Greg Miller, Staff Writer

The Auggie baseball team will look to improve on an up-and-down 2018 season. They finished last year with an 18–20 overall record (7–13 in conference), missing the MIAC playoffs for the fourth straight year, tied for the longest in Coach Keith Bateman’s tenure as head coach.

The Auggies lost nine players from last year’s team, including team wins leader Jacob Kari and top outfielders Jordan DeCrook and Zach Bakko who are gone after made a team-high 38 games last year. Keane Turner is also gone after being second in batting average. For the pitchers.

Returning is All-MIAC and All-Midwest Region selection Mike Brookshaw. Brookshaw led the team in Batting Average (.464), Slugging Pct. (.567) and On-Base Pct. (.539). With an early injury, he was not able to play in 75 percent of the team’s games, making him ineligible for the MIAC stats, but his Batting Average and On-Base Pct. would have been near the top in the MIAC and his Slugging Pct. would have been tied for fifth. Also coming back are Clayton Bodine and Walker Rogers; both were regular starters, starting 38 games. Rogers was tied for the team lead and sixth in the MIAC in doubles last year with 20.

For the pitching staff, the Auggies retain Jamie Kaye and Dayton Danielson, the two players with the most innings pitched last year. Kaye and Danielson were both top-20 in K/9 (must have as many IP as team games). Danielson was 18th in the MIAC in ERA, and Kaye was 10th in strikeouts last year.

Augsburg lost some key players but still has a good core in place to make some noise in the MIAC. The Auggies will look to improve on last year’s record and push for a playoff spot this year.   

The Auggies first game is in Topeka, Kansas, against Simpson College on March 2, and their first MIAC game is March 30 against Concordia-Moorhead in Moorhead.

This article was originally published in the Feb. 22, 2019 issue.