FOLLOW LIVE ON SUNDAY:  LIVE STATS  ||  WATCH LIVE

MINOT, N.D. - Concordia-St. Paul (16-8, 8-6 NSIC) picked up a sweep of Minot State (9-14, 3-7 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at Corbett Field with a pair of 5-2 victories in Northern Sun play.

This weekend's four game series marks the first meetings between the two baseball programs, as Concordia picked up the wins with identical scores with the first game a scheduled seven inning contest followed by the nine inning second game. The series concludes tomorrow with a doubleheader at noon at Corbett Field.

Junior Kyle Dalton and sophomore Eric Fasnacht each stayed hot at the plate with three hits each in the doubleheader. Dalton went 3-9 and is hitting .441 while Fasnacht went 3-6 and is hitting .418. Sophomore Ryan Poppitz drove in a run in each game while going 4-7 and leads the team with 25 RBI on the year. Like Poppitz, senior Brooks Beilke also had a pair of 2-hit games and went 4-9 in the doubleheader.

GAME 1: Concordia 5, Minot State 2
Senior right handed pitcher Adam Kramer improved to 4-2 in his sixth start of the year while lowering his season ERA to 2.72 with 5.1 innings allowing no earned runs. He did allow two unearned runs on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts before leaving with one out in the sixth inning following a comebacker after just 81 pitches.

Freshman left handed pitcher Josh Lenz finished the inning, retiring two batters on five pitches before senior Colton Petron converted the 1-2-3 save on 11 pitches for his second save of the season.

The pitching trio combined for a four hit, two walk performance.

Despite the victory, Concordia had to come from behind after Minot State scored twice in the third inning. With one out, the Beavers had an infield single to third and a walk. Following a sacrifice bunt, the Beavers scored two runs on an error to do their only damage of the game off Kramer.

Concordia rallied for a run in the fourth with a two out sacrifice fly by senior Elliot Powell, who drove in two runs in the game despite going 0-2 as he would draw a hit by pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth inning as well.

In the fifth, the Golden Bears opened up with a four run inning with four straight hits to start the frame to chase Minot's starter (Larsen) from the game. The bullpen (Grothe) let in the two inherited runners as Larsen took the loss, falling to 0-4 as he allowed four earned runs (five total) in 4.0 innings.

Concordia's second and third runs of the inning came off bases loaded hit by pitch as Grothe hit Fasnacht and Powell before sophomore Alex LaPorte drove in a run with a single to right.

That was all the support Kramer and the bullpen needed as the Beavers only put two runners on base the rest of the way, with both being retired on double plays.

Dalton, Poppitz and Beilke all went 2-4 in the first game and senior Drew Turk went 1-4 with his second double of the year.

GAME 2: Concordia 5, Minot State 2
Sophomore left handed starter Zach Rengel kept the rotation rolling as he went 6.0 strong innings in game two, allowing just one run on five hits with one walk. He struck out two and only need 90 pitches to improve to 4-1 while his ERA actually rose slightly from 1.20 to 1.25.

But it took all six innings for the Golden Bears to give Rengel the lead. Minot State scored its only run of the game in the first inning, getting a walk, stolen base, an error and a balk to manufacture the run. Concordia turned one of four double plays in the doubleheader to end the inning on a line out to Poppitz at third.

Concordia tied the game in the third inning by playing small ball. Powell led off with a bunt single with LaPorte sacrificing him over. Powell moved up to third on Dalton's ground out to second base and scored when Turk reached on an error.

Concordia left the bases full in the fourth and the game remained tied after five.

In the sixth, Fasnacht led off with a single up the middle, moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Doug Vanasek and scored on Tyler Krekling's RBI single. LaPorte added an RBI single as well to score Krekling to give Rengel a 3-1 lead.

Rengel was relieved by sophomore right hander Yuji Suzuki in the seventh inning. Suzuki struck out the side in his first inning of work to strand a two out double, induced a double play to work around a one out error in the eighth and recovered from a leadoff homer in the ninth to get the three inning save for his first save of the year.

Concordia added two insurance runs for Suzuki to work with in the eighth inning as Poppitz delivered an RBI double down the left field line and Beilke hit an RBI single to left.

Bernston took the loss for Minot State, falling to 1-3 despite a solid six inning, two earned run (three runs) performance on just 80 pitches.

Five Golden Bears had two-hit games in the second contest as Concordia put up 12 hits and drew four walks.