Thursday, March 9
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
5 p.m. CT
St. Cloud State
at
Nova Southeastern
Photo by: Kylie Macziewski
SCSU begins Florida trip with series at Nova Southeastern
3/8/2023 11:00:00 PM | Baseball
Huskies to play seven games across six days in the Sunshine State
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Baseball returns to the diamond this weekend with a trip to Florida for a three-game series at Nova Southeastern followed by two games against Caldwell and one each against Bentley and Pace over a three-day span. The Huskies open their series at Nova with a 5:00 p.m. CT first pitch on Thursday in Fort Lauderdale followed by a 5:00 p.m. CT start on Friday and a noon CT finale on Saturday. SCSU will enjoy an off day on Sunday before picking things back up with Caldwell on Monday, Bentley on Tuesday and a doubleheader with Pace and Caldwell on Wednesday to close out the trip.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
The Nova Southeastern series will be broadcast on the SSC Digital Network with live stats provided by NSU. Fans can find links to each coverage option online on the SCSU Baseball schedule page as well as following the Huskies on social media.
LOOKING BACK
St. Cloud State hasn't played a game since splitting a four-game series at Arkansas Monticello in mid February. The Huskies scored 71 runs over the course of the four-game series, slashing .409/.526/.683 as a club for a 1.209 OPS while producing 67 hits – 26 of which went for extra bases.
A LOADED LINEUP
The Huskies currently lead the NSIC in nearly every offensive category including runs per game, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and walk rate while striking out at the lowest clip in the league.
WHAT GIVES?
Entering the Florida trip, SCSU is 0-3 in one-run games and 0-1 in two-run games. The metrics point to poor luck - especially so on the mound. Despite owning bottom-five ERA, FIP and batting average against marks, the Huskies' pitching staff leads the NSIC in K/9 while ranking second in strikeout rate, walk rate and K/BB ratio while working in front of the league's top defense by fielding percentage. The club's plus-50 run differential gives them a 6-2 expected win-loss record, signaling good things to come for one of the most explosive lineups in DII.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK, PART TWO
Centerfielder John Nett earned his second consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Week honor for the week of February 6-12. Nett went 11-for-17 at the plate with 10 runs scored, five doubles, a home run and nine RBI while anchoring a Huskies lineup that produced 71 runs in four games. The leadoff man slashed .647/.695/1.118 for a whopping 1.813 OPS, recording two four-hit contests and one three-hit game. This marked the third time Nett has been named NSIC Player of the Week in his St. Cloud State career.
FAMILIAR FACES
Despite this being the first-ever meeting between St. Cloud State and Nova Southeastern, an unlikely pair of a Husky and a Shark are extremely familiar with one another: SCSU righthander Eli Emerson and Nova catcher Danny Irisarri were teammates on the 2021 Waterloo Bucks, helping lead the team to a Northwoods League divisional title. Emerson led Waterloo in wins while Irisarri anchored the middle of the order and played a strong second base as both players provided plenty of impact to the Bucks' success.
DOLAN'S DUGOUT
"I went to school at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton in 1988, and I kick myself sometimes for ever leaving - I'm absolutely looking forward to getting down there and I'm sure the Huskies are too. Over spring break when guys don't have class and you're in the condos for six, seven days, it's great team bonding. Obviously we want to go down there and win baseball games, but you can really find a lot out about your team. We've had two good weekends of really good baseball, playing good baseball, and now we've gone three weeks without playing. After this, then we start playing on a continuous basis - we're looking forward to playing seven games against some good competition."
On the volatility of the spring schedule... "It's kind of weird. You play 75% of our games in seven or eight weeks, and then in the first five weeks we only play 15 games. We've been able to take advantage of the Husky Dome to scrimmage St. John's, we scrimmaged St. Cloud Tech, but at this point of the season we're ready to start playing somebody else."
On Nova Southeastern... "They've been a top team year in and year out for a reason. They've had some of their key guys out, but their starting pitching and their bullpen is fabulous. It's going to be an extreme challenge, but you've got to play those types of teams. We've played the Arkansas Monticello's, the Missouri Southern's, you play them for a reason. We stuck with both of those teams, and we hope to be just as competitive with Nova. Somehow we've got to find a way to win two out of three, which is almost easier said than done against a team like that. The guys are ready to play, no matter who it is or where it is. We're playing to get better."
On the lineup's league-leading production... "Part of it is the short porch and howling winds in Monticello - which is also why our pitching stats are inflated as well. I will say this: we haven't had a lot of lineup depth in the past, and now we have some depth. I've been talking with Doc about how we match some guys up in platoons, moving guys around, that's a good problem to have. It's hard because you're going to get some really good players that aren't going to get 200 at-bats, but we've had at least four or five games where every single position player has gotten an at-bat. We've got a good group of guys, and the role players know how important they are in a variety of spots."
Analyzing the depth of the lineup... "Nett and Riola, there's a reason they're First Team All-Conference guys. Wallat struggled a little early on, but over the last few games in Arkansas he really started to get going again - and he's just so strong at third base that you can't take him out. We don't have that prototypical middle-order cleanup hitter, but we have Otto Grimm back and Mason Primus will be back as well. What I like most about our lineup is 7-8-9. When you've got guys like Schiller, Nav, Sawyer, we've got a lot of really good ball players. It's exciting how we can all come together and click - we're clicking offensively, but we have to win games."
On managing the bullpen with seven games in six days... "With seven game sets, we can mix and match a little bit. Ethan Lanthier was our closer last year, he's a starter for us this year, but to be honest if we have a chance to win a game early on he's an option. Now whoever throws those first two days can come back and throw on Tuesday and Wednesday. We've got to play to win games - we've lost four games by a total of five runs. We can't just go out there and just throw guys out there. We can't just be happy with playing good, we have to be playing good and win."
"Last year I think we won 13 games by one or two runs. This year, we're 0-4. Sometimes it just kind of sneaks past you. With our guys, with our leadership - we've got to score some more runs early so we're not in those situations where we're coming back from behind. We've had a couple of situations where we're up two or three runs and have lost, in those games we need to keep adding and get our opponent out of the game. It is frustrating, because I think we're five or six plays away from being at least 6-2 and maybe even 8-0."
NATIONAL NOTICE
St. Cloud State received votes in the 2023 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Top-25 poll, entering the season in the polls for the first time since they began 2019 receiving votes.
OH CAPTAINS, OUR CAPTAINS
Huskies Baseball is captained by four program veterans in graduate student Riley Ahern, redshirt senior Sam Riola and a pair of juniors in John Nett and Jack Habeck. The four share 12 combined years of experience at St. Cloud State as Ahern enters his sixth season, Nett and Habeck each start their fourth and Riola begins his second with the program.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Baseball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
The Nova Southeastern series will be broadcast on the SSC Digital Network with live stats provided by NSU. Fans can find links to each coverage option online on the SCSU Baseball schedule page as well as following the Huskies on social media.
LOOKING BACK
St. Cloud State hasn't played a game since splitting a four-game series at Arkansas Monticello in mid February. The Huskies scored 71 runs over the course of the four-game series, slashing .409/.526/.683 as a club for a 1.209 OPS while producing 67 hits – 26 of which went for extra bases.
A LOADED LINEUP
The Huskies currently lead the NSIC in nearly every offensive category including runs per game, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and walk rate while striking out at the lowest clip in the league.
WHAT GIVES?
Entering the Florida trip, SCSU is 0-3 in one-run games and 0-1 in two-run games. The metrics point to poor luck - especially so on the mound. Despite owning bottom-five ERA, FIP and batting average against marks, the Huskies' pitching staff leads the NSIC in K/9 while ranking second in strikeout rate, walk rate and K/BB ratio while working in front of the league's top defense by fielding percentage. The club's plus-50 run differential gives them a 6-2 expected win-loss record, signaling good things to come for one of the most explosive lineups in DII.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK, PART TWO
Centerfielder John Nett earned his second consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Week honor for the week of February 6-12. Nett went 11-for-17 at the plate with 10 runs scored, five doubles, a home run and nine RBI while anchoring a Huskies lineup that produced 71 runs in four games. The leadoff man slashed .647/.695/1.118 for a whopping 1.813 OPS, recording two four-hit contests and one three-hit game. This marked the third time Nett has been named NSIC Player of the Week in his St. Cloud State career.
FAMILIAR FACES
Despite this being the first-ever meeting between St. Cloud State and Nova Southeastern, an unlikely pair of a Husky and a Shark are extremely familiar with one another: SCSU righthander Eli Emerson and Nova catcher Danny Irisarri were teammates on the 2021 Waterloo Bucks, helping lead the team to a Northwoods League divisional title. Emerson led Waterloo in wins while Irisarri anchored the middle of the order and played a strong second base as both players provided plenty of impact to the Bucks' success.
DOLAN'S DUGOUT
"I went to school at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton in 1988, and I kick myself sometimes for ever leaving - I'm absolutely looking forward to getting down there and I'm sure the Huskies are too. Over spring break when guys don't have class and you're in the condos for six, seven days, it's great team bonding. Obviously we want to go down there and win baseball games, but you can really find a lot out about your team. We've had two good weekends of really good baseball, playing good baseball, and now we've gone three weeks without playing. After this, then we start playing on a continuous basis - we're looking forward to playing seven games against some good competition."
On the volatility of the spring schedule... "It's kind of weird. You play 75% of our games in seven or eight weeks, and then in the first five weeks we only play 15 games. We've been able to take advantage of the Husky Dome to scrimmage St. John's, we scrimmaged St. Cloud Tech, but at this point of the season we're ready to start playing somebody else."
On Nova Southeastern... "They've been a top team year in and year out for a reason. They've had some of their key guys out, but their starting pitching and their bullpen is fabulous. It's going to be an extreme challenge, but you've got to play those types of teams. We've played the Arkansas Monticello's, the Missouri Southern's, you play them for a reason. We stuck with both of those teams, and we hope to be just as competitive with Nova. Somehow we've got to find a way to win two out of three, which is almost easier said than done against a team like that. The guys are ready to play, no matter who it is or where it is. We're playing to get better."
On the lineup's league-leading production... "Part of it is the short porch and howling winds in Monticello - which is also why our pitching stats are inflated as well. I will say this: we haven't had a lot of lineup depth in the past, and now we have some depth. I've been talking with Doc about how we match some guys up in platoons, moving guys around, that's a good problem to have. It's hard because you're going to get some really good players that aren't going to get 200 at-bats, but we've had at least four or five games where every single position player has gotten an at-bat. We've got a good group of guys, and the role players know how important they are in a variety of spots."
Analyzing the depth of the lineup... "Nett and Riola, there's a reason they're First Team All-Conference guys. Wallat struggled a little early on, but over the last few games in Arkansas he really started to get going again - and he's just so strong at third base that you can't take him out. We don't have that prototypical middle-order cleanup hitter, but we have Otto Grimm back and Mason Primus will be back as well. What I like most about our lineup is 7-8-9. When you've got guys like Schiller, Nav, Sawyer, we've got a lot of really good ball players. It's exciting how we can all come together and click - we're clicking offensively, but we have to win games."
On managing the bullpen with seven games in six days... "With seven game sets, we can mix and match a little bit. Ethan Lanthier was our closer last year, he's a starter for us this year, but to be honest if we have a chance to win a game early on he's an option. Now whoever throws those first two days can come back and throw on Tuesday and Wednesday. We've got to play to win games - we've lost four games by a total of five runs. We can't just go out there and just throw guys out there. We can't just be happy with playing good, we have to be playing good and win."
"Last year I think we won 13 games by one or two runs. This year, we're 0-4. Sometimes it just kind of sneaks past you. With our guys, with our leadership - we've got to score some more runs early so we're not in those situations where we're coming back from behind. We've had a couple of situations where we're up two or three runs and have lost, in those games we need to keep adding and get our opponent out of the game. It is frustrating, because I think we're five or six plays away from being at least 6-2 and maybe even 8-0."
NATIONAL NOTICE
St. Cloud State received votes in the 2023 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Top-25 poll, entering the season in the polls for the first time since they began 2019 receiving votes.
OH CAPTAINS, OUR CAPTAINS
Huskies Baseball is captained by four program veterans in graduate student Riley Ahern, redshirt senior Sam Riola and a pair of juniors in John Nett and Jack Habeck. The four share 12 combined years of experience at St. Cloud State as Ahern enters his sixth season, Nett and Habeck each start their fourth and Riola begins his second with the program.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Baseball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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