ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (3-3) picked up a pair of 2-0 victories late Monday night against Saint John's (0-2) at the Metrodome. Concordia won the first game 2-0 in 11 innings, before John Hayes (Lakeville, Minn.) and Nicho Roessler (St. Anthony, Minn.) combined on a one-hitter in game two for the Golden Bears.

Concordia's six pitchers spun 18 shutout innings in the two games while allowing just 13 hits. The defense was sterling behind them, turning two double plays in each game and playing error-free baseball.

Freshman shortstop Eric Fasnacht (Eden Prairie, Minn.) continued to shine early in his career, getting the game-winning hit in the first game, a line drive single to left field that scored a second run on a two base error by the left field. In the second game, he had what proved to be the game winning run, with a leadoff triple to start the game, scoring on a wild pitch in the first inning. He was also spectacular in the field, being part of three of Concordia's four double plays.

His middle infield mate, sophomore Kyle Dalton (Minnetonka, Minn.), was also solid defensively but even more impressive at the plate, going 5-7 in the two games.

GAME 1: Concordia 2, Saint John's 0
Fasnacht's single to left field scored, and senior Paul Giel scored from first base on the error to give the Golden Bears a 2-0 lead.

Prior to that, Concordia had been unable to send in the go-ahead run from third base in the first inning (bases loaded), third inning (1st & 3rd), ninth inning (1st & 3rd) and 10th inning (1st & 2nd). Concordia left 13 runners on base in the game including six in scoring position.

While the Golden Bears couldn't scratch across a run throughout the game, the Johnnies struggled even more. Saint John's went 1-17 with runners in scoring position and 3-20 with runners on base. They were 1-15 in RBI opportunities as they left 15 on base in the game.

Concordia's pitching and defense played a large role in that. The Golden Bears received 8.1 shutout innings from left handers Zach Rengel (Fergus Falls, Minn.) and Griff Kilber (Chanhassen, Minn.). Rengel started and went 4.0 innings, allowing five hits with five strikeouts to just one walk on 78 pitches. Kilber relieved him and went 4.1 innings, scattering three hits and two walks on 68 pitches and has yet to allow a run in 11.0 innings over three relief appearances on the season.

In the late innings, Concordia turned to junior right hander Colton Petron (New Ulm, Minn.) who delivered 1.2 scoreless innings and picked up the win to improve to 2-0 out of the bullpen. Sophomore right hander Nicho Roessler (St. Anthony, Minn.) saved the game, turning a 1-6-3 double play after issuing a leadoff walk.

Dalton went 3-5 at the plate from the bottom of the lineup.

The Johnnies had two players with three hits, third hitter Connor Cline (3-5) and sixth hitter Luke Larson (3-4) while second hitter Aaron Pfaff was 2-5.

GAME 2: Concordia 2, Saint John's 0
The story of game two was the one-hitter from junior right hander John Hayes (Lakeville, Minn.). The only hit he surrendered was a leadoff infield chopper to third base off the bat of Dylan Graves, just beating throw at first. Hayes was tremendous in picking up his first win as a Golden Bear in his first start. He struck out four and walked three while throwing 82 pitches to 21 batters faced.

Sophomore right hander Adam Fredericks (Minnetonka, Minn.) worked the seventh inning for his first save, entering after Hayes walked the leadoff batter. Fredericks only needed four pitches to two hitters, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

The Johnnies never put a runner on second base against Hayes or Fredericks. In the second through fifth innings, Hayes was at his best, retiring 11-straight three strikeouts.

After Fasnacht tripled and scored in the first inning, Concordia's bats went into the same mode as the Johnnies', going down 8-straight times from the second to fifth innings with a pair of singles by Dalton starting and stopping the drought.

In the seventh inning, senior centerfielder Greg Larpenter (Urbandale, Iowa) laced a two out triple to right center and scored on Giel's RBI infield single.

Concordia returns to the Metrodome tomorrow for a doubleheader against Southwest Minnesota State at 11:45 a.m.