WAVERLY, Iowa-- No.19/21 Wartburg (24-8 overall, 17-3 IIAC) hosts Loras (12-18, 6-14) in a weekend series Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. The Knights received the No. 19 ranking in this week's ABCA Top 30 poll and No. 21 in the d3baseball.com Top 25 poll.

The new Knief Athletic Pavillion will be dedicated prior to the second game Sunday.

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The Series
Wartburg holds the all-time series lead at 62-35 and won three of the four contests last season in Dubuque.

Wartburg
The Knights enter the weekend on a five-game winning streak. Sophomore Clay Henning (Plymouth, Wis.) leads the team with a .389 batting average. Senior Tanner Johnson (Oak Creek, Wis.), sophomore Zach Hovick (Roland), senior Milton Croes (Noord, Aruba) and sophomore Blake Mahoney (Des Moines) join him above .300 at .367, .362, .330 and .322, respectively. Mahoney has a team-best 12 doubles and Hovick has a team-high 24 RBIs.

Sophomore Tanner Eckhart (Monticello, Minn.) leads the starting pitching staff with a 1.43 ERA and is 3-0 in 50.1 innings pitched

Loras
Tony Heiser paces his team with a .361 average while Thomas Johnson follows at .354, Lucas Jacque at .344 and Ryan Koester at .303. Koester leads the team with 25 RBIs. Alex Steines leads the pitchers with a 4.58 ERA and is 4-3 on the mound.

National Stat Rankings
Wartburg ranks in the top 100 of nine national stat rankings, the NCAA released today. The Knights are second in ERA (2.54) and strikeout to walk ratio (3.38), third in walks allowed/nine innings (2.19), 11th in hits allowed/nine innings (7.91), 22nd in win-loss percentage (.750), 66th in stolen bases/game (1.81), 68th in fielding percentage (.961), 73rd in stolen bases (58) and 98th in home runs (16).

Individually, Eckhart is 23rd in ERA (1.43) and senior Parker Bolt is 83rd in ERA (2.08)

Thumann is 24th in home runs (8) and 32nd in homeruns/game (.25)

Mahoney is 34th in stolen bases (20) and 37th in stolen bases/game (.63).