MANKATO, Minn. - Minnesota State competes in the opening round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament this week which will be held at Franklin Rogers Park May 9-12.  The conference's regular-season champion and top-seeded Mavericks match up against sixth-seeded Minnesota Duluth Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.

A Look at the Bulldogs: The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 24-25 overall record, 17-18 in the NSIC, and have earned the sixth seed in the week's conference tournament.  The Bulldogs have won five of their last six games and are coming off a four-game sweep against the University of Mary.  Coached by Bob Rients, the Bulldogs are led offensively by Anders Engberg who owns a .358 batting average and has recorded a team-best five home runs and 40 RBI in 48 games started.  Second on the team with a .352 batting average, Cody Aasen is also second with 27 RBI having started in 42 of the 45 games he has appeared in.  Leading the Bulldogs pitching staff with 12 starts is Collin Stinogel who owns a 4-3 record with a 2.84 earned run average while he also paces the team with 46 strikeouts.  Tied for first on the team with four wins is Jordan Smith who has a 3.31 ERA after allowing 19 earned runs in 51.2 innings of work.  As a team, the Bulldogs are batting .295 while the pitching staff owns a 4.39 ERA.

Previous Meeting: Minnesota State opened this season's NSIC portion of the schedule against Minnesota Duluth on March 23-24 as the Mavericks proceeded to sweep the Bulldogs in the four-game series.  On March 23 the Mavericks won 4-3 and 9-2 as senior Matt Odegaard was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the winning run in game one.  The following day, MSU won 5-3 and 9-3 as senior Pat Dockendorf hit a three-run home run in game one which broke a 2-2 tie propelling the Mavericks to victory.

Last Week's Action: Minnesota State was crowned the champion of the regular season in the NSIC after going 4-2 last week including a split with Winona State before taking three of four against Upper Iowa.  Odegaard hit .409 last week with nine hits including three doubles while driving in four runs in 22 at-bats.  Leading the way with 10 RBI was junior Mike Eckhart who added two home runs, two doubles and a triple while batting .400.  Eckhart slugged .900 over the six-game span with a .409 on-base percentage as he totaled eight RBI in the final three games against UIU.  Freshman Connor McCallum led MSU with a .462 batting average after recording six hits in 13 at-bats in five games.  Sophomore TJ Larson led MSU on the mound as he struck out 11 batters while allowing just one run on six hits in nine innings of work spread over two appearances.  Larson started game two in the series against Winona State and allowed one run on four hits while recording seven strikeouts in seven innings pitched.  Sophomore Tyler Ockuly posted a team-high 18 strikeouts in two appearances as he posted a 1-1 record.  Also picking up wins on the mound were senior Harvey Martin and sophomore Jason Hoppe.  Martin allowed one earned run in seven innings pitched while Hoppe threw five scoreless innings and allowed four hits.

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