ON TAPMacalester is slated to open the home portion of its 2015 schedule, Wednesday, by hosting eighth-ranked at Nicholson Field in a pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games. The first game of the twin bill is scheduled to get underway at 2:30 p.m.
A video stream of the game and live stats can be found by going to
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/macalester.
Saturday, the Scots will take to the road for a MIAC doubleheader in Northfield, Minn., as they meet Carleton at 1 p.m.
Live video and stats will be available via Carleton's web site at
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/carleton/.
WHEN LAST WE METMacalester and St. Thomas met April 2, 2014, in a doubleheader with the Scots jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning of game one. A two-run double by
Jonathan Melms sparked a four-run second inning for Macalester but Bill Federer came on in relief for the Tommies to pitch three and one-third innings of scoreless relief as the hosts tied the game and then went onto tack on 10 runs in their final two at bats.
Game two saw
Quentin Stuart go 4-for-4 with a home run while driving in all three Macalester runs but St. Thomas had taken a 4-0 lead and the Scots were unable to even the score, despite a strong relief effort from
Forest Redlin, who allowed just one run in five innings of work.
Macalester and Carleton met in Northfield last season as well, moving the doubleheader from Nicholson Field due to unplayable conditions, and the Knights scored 18 runs in both ends of the twin bill to claim a sweep of the two-game set, picking up 18-5 and 18-6 victories.
LOOKING BACKMacalester opened the MIAC schedule Saturday at Bethel, moving the doubleheader to the Royals' Hargis Park, and dropped 9-5 and 7-2 decisions on a sunny but blustery day.
Game one saw the Royals score five runs in the second inning and take a 9-0 lead into the seventh before the Scots rallied.
Collin Brantner's two-out RBI double got Macalester on the board in the bottom of the seventh and
Phil Wettersten followed with a pinch-hit single.
Alex Baretta then singled up the middle to plate Brantner before
Nick Mar lofted a long fly bar just inside the left-field foul pole for a three-run home run before Matt Herringshaw worked out of the jam to pick up the complete-game win.
Game two saw a four-run fourth inning for Bethel break open the game after the teams had traded single runs in the second inning. A double steal in the sixth inning saw
Sam Berk score for the Scots to cut the Royals' lead to 5-2 but the hosts scored twice in the top of the seventh inning, ending
Brendan O'Connor's consecutive innings scoreless streak at 15 1/3 innings.
OF NOTE …With hits in both games, Saturday, Berk extended his hitting streak to five games, becoming the seventh Scot this season to hit in at least five consecutive games.
Tom Forster opened the season with a seven-game hitting streak, Macalester's longest streak of the season.
Berk leads the team with five multi-hit games, including three three-hit games and a 4-for-4 performance versus Augsburg (3/20). His eight doubles, 11 runs and three stolen bases on the season are already career highs.
O'Connor's scoreless streak stretched back to his final four innings of work last season. He had not given up a run in his first 11 1/3 innings this season before giving up a pair of runs Saturday.
NATIONAL RANKINGSA total of 375 teams play NCAA Division III baseball and, through games of March 26, the Scots are ranked highly in several categories.
INDIVIDUALS| Category | Player | Rank | Actual | National Leader | Actual |
| Sacrifice Flies | Quentin Stuart | 20 | 3 | John Wiehe, Chapman | 6 |
| Home Runs | Nick McMullen | 20 | 4 | Devon DeRaad, Occidental | 11 |
| Doubles Per Game | Sam Berk | 16 | 0.67 | Andrew Lauritzen, Edgewood | 1.13 |
| Batting Average | Sam Berk | 32 | .516 | Beau Ewton, Thomas (ME) | .625 |
TEAM| Category | Rank | Actual | National Leader | Actual |
| Slugging Percentage | 3 | .565 | Purchase | .625 |
| Scoring | 4 | 10.9 | Purchase | 12.6 |
| Home Runs Per Game | 6 | 1.10 | Purchase | 1.33 |
| Batting Average | 9 | .362 | Concordia-M'head | .390 |
| Home Runs | 14 | 11 | Pomona-Pitzer | 23 |
| Home Runs Per Game | 4 | 1.1 | Wartburg | 1.29 |
| Triples | 20 | 9 | Cal Lutheran | 18 |
| Triples Per Game | 8 | 0.9 | Purchase | 1.4 |
| On Base Percentage | 16 | .438 | Purchase | .474 |
PROBABLE LINEUP HE'S THE BOSSThe longest-tenured head coach at Macalester,
Matt Parrington is in his 16th season as the school's head baseball coach. His career record of 247-326-2 makes him the winningest coach in school history.
Parrington was the 2011 MIAC coach of the year after leading Macalester to the regular-season crown its first MIAC championship in 61 years. He has led the Scots to playoff appearances in 2000 and 2011.
Parrington is a 1991 graduate of Minnesota State University – Mankato, where he earned an undergraduate degree in mass communication and a master's degree in sports administration in 1993. He enjoyed a career as both an outfielder and pitcher and was a member of three North Central Conference championship teams while playing under American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame head coach Dean Bowyer. Following his playing career, he served as a graduate assistant coach with duties as the team's pitching coach.
Parrington came to Macalester from the Milwaukee Brewers front office in the fall of 1996, where he served as a sales manager in the season ticket and group sales office. During his first three years on staff at Macalester he was the associate head coach under his predecessor, Steve Hauser, and served as recruiting coordinator.
During the summer of 2012, Parrington was inducted into the Class A Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame for his on field play with the Minnetonka Millers.
UP NEXTMacalester has a pair doubleheaders scheduled for next week, beginning Tuesday with a 2:30 p.m. twin bill versus Concordia in Moorhead, Minn. Sunday, the Scots are set for a non-conference doubleheader versus Wisconsin-Stout at Nicholson Field. Both games are scheduled for seven-innings and the two-game set gets underway at 1 p.m.
SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLEYou can follow Macalester Athletics on a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. To find information and links to the sites, go to http://athletics.macalester.edu and click on the "Multimedia" tab at the top of the page.
