play at home. Minnesota State Baseball prepares to take ISG Field for the first time this season against the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in a weekend series.

Coming off their last victory against the University of Saint Mary Sunday, the Mavs will have little time to rest as Friday is growing closer. They are currently riding another win streak and thriving with the current situation they are in.

By MOHAMED WARSAME Staff Writer

The Minnesota State Women’s Golf team returned to the green Monday and Tuesday for the 2023 NSIC Preview. The Mavericks finished in fourth place with a total team score of 652.

The competition was held at Paradise Pointe Golf Club in Smithville, Missouri. The Paradise Golf Club is a 5,930-yard course that plays to a par-72. The six-team event was won by Missouri Western State. The Griffons won with a team score of 623, 19 strokes ahead of second-place Concordia St. Paul which shot a 642.

This was a quick turnaround for the Mavs as they were back in Missouri competing in their second event in a week. The Holiday Inn Classic which took place March 27-28 was a chance for the team to get back into the flow of things.

“I think the Holiday Inn was kind of getting our legs back underneath us. We were a month out from spring break, so I think that was kind of a, hey, let’s get back to where we were in Arizona,” said Head Coach Alex Schmitz.

Some of the areas that the team worked on in the days leading up to the event consisted of green chipping and putting. This comes off the back of several players having a hard time with the tee in St. Joseph. The team made their way to Missouri early in preparation for the event.

“We left on Saturday, went to a city course down in Kansas City and got to hit balls for an hour or so and really just figured out what one or two things that you struggled with and a lot of them it was their tee ball and not putting themselves in a position to score,” Schmitz said.

The squad’s hard work paid off on the first day of the NSIC Preview, where they took major strides of improvement from their performance in the Holiday Inn Classic. Schmitz credits this

 IMPROVING from page 8 tournament. The past two tournaments that the Mavs have played in saw Central Missouri on top both times. MSU won’t be seeing them for the rest of the season as to their positioning off the tee and putting themselves into a position to score. The scores recorded on the first day were 75,76,78,79 and 79. The second day showed itself to be a lot more grueling on the team. they only have the NSIC Championship left. This tournament is set for April 21 and will feature 10 teams in the NSIC at Adams Pointe Golf Club.

“Yesterday was a tough day, wind started blowing. I think the wind takes a lot out of you physically but also mentally draining, always having to think of what that wind is doing and knowing exactly what it’s doing every time in order to kind of move your golf balls when it’s in the air. We don’t play a lot in the wind up here. You know, we get it here and there but down there it’s always windy. We don’t work on, or we haven’t had a chance to work on sliding the ball down, being able to hit kind of a knockdown shot or keep it out of the wind and that really hurt us,” Schmitz said.

Sophomore Kelly Winter played as an individual and paced the Mavs with a 160. This earned her a tie for eighth place. Seniors Madi McGinty and Sam Soulier finished with a 161 which was tied for tenth and a 162 tied for 12th respectively. Junior Anna Cihak placed 14th overall and shot a 183. Schmitz believes that having two events in a short span of time was a good thing for his squad.

“I think it was a good thing because we got back the competitive edge. We didn’t play very well at the holiday so I think having the fire to go out and say I know I’m better than what I just did, showed the first day of the conference preview. It’s not what we did last week but this is what we are. I think if we were going to play tomorrow in a tournament they would because they know that they are better than what their numbers showed and what our result was,” Schmitz said.

The Mavs hope to be able to get outside next week to continue working on their short game and putting. Seeing the ball fly as they prepare for the Wayne State Invitational April 17-18 is something they are eager to do.

One thing that many people noticed so far is that Head Coach Matt Magers leans a lot on his starting pitchers in games. Coach Magers’ reasoning for that relies more on experience when making deployments.

“We are fortunate to have Culley, Gotto, and Fox as our three starters this year. All three are veterans and have been around the game for a while. We are even more fortunate that they have some great younger guys who are behind them. Only thing is that they need time to learn and experience situations that those three have been in if we are going to be successful,” said Magers.

That experience will certainly be needed with the Bulldogs coming into town.

This season, the team has struggled with consistency in its performances and struggled to get on a roll. However, the group will be moti vated as they prepare to square up with the Mavs. Currently, they have lost the last six matchups against them and have not beaten the Mavs at home since 2016.

One of the men who will be helping lead the charge for the Bulldogs is sophomore Ethan Cole. The native of Duluth, Minnesota is one of the top players in the Bulldogs’ starting lineup. On top of being an excellent hitter and fielder, he has also made a few appearances on the slab. While he has pitched rather sparingly, he still has three strikeouts and only allowed two runs during that period.

With the weekend projected to be perfect for baseball, the Mavs gear up for the true bulk of the schedule.

With only one month left in the season, the competition gets tougher from this point forward. Head Coach Magers is familiar with this atmosphere and is eager to get his group to the next step.

“The real grind of the schedule starts now where we are playing five games a week. Our next few opponents are quality teams and will require us to go deeper into the pitching staff. Last weekend we saw that we needed to go deeper into our staff to finish out games. So it’s exciting, having the opportunity to be in these larger moments, especially for guys who haven’t gotten it yet,” said Magers.