SIOUX FALLS — By now you just come to expect it.
By late March and early April as basketball season winds down and the weather starts to warm up, the Augustana baseball team will be in contention for the NSIC title and Division II playoffs.
National champions in 2018 and NCAA tournament qualifiers five more times since then, the Vikings are right back where we’re used to seeing them in 2026.
Though they lost two of three to UMary over the weekend after the series was moved from Sioux Falls to Nebraska for weather reasons, Augustana is 24-8 overall and 17-3 in NSIC play, leading the conference and ranked 14th in the Division II poll. Of their eight losses, five are to teams ranked in the Top 10.
The Vikings lead the NSIC in team batting average, slugging percentage, extra-base hits, runs and stolen bases while posting the third-lowest ERA, and they’re doing it with several new faces.
Business as usual for veteran coach Tim Huber.
They haven’t won anything yet — the Vikings still have remaining series’ with second-place MSU-Mankato, fourth-place Minnesota Crookston and rival USF, among others, but Augie appears well on its way to another exciting spring.
The Augustana baseball team is ranked 14th in the nation in Division II and is in first place in the NSIC.
Augustana athletics
“Quite honestly there’s been a lot of ups and downs but I like where we’re at right now,” said Huber, who surpassed 650 wins at Augie earlier in this, his 17th season. “Early in the year I don’t know if we were playing great baseball. But we’ve gone on a nice little stretch, we’re leading the league — I’d say we’re in a pretty good place.”
The unseasonably warm weather allowed the Vikings to host a pair of conference series’ in early February, probably the first time ever they’ve opened the regular season at home. They went 8-0 in those games, then traveled west to face Colorado Mesa, where they got swept in four straight. The Mavericks were ranked 9th in Division II at the time and are now No. 2.
Huber said the Vikings could’ve or should’ve won at least two of the games against CMU, but walks, errors and mental mistakes cost them. That led Huber to make some adjustments, which he hinted may have involved some tough love, and the Vikings responded a week later with a four-game road sweep of 18th-ranked Drury. They’ve been rolling ever since.
The Vikings have relied on some familiar faces, with Carter Heinsch (.416, 7 homers), Kobe Eikmeier (.360, 5 homers), Ragan Pinnow (.361, 5 homers), Bjorn Lind (.378), Nate Soelter (.375) and Troy Berg (.339, 5 homers) all repeating or improving on their production from last year.
Carter McPeak, Brandon Weigel, Cole Goeser and Cal Schmelzle are either newcomers or guys stepping into larger roles this year who have produced at the plate. The Vikings have lately been starting four sophomores and a freshman.
Augustana left-hander Mariano Gomez has been the ace of the Vikings pitching staff this season.
Augustana athletics
Huber has long had success at Augustana by recruiting big, athletic sluggers and developing them into complete hitters, and as big names move on and new faces replace them, the pipeline continues year after year.
That happens because Huber is one of the country’s best teachers of hitting and he recruits good players, but also because he’s created a culture where players know if they earn an opportunity to play, they’re expected to produce at a high level. There’s some pressure to get the job done, because if you don’t there’s probably someone else on the team who will.
“I’ve always told our guys, if you’re on our roster and you’re traveling with us, that means you’re a pretty good player,” Huber said. “And when your time comes, whether it’s a pinch-hit at-bat or you happen to get a start because you’ve put some good days together at practice of whatever it is, then just trust that you’re good enough. It takes some guys longer than others to figure it out or for it to click, but whether they get a positive result or not we want them to have good approaches, and we’ve definitely seen several young guys develop pretty quick.”
Tim Huber led Augustana to the 2018 Division II national championship, and will take them to their fifth straight national tournament this weekend in Warrensburg, Mo.
Matt Zimmer/Forum News Service
Huber’s been less pleased with the pitching staff — while their team ERA is in the top three in the league it’s higher than they’re used to. Mariano Gomez (5-0, 4.13) and Ethan Hoffman (5-1, 3.63) have been solid but after that the Vikings have mixed and matched, using most of their arms as starters and relievers. A season-ending injury to would-be ace Ashton Michek hasn’t helped, but Huber is optimistic his arms will warm up with the weather.
He’ll need them to, because those big series’ against Mankato, Crookston and USF will likely decide the conference championship.
The Vikings will play a three-game weekend series against USF at the Birdcage (home games for the Cougars) April 24-26.
“We don’t have any cupcakes ahead of us,” Huber said. “We just need guys to keep stepping up when their opportunities show up.”
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.