SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (26-12, 18-10 NSIC) wasted no time clinching an NSIC Tournament berth, winning game one 8-2 of a four game series at Sioux Falls (18-29, 12-22 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at Harmodon Park. In game two, Concordia's season-long seven game winning streak came to a close as the Cougars defeated Concordia 8-1 for a doubleheader spit.

The two teams conclude the regular season tomorrow with a doubleheader at noon. It will be the season finale for Sioux Falls, while Concordia will advance to the postseason.

Concordia had a magic number of one over either SMSU or Bemidji State entering the weekend, meaning a win or a loss by either team would secure the postseason bid. Now the Golden Bears will look to solidify a solid seed and finish the regular season strong against the Cougars with three more games.

The split puts Concordia in sixth place in the NSIC Standings, and only .002 percentage points behind Winona State (20-11) for fifth. The Golden Bears trail fourth place Northern State (21-11) by just .013 in the standings.

The Warriors completed their regular season today, while the Wolves play two more at SMSU tomorrow after splitting today.

Concordia needs to have a winning record tomorrow (either 1-0 or 2-0) to pass Winona State, and needs to finish with one more win than Northern State to move into fourth.

The Golden Bears will not finish worse than their current sixth place.

Junior Kyle Dalton went 3-4 in each game to raise his average to .463 on the year.

GAME 1: Concordia 8, Sioux Falls 2
Junior Kyle Dalton went 3-4 with two stolen bases, four runs scored and an RBI from the top of the lineup and senior Brooks Beilke went 3-4 with four RBI to pace Concordia's offensive attack.

The Golden Bears scored their eight runs on eight total hits, with six coming from the leadoff and cleanup hitters, but Concordia also drew seven walks.

Dalton increased his average to .455 with the 3-hit day while Beilke moves up to .385.

Dalton set the tone in the first inning, leading off with a single, moving to second on one of senior Drew Turk's two sacrifices in the game, took third on a wild pitch and scored on an error off the bat of Ryan Poppitz.

Dalton hit a one out single in the third, stole second and scored on Beilke's single up the middle to make it 2-0.

The Cougars responded by tying the game in the bottom of the inning with a pair of two out runs but senior right handed starter Adam Kramer ended the rally with a tie score at 2-2 after three innings.

In the fourth, Sioux Falls threatened to take the lead with runners on first and third with one out. The Cougars took second on a steal but were thrown out coming home and Kramer induced a fly out to end the inning.

From there, Kramer took charge by ending the game with 11 straight outs including the caught stealing at home. At one point in the fifth and sixth innings, Kramer struck out six straight Cougars.

Concordia gave Kramer the lead in the fifth inning when Dalton led off with a walk, stole second and scored on an RBI single to left by Beilke.

The Golden Bears blew the game open with a 5-run sixth inning to pad Kramer's lead highlighted by a two-run single to center by Beilke, scoring Dalton and Poppitz.

Kramer went the distance for the fourth time in eight starts as he improves to 6-2 with a 2.50 earned run average. He scattered five singles and a walk with eight strikeouts.

Eric Brothers took the loss for the Cougars, falling to 1-6 as he worked into the sixth inning, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings.

No USF hitter had a multi-hit game.

GAME 2: Sioux Falls 8, Concordia 1
In game two, Dalton once again started things off with a single to right field and advanced as far as third base but the Golden Bears left runners on first and third to end the inning.

Sioux Falls took its first lead of the series in the bottom of the inning with a pair of doubles, a hit by pitch and a walk to score twice off left handed starter Zach Rengel.

Junior Tyler Krekling led the second off with a single and moved to third, but once again Concordia left a runner 90 feet from home in the early innings. They'd leave Turk on second base in the third inning as well to strand runners in scoring position in the first three innings without scoring.

The Cougars kept up the pressure on Rengel, loading the bases with two outs in the second but leaving them loaded.

In the third, a leadoff walk would come back to hurt Rengel, as he allowed a single and sacrifice bunt before a wild pitch put the Golden Bears down 3-0 after three innings.

Rengel settled into a groove after that, retiring the last eight batters he'd face as he worked 5.0 innings. He allowed three runs on five hits while striking out three. He'd be the pitcher of record, falling to 5-3.

Stranding runners would continue to plague the Golden Bears, leaving a runner on second once again in the fifth inning before finally going down in order in the sixth for the first time in the game.

Sioux Falls added to the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning against Concordia's bullpen as Noah Coleman hit a three run home run, his first of the season, with two outs in the inning.

Concordia would get on the scoreboard in the seventh inning as Poppitz delivered an RBI single to left field with two outs to score Alex LaPorte.

Poppitz went 2-4 in the game.

Right handed reliever Jake Kounkel would finish the game for Concordia, working the last 2.1 innings on the mound. He allowed just one unearned run on one hit and struck out three.

Henry Ojeda picked up the win for the Cougars, improving to 7-5. He went 7.0 innings, allowing one run while scattering six singles with five strikeouts, lowering his season ERA to 2.64.

Connor Gibson struck out five Golden Bears in two shutout innings in relief for the Cougars.