TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State Baseball goes on the road to battle Central Oklahoma on Tuesday before hosting Newman later in the week in continued MIAA play.

The RiverHawks will aim to bounce back after three defeats last weekend to Fort Hays State. 

The Setup
- Northeastern State baseball is guided by head coach Sunny Golloway. Golloway was hired last summer after spending a season in the same position at East Central. He brings decades of experience at the Division I level to Tahlequah, also leading teams at Oral Roberts (1996-2003), Oklahoma (2005-13) and Auburn (2014-15). Golloway-led teams have appeared in 15 NCAA Regionals and four Super Regionals, while he led the Sooners to an appearance in the 2010 College World Series.
- NSU enters the season two removed from one of their best in program history, where the RiverHawks won 38 games and made the Central Regional in 2022. The RiverHawks were only a couple wins shy of returning last season, as one of the last three teams remaining in the MIAA tournament as part of a 25-win effort in 2023.
- The team's series continues their 33-game MIAA schedule. 

Around the Diamond
- Matt Kaiser provided a powerful presence at the plate last weekend, slamming two home runs against the Tigers across three games to bring his total to four on the season, a mark that is tied for the team best.
- C.D. White had a productive start for the NSU pitching staff last weekend, going seven innings and striking out four batters and limiting the earned run total against him to just three. 
- C.J. Briley struck out five across five innings of work in last Saturday's start against the Tigers, his third start of at least five strikeouts in his last four, and his fourth performance of the season of 5 Ks or more. 
- The ninth inning proved to be difficult for NSU in the FHSU series, as they went down in walk-off fashion in both games of Saturday's doubleheader. 
- The RiverHawks fell victim to the strikeout often last weekend, going down on strikes 13 times in the opener and 16 in the finale, the two highest single-game marks on the season.

Northeastern State at Central Oklahoma (Mar. 12 at 5 p.m.) // Live Coverage

About Central Oklahoma (18-5, 5-4 MIAA)
- Central Oklahoma enters after a three-game sweep of Newman last week. It was their first series win of MIAA action after taking two losses to Central Missouri and Missouri Western prior to their trio of wins over the Jets. 
- John Martin is in his ninth season leading baseball at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he's won over 250 games, highlighted by five seasons of 30+ victories and the program's first MIAA Championship in 2018. Martin previously held the same role at Coffeyville Community College (2012-15) and has previous playing and assistant coaching experience with Emporia State, where his efforts across his collegiate playing career led him to being a 24th-round selection by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2006. 
- Carson Carpenter leads the UCO offense with seven home runs, while his .311 average ranks second behind Wyatt Gray (.333). Carpenter was stellar in the previous series against Newman, claiming six base hits, including four alongside six RBI in the opener against the Jets. 
- The Bronchos possess the lowest batting average in the MIAA (.255) and are tied for last in scoring (112 runs), but possess the MIAA's lowest ERA (4.21) and fewest runs allowed (81), in addition to the second-lowest opposing batting average (.246). 

Series Notes
- Central Oklahoma leads the all-time series 70-26. 
- The Bronchos won all three 2023 encounters, though each game was decided by four runs or less. 
- After two initial contests in 1951 and 1952, the teams did not meet until 1997, though they've faced each other on an annual basis since. 
 

Northeastern State vs. Newman (Mar. 15-16 at 3 p.m., Mar. 17 at 1 p.m.) // Live Coverage

About Newman (4-20, 0-9 MIAA) 
- The Jets are the lone team in the conference without an MIAA win entering the week, as they were most recently swept by Central Oklahoma last week in Wichita. 
- Newman hosts Fort Hays State on Tuesday before traveling to the NSU campus on Friday. 
- Drew Maus is in his fifth year as the NU head baseball coach. The efforts of his 2023 team landed them in their first MIAA tournament appearance and their first postseason berth since 2014. His previous experience includes two separate stints as an assistant at Henderson State University (2010-13 and 2015-19) and two seasons in the same role at Arkansas-Little Rock (2014-15). 
- The Jets rank in the top half of the MIAA in batting average (.294) and runs scored (155), though the pitching staff's struggles have been immense with the highest ERA in the conference (10.83), in addition to allowing the most walks (174). 

Series Notes
- NSU leads the all-time series 9-5. 
- In 2023, the RiverHawks were victorious in two of three, highlighted by a 22-5 win in the series finale.
- Consecutive wins to start the series would mark the first three game winning streak of the all-time series. 

Coming Up
Northeastern State travels to square off with Emporia State from Mar. 22-24.