SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Concordia-St. Paul (21-22) dropped its NSIC / US Bank Tournament First Round game 5-3 at host Augustana (35-15) on Wednesday afternoon at Karras Park Home of Ronken Field. The Golden Bears will play seventh seed Winona State (21-29) at 7 p.m. at Karras Park in an elimination game.
The Vikings have now won 13-straight games while Concordia's four game winning streak came to a close.
Starting pitchers
Zach Rengel for Concordia and Colton Fast for Augustana dueled in the early innings as the game was scoreless after three frames.
Concordia scored first in the top of the fourth inning, with junior
David Henke delivering a two-out RBI single to center field to score
Andrew Shotwell.
The Golden Bears put a runner on base every inning against Fast, stranding
Kyle Dalton on second base after he singled up the middle and stole second and leaving runners on first and second base in the fourth inning.
But the Vikings put up the big inning in the fourth to counter Concordia's 1-0 lead.
Augustana started the inning with a double, RBI single and home run to claim a 3-1 advantage. Rengel picked up a pair of big strikeouts around a walk, but a pair of two out RBI hits gave the Vikings a 5-run lead. Rengel bounced back, striking out his third Augie hitter to end the inning.
It was the only damage against Concordia's pitchers all day, as Rengel worked a scoreless fifth to complete his afternoon. He allowed five runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and would fall to 3-4 on the year.
Concordia chipped away at the Augustana lead when junior shortstop
Eric Fasnacht led off the sixth inning against Fast with a home run to the opposite field in right, his eighth of the year.
Fast would finish the sixth and pick up the win, improving to 6-1 with his second win against Concordia. He allowed six hits and a walk with six strikeouts.
Concordia turned to junior right hander
Tyler Brekke in the sixth inning and he retired all nine Vikings he faced on 27 pitches with three strikeouts to keep the game close.
The Golden Bears weren't able to muster a threat against Augie reliever Dalton Allen, who pitched two scoreless innings of relief with a pair of strikeouts and a walk.
The Vikings turned to Collin Lovell in the ninth and Concordia put a pair of runners on against him with a one out walk to Henke and a single to center by
Tyler Krekling. The Vikings went to Zach Reeg with two on and one out and he issued a four pitch walk to Dalton to load the bases.
Joe Muench came on to pinch hit, grounding out to third to score Henke, but moved up the tying run to second base with two outs. But the Golden Bears were called out on strikes on a full count offering on the outside corner to end the contest as Reeg picked up his first save.
Dalton went 2-4 for the Golden Bears while Henke was 1-3 with a walk, RBI and a run.
Alex Fink led the Vikings by going 1-3 with a two run homer, his 13th of the year and seventh of the last five game
