Baseball

Live stats - Click here for live stats during the Mustangs' home games at Lewis & Clark Park

Travis Hanson, a senior outfielder from Sioux City, and A.J. Staiert, a junior first baseman from Sioux City, both added to their school record career totals during the Mustangs’ 2013 baseball campaign.

Hanson led the Mustangs with 18 stolen bases to finish his career with a school-record 123 thefts. Hanson, the NAIA national leader with 44 stolen bases in 2011 and a school-record 45 stolen bases in 2012, finished his Morningside career with 192 hits in 579 at-bats for a .332 batting average.

Staiert, who entered the 2013 season tied with 2010 graduate Bret Hoch as Morningside’s all-time leader with 11 career triples, hit five more this season to take sole possession of the school record with 16 career triples. Staiert’s five triples this season was the fifth highest single-season total in Morningside history.

Click here to read more.

Morningside head baseball coach Brian Drent has announced the names of six high school recruits who will join the Mustangs next season.

Click here to read more.

Morningside College’s Jeff Gacke and Cole Halgerson have been named to the 2013 All-Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Baseball First Team as selected by the league’s head coaches.

Gacke, a senior pitcher from Rock Rapids, Iowa, was the top winner on the Mustangs’ pitching staff with a 5-5 record. He compiled a 3.41 earned run average in 12 appearances, including 11 starts. Gacke threw two complete games and was part of three combined shutouts. He allowed 57 hits in 58 innings. Gacke led the Mustangs’ pitchers with 45 strikeouts and was one of the top control pitchers in the nation with only nine walks.

Halgerson, an outfielder from Sioux Falls, S.D., was the Mustangs’ team batting champion as a freshman.

Click here to read more.

Keaton Rowe, a junior outfielder from Le Mars, Iowa, has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Baseball Player of the Week for March 18-24.

Rowe went five-for-eight with three doubles and five RBIs when the Mustangs split a non-conference doubleheader with Graceland University. Morningside was limited to three hits in a 5-2 loss in the opener and Rowe had two of them with a double and single. He went three-for-four with two doubles and four RBIs to lead the Mustangs to a 9-1 victory in the nightcap.

Rowe has six multiple hit performances in his last 10 games and is the Mustangs’ leading hitter with a .391 batting average.

Morningside is picked second in the GPAC Baseball Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll.

The Mustangs received three of the 11 first place votes and 90 points to finish six points behind defending league champion Doane in the pre-season poll.

Morningside posted a 37-21 record and finished second in the GPAC standings with a 13-7 league mark during the 2012 campaign in its first season under head coach Brian Drent. The Mustangs achieved their fourth 30-win season in the last five years.

The Mustangs will open the 2013 season with a doubleheader against Judson College on Friday, Feb. 8, in the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

Click here for the complete GPAC Baseball Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll results.

Morningside College head baseball coach Brian Drent has announced the names of three transfers who enrolled at Morningside over the semester break and will compete for the Mustangs during the upcoming 2013 season.

The transfers are Ross Ackerman from NCAA Division II Northern State University, Brett DeJong from Garden City Community College, and Chris Eckstaine from Iowa Western Community College.