ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 2016 Golden Bear baseball season narrative continued on a cold afternoon at Barnes Field as Concordia-St. Paul (15-3, 8-1 NSIC) used a 7-run fifth inning in a 9-4 comeback win over Wayne State (4-18, 1-6 NSIC) in game one of a conference doubleheader. Following the game one win, the second game was cancelled due to cold weather conditions.

The win provides the club its third consecutive win on the year and third consecutive win over the Wildcats in the all-time series. It was Concordia's ninth come from behind victory of the 2016 season as the Golden Bears trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning. Concordia opens a 10-game road trip, heading to Minnesota Crookston for a four game weekend series on Saturday and Sunday having won 35 in a row against the Golden Eagles including a 12-2 all-time road record in Crookston. Today's game closes out the 10-game homestand with an 8-1 record following the second game cancellation.

The seven run fifth inning was started by five straight hits, a walk and another hit as the team put across four runs before an out was recorded. After a pair of strikeouts by WSC's third pitcher of the inning, sophomore Adam Hildebrandt placed the exclamation point on the contest by going with a pitch and lifting a two-run single the other way into left. Sophomore Connor Olson followed with an RBI single as well for the seventh run of the inning.

The ninth batter, Hildebrandt opened the inning with a single to turn the lineup back to the top for Olson. Both players went 2-2 in the big inning. Olson went 2-4 in the game and is now hitting .409 with nine doubles and a .818 slugging percentage with a team leading 22 RBI. Hildebrandt went 2-3 with two RBI and is hitting .400 in 15 at bats, scoring five and driving in six as part of an outfield platoon.

After an RBI double by Eric Fasnacht to start the fifth inning scoring, Tanner Homquist delivered the tying run (4-4) on an RBI single while Ben Suits drove in the go-ahead run with a single.

The double was Fasnacht's sixth of the year while Suits would go 2-4 in the game, including a first pitch home run the opposite way inside the right field foul pole for his fifth of the year. He's hitting .368 and slugging .719 in his debut season.

Alex LaPorte also had a strong showing at the plate, going 2-2 with a walk, two runs and an RBI in his three plate appearances. He's now the team's second leading hitter on the year at .370 with a .443 on base percentage.

Olson, Suits, Fasnacht and LaPorte each have at least seven multi-hit games on the year led by Olson's eight while the other three have seven each followed by Holmquist with six. Olson has driven in multiple runs in a game seven times in 18 contests as well.

The Wildcats built the early advantage by scoring a pair of runs in the second inning, the second an unearned run charged to starter Keanu Mendez. They added a two out run in the third inning as well for a 3-1 lead.

As a result of the weekend rotation producing an effective weekend against U-Mary, Mendez hadn't appeared in a game since March 25 when he produced 4.0 shutout relief innings with seven strikeouts to win his third game in as many appearances.

Making his second start of the year and his first start since Arizona, Mendez worked 4.0 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on just four hits (three singles). He did not factor into the decision.

Junior left handed pitcher Josh Lenz relieved him in the fifth inning, allowing a run on two hits with four strikeouts to just one walk over the final three innings to improve to 3-0 on the year.

As a duo, Mendez and Lenz held WSC to six hits (five singles and a double) in the seven inning game with six strikeouts. Mendez (1.80) and Lenz (1.93) are a combined 6-0 with two saves for the Golden Bears with five of the wins coming in relief. They've accounted for 29.0 innings of which 21.0 have been from key bullpen outs.

Teague McFadden took the tough loss for Wayne State despite leaving the game with a 4-3 lead. He left with two runners on and no outs in the fifth inning with both inherited runners scoring. He finished 4.0 innings, allowing five runs on six hits with three walks to fall to 0-2.

Nick McIntee led WSC's offense by going 2-3 with his first double and two RBI  after entering play 0-14 on the year. Nate Ackerman was 1-4 with his 10th stolen base in 11 tries and Albert Johnson was 2-3. Johnson, Ackerman and McIntee hit in the 5-7 spots in the lineup, combining to go 5-10 with three runs and three RBI. The rest of the Wildcats went 1-19 on the day as WSC left 10 runners on base compared to Concordia's five.