Game 1: North Dakota State vs. Portland
Friday, Feb. 22 | 3 p.m. (Central ) | Edinburg, Texas (UTRGV Baseball Stadium)
Live Stats | Live Video

Game 2: North Dakota State at UT Rio Grande Valley
Saturday, Feb. 23 | 11 a.m. (Central) | Edinburg, Texas (UTRGV Baseball Stadium)
Live Stats | Live Video

Game 3: North Dakota State vs. Portland
Sunday, Feb. 24 | 11 a.m. (Central) | Edinburg, Texas (UTRGV Baseball Stadium)
Live Stats

Game 4: North Dakota State at UT Rio Grande Valley
Sunday, Feb. 24 | 3 p.m. (Central) | Edinburg, Texas (UTRGV Baseball Stadium)
Live Stats | Live Video

NDSU Game Notes (PDF) | NDSU Baseball on Twitter

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Scene Setter:
The North Dakota State (1-2, 0-0 Summit) baseball team is headed to warmer weather for the weekend for four games at the Al Ogletree Classic, hosted by UT Rio Grande Valley. The Bison will face Portland (3-1, 0-0 WCC) on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, while playing host UT Rio Grande Valley (2-2, 0-0 WAC) Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. 

Media Coverage:
Links for live video and stats for all three games can be found at GoBison.com. The WAC Digital Network will provide a live video feed of the two games with UT Rio Grande Valley, while Vested Sports is doing live video for the games against Portland.

Series History:
This will be the second trip to Edinburg, Texas for the Bison. In a 2007 trip, NDSU went 1-2 against Texas-Pan American, which is now known as UT Rio Grande Valley. The Bison are 1-1 all-time against Portland, facing the Pilots in a pair of games at the River City Classic in California in 2006.

Previewing 2019:
North Dakota State is scheduled to play 25-straight games on the road or neutral site to start the season. That schedule includes three Summit League road series, as well as a trip to Nebraska before opening Summit League play at Omaha. NDSU is also scheduled to make a pair of trips to the Twin Cities to face Minnesota. The Bison return a pair of players that started all 50 games last season in captains Jayse McLean and Bennett Hostetler. McLean earned All-Summit League Second Team honors last season while hitting .250 with a team-high seven home runs. Hostetler hit .225 with 11 extra base hits and 19 RBI. Tucker Rohde started 47 games last year and has the top returning batting average for NDSU at .269. He drove in 21 runs on 46 hits, with nine of those going for extra bases. Parker Harm (51.1 IP) and Mitch O'Connor (35.0 IP) return for the pitching staff with the most innings tossed last season. Harm struck out 55, while O'Connor added 30 punch outs last season. Zach Smith made three starts last season and finished with a 5.62 ERA and 3-0 record in seven appearances. He'll get the ball to start the season on the bump.

Scouting the Pilots: 
Portland opened the season with a four-game set last weekend in Hawai'i, taking three of the four games from the Rainbow Warriors. The Pilots won the first game 10-4 in 10 innings before splitting a doubleheader on the second day. Portland pitched a shutout (4-0) in the series finale. Cody Hawken leads the way offensively for the Pilots with six hits, while hitting .400 so far this year. Tracye Tammaro is hitting .357 with five hits, while Dutton Elskehas a team-high four doubles to go along with his .308 average. On the mound, Nate Packard is 1-0 in eight innings of work with a 1.12 ERA. Chris Clements gave up just one hit and struck out eight in six innings of work, picking up his first win of the season.

Scouting the Vaqueros:
UT Rio Grande Valley went 1-2 against 16th-ranked Oklahoma State on opening weekend before picking up a 6-0 win over Houston Baptist on Tuesday. In four games, Andy Atwood is hitting .368 with seven hits, including a double and home run. Christian Sepulveda and Conrado Diaz each have four hits for UT Rio Grande Valley. On the mound, Jerred Quartier is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in four innings of work. He struck out three, walked one and allowed just one hit in earning his first win of the year.  

Season Opener Streak:
The victory in the season opener at Sacramento State gave NDSU four-straight wins in season openers. Last year, NDSU beat Incarnate Word 8-2. The Bison beat Mississippi Valley State 10-4 in 2017 and Arkansas-Pine Bluff 2-0 in 2016.

Nine-Straight 20 Win Seasons:
North Dakota State has reached the 20-win mark nine straight seasons. The Bison have qualified for seven Summit League tournaments, winning the tournament championship in 2014 and reaching the championship game in four of the last seven seasons. This is NDSU's 12th season in The Summit League after three seasons as a Division I independent. 

Summit League Preseason Poll:
The Bison were picked to finish third in the Summit League Preseason Coaches Poll. Oral Roberts received all five of its possible first-place votes for 25 total points. South Dakota State received the final first-place vote and placed second with 21 points. North Dakota State followed in third (17 points) and Western Illinois was in fourth (12 points) while Omaha (9 points) and Fort Wayne (6 points) rounded out the poll. Jayse McLean and Parker Harm were named to the Summit League Players to Watch list.

McLean Voted to 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America Baseball Team:
Jayse McLean was voted to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I Baseball Team, as selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. It was McLean's inaugural selection to the team, as he was also named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District First Team earlier in the year. He was the first NDSU honoree since Tim Colwell in 2014 for the all-district team. McLean boasts a perfect 4.00 grade-point average majoring in mechanical engineering. 

The Coach:
Tod Brown is in his 12th season as the head coach for the Bison and has a 273-300 (.476) record at NDSU.  Brown previously was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for eight seasons at Bowling Green, where he was part of two division titles and a regular-season title in the Mid-American Conference.  Brown began his collegiate coaching career in 1999 as a volunteer assistant at Arizona.  He was a left-handed pitcher for the Wildcats under Hall of Fame coach Jerry Kindall and a member of the 1992 Pac-10 champs.

The Tod Brown File: 
2014 Summit League tournament champions
2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament Corvallis Regional qualifiers
Won school-record 40 games in 2012
Won school-record 19 Summit League games in 2017
Combined record of 87-76 (.534) over the last four seasons (2016-19)
54-21 (.720) record at home in the last four seasons
Four Summit League championship game appearances in the past seven seasons
Seven Summit League tournament appearances in the last eight years
25 All-Summit League honorees, including eight first team selections
21 players who have signed professional contracts
Coached three NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients: Wes Satzinger (2014), John Straka (2013) and Kole Zimmerman (2008)