The Dickinson State University baseball team will not be traveling to Omaha, Neb., this weekend as their series against Bellevue University has been cancelled — but to keep the bats hot, DSU added three home exhibition games versus Lake Region State College.
Dickinson State University will take to Dakota Community Bank & Trust Ballpark against Lake Region State College in an exhibition series aimed at keeping the momentum going for a late season climb in the conference rankings.
The series features a double header on Saturday, April 17 with the first game at 2:00 p.m. followed by a second game 20 minutes after the first. The series finale will be on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
The exhibition games will not be live streamed, but fans can follow along on GameChanger at gc.com.
Mike Dahl, midway through his second season as the head baseball coach for the Dickinson State University Blue Hawks, leads a .500 conference performance team thus far in the 2021 campaign. The Blue Hawks stand 9-17 on the season, and will enter the exhibition series against the Royals coming off a series win against Viterbo University riding a 1 game winning streak.
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Jonathan Lund was named head baseball coach for Lake Region State College entering the 2021 season and will bring a .500 conference performance team to Dickinson with designs on pulling an upset. The Royals will enter the exhibition with a 10-11 record on the season and are looking to break their one-game losing streak.
DSU's record may be mid-tiered in conference, but Blue Hawk standout players are scattered across the top 10 of the North Star Conference’s fielding, innings pitched per game, batters struck out per game, slugging percentage and more.
The Blue Hawks standout sophomore catcher Derrick Calvillo, from Tucson, Ariz., leads the North Star Conference’s heavy hitters touting a .721 slugging percentage and ranks in the top 10 for fielding percentage at .988 — scoring a total of five runs and 11 RBIs over the last six games. Senior Joel Torres, from New York, broke into the top ten in the conference for innings pitched, going 30.2 innings over seven games. None can deny the hot bat of freshman outfielder Robert Encinas, also from Tucson, who sits sixth in conference for individual batting average with a whopping .377 at the plate.
The Royals enter the exhibition after a loss, but have gone 4-2 over six games. Utility player Ryan Veneman will seek to continue his impressive season where he has garnered a .437 batting average over 21 games, with 4 homeruns and 29 RBI’s to his name.
Dickinson State University sophomore Jacob Scully was named NSAA pitcher of the week last week, while teammate Calvillo was named NSAA player of the week — both providing clutch performances against Viterbo, and both seeking to have breakout performances against Lake Region State College this weekend.
