SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Fresh off Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Week honors, Isaac Nett and the Southwest Minnesota State baseball team will look to keep on rolling forward when they take on Augustana today.

In last week’s four-game sweep of Bemidji State, Nett led the Mustangs to victory with a .588 batting average and 17 RBIs. On the second day of the doubleheader, Nett tied a school record with three home runs in the first game against the Beavers and then hit his fourth of the day in game 2.

With last week’s four wins, SMSU improves to 14-9 overall on the year and their 8-7 conference record puts them seventh in the NSIC. The sweep also marked their first four-game sweep of a league opponent since they did it to UMary in 2017.

The Mustangs will have a tall task ahead of them today, taking on third-place Augustana. The Vikings are 17-6 overall on the year and 10-4 in the NSIC. Prior to last week’s back-to-back losses to Minnesota Crookston, Augustana had won six of its last seven games.

Nett’s big weekend brought his OPS up to 1.252 on the season, good for fourth in the NSIC. His seven home runs also put him fifth in the conference.

Among the players ahead of Nett is Augustana’s Jack Hines, whose 10 dingers rank second in the conference. Hines’ 1.359 OPS is also a conference best while fellow Vikings Joe Kolbeck and Luke Ballweg are each also above the 1.000 mark.

Still, the trio comes into today’s matchup cold; in last week’s 9-8 and 9-5 losses to the Golden Eagles, the three combined for just three singles in 16 at-bats.

While Augustana has some talented bats, the Mustangs have had some of the best pitching in the conference so far. Kolby Kiser’s conference-best 1.63 ERA is over a full run lower than the next closest pitcher, Augustana’s Ashton Michek at 2.67. Kiser’s 42 strikeouts also tie him with teammate Ansen Dulas for fourth in the conference and his 8.4 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranks seventh in all of Division II.

In addition to Kiser, Carter Petron also ranks top 5 in the conference in ERA at 3.09. Petron threw four no-hit, scoreless innings in a game against Bemidji last week to pick up his third win of the season.

After today’s games, SMSU will return to Marshall to host Concordia-St. Paul for its four-game home-opener series at Legion Field on Saturday and Sunday.

Today’s game against Augustana will be played at Ronken Field with the first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m. Live stats and video are available online at SMSUmustangs.com