TUCSON, Ariz. – For the third time in two days, Concordia-St. Paul baseball (4-0) rallied from behind for victory in topping Southwest Minnesota State (0-6) 16-11 and 13-9 at Kino Sports Complex at the Tucson Invitational Games.
 
Concordia trailed 11-4 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of game one as the home team before scoring five in the fifth and seven in the sixth for the 16-11 win. In game two, the Golden Bears trailed 4-2 heading into the top of the fifth inning as the visiting team, going ahead with a four run fifth before scoring seven more in the sixth.
 
In the season opening doubleheader against Malone, the Golden Bears trailed 2-0 after four innings and 4-2 after five innings before scoring five in the top of the sixth and another in the top of the seventh for an 8-4 win.
 
Sophomore Connor Olson went 4-8 with three doubles, five runs and eight RBI in the doubleheader. Tanner Holmquist went 5-9 with his second home run, a double, five runs and three RBI. Both players are hitting .583 through four games. Alex LaPorte continues to be a tough out, going 4-7 with six runs, two RBI and a pair of walks and is off to a .615 start at the plate.
 
GAME 1: Concordia 16, SMSU 11
Despite falling into an 11-4 hole after four innings in the seven inning affair, the Golden Bear bats rallied for 15 in the fourth through sixth innings including 12 unanswered in the final two frames. The Golden Bears had cut into a 5-1 deficit with a three run fourth inning before SMSU scratched out six in the fifth.
 
Concordia came alive in the bottom of the inning with five runs to keep the game close at 11-9 and had a seven run outburst in the sixth to claim the 16-11 lead.
 
Right handed reliever Jake Kounkel stopped the SMSU offensive momentum, entering the game in the fifth inning and working 1.2 shutout innings. He allowed three hits but struck out four Mustangs among his five total outs, walking just one in a dominant effort. Senior Yuji Suzuki shut the door in the seventh in the non-save situation, allowing just a hit in a shutout inning in which he needed just 10 pitches.
 
Continuing his strong start at the plate, Tanner Holmquist started the 12-straight run onslaught with a leadoff homer to left field in the fifth inning, his second in as many games. Sophomore Adam Hildebrandt had the big hit of the day, a bases loaded triple to plate three runs for a 13-11 lead in the sixth inning with no outs.
 
Connor Olson and Eric Fasnacht added RBI doubles and Holmquist finished off the Mustangs with an RBI single to end the 7-run inning.
 
Olson went 3-5 with a pair of doubles and five RBI from the leadoff spot and Andrew Shotwell followed him by going 3-5 with three RBI. Hildebrandt turned the lineup over from the ninth spot to hit 2-4 with three runs and three RBI as the three hitters combined to go 8-14 with five runs and 11 RBI in consecutive spots in the lineup (9-1-2).
 
GAME 2: Concordia 13, SMSU 9
The Golden Bears scored first courtesy a two-out error by the Mustangs in the second inning while freshman starting pitcher Gus Varland retired the first seven batters he faced including a pair of strikeouts.
 
The Mustangs put up three runs in third sparked by a one-out triple to claim the game's first multiple-run advantage.
 
A two-out RBI double by Carter Schmidt brought the Golden Bears within a run before the Mustangs added another in the bottom of the fourth for a 4-2 lead.
 
That's when Concordia's late inning magic came through as Tanner Holmquist and Alex LaPorte delivered back-to-back two-out RBI singles to tie the game and Isaac Hormann added another RBI base hit to close out a 4-run inning and a 6-4 lead.
 
Although the Mustangs got one back in the bottom of the inning, Concordia exploded for seven runs in the top of the sixth inning starting with a bases loaded walk by LaPorte followed by Ben Suits' two-run single. Connor Olson put the exclamation point on the contest with a two run double and a 13-5 lead.
 
Varland earned the win in a solid debut, working six complete innings with a six-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio although the Mustangs did manage to score six runs on 10 hits.