WINONA, Minn. - On the hottest day of 2016 with temperatures reaching the low 90s, senior shortstop Eric Fasnacht's bat proved to be even hotter as he hit for the cycle to lead Concordia-St. Paul (25-13, 18-11 NSIC) to a pair of victories, 15-9 and 15-4 over host Winona State (17-28-1, 14-18-1 NSIC) at Loughrey Field.

The sweep assures Concordia of at least the sixth seed in the NSIC Tournament while the squad trails fifth place Minnesota Crookston (18-9) by a game. Concordia would need to sweep Winona State tomorrow combined with a Northern State sweep of UMC to pass the Golden Eagles. Concordia can still play any combination of Augustana (25-7), St. Cloud State (21-7) or Minnesota State (22-9) depending on tomorrow's results in the first round next Wednesday, May 11 in St. Cloud.

Concordia smashed 19 extra base hits on the day while mashing an .880 team slugging percentage with 37 hits and a .493 average.

Concordia's pitchers held Winona State to .233 hitting as the Warriors averaged less than a hit per inning (14) while Golden Bears averaged crossing the plate twice per inning on the 15-inning day with game two shortened to an 8-inning affair due to the league's game two 10-run rule.

The day had added significance for Fasnacht and his fellow senior teammates who were honored alongside Winona State's baseball seniors with an on-field graduation ceremony as each team had to miss its university's commencement ceremony in lieu of the scheduled NSIC doubleheader. The Golden Bears officially have 10 seniors and a fourth year sophomore.

Fasnacht had the cycle wrapped up in the fifth inning after the minimum four trips to the plate in the first game. He doubled and scored in a four run first inning, singled in two runs in a two-run second inning, hit a two-run home run two at bats after sophomore Andrew Shotwell hit a three-run homer as part of a six-run third inning and raced for a triple and scored the lone run in the fifth inning.

Already 4-4 with the cycle, four RBI and three runs scored, Fasnacht and the Golden Bears led Winona State 13-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth en route to the first game win.

In game two, Fasnacht kept slugging with a double down the left field line to follow sophomore Connor Olson's 13th homer of the season in the third inning before hitting a three-run homer in the seventh and an RBI single in the eighth.

He finished the afternoon 7-10 at the plate, scoring six runs, driving in eight with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and a walk. He had an OPS of 2.427 in 11 trips to the plate, accounting for 12 of the team's 30 runs single handedly.

Fasnacht entered the day hitting .302/.366/.473 with eight doubles, a triple and four homers. He left the day hitting .331/.392/.561 with 10 doubles, two triples and six homers. He's now up to 33 runs and 28 RBI in 36 games on the season as well.

Other big doubleheader performances at the plate came from freshman Carter Schmidt (5-9, 4 R, 2 2B, 1 3B, 4 RB), Shotwell (5-9, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI) and Olson (3-6, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 HBP, .636 OBP).

All eight players who started both games had at least three hits and hit at least .375, scored and drove in a run.

Senior left hander Zach Rengel picked up the win in game one, improving to 3-3 on the year and 14-13 in 34 career starts. Rengel worked 4.1 innings and struck out four and his start was highlighted by a stretch from the first through third inning as he retired seven in a row including a pair of strikeouts.

He was relieved by freshman Gus Varland who worked 1.2 innings in relief, striking out three with the only damage against him a two-run homer.

In game two, senior lefty Kody Knaus started and pitched the first three innings, allowing an unearned run on one hit with three strikeouts and no walks before being removed potentially to preserve his workload. He did not factor into the decision as the game was tied at 1-1.

In the fifth inning of game two, Fasnacht and Schmidt started the inning with back-to-back walks, moved to second and third on a sacrifice by Ben Suits and each scored on a two-run single by Tanner Holmquist who was 3-5 with three doubles in the first game.

Senior Ryan Poppitz followed with an RBI double and scored on Adam Hildebrandt's RBI single through the right side in a 5-run inning for a 6-1 lead to blow the game open. All three of Poppitz's hits were doubles in the twin bill as he scored four times and drove in a pair.

That allowed redshirt freshman Keanu Mendez to cruise for the relief win. He promptly struck out three in his first inning of work in the fourth and went on to work 4.2 innings, striking out six while allowing three runs (two earned) to improve to 5-1 in his eighth appearance (third relief). He's struck out 30 in 31.2 innings while holding opponents to a .235 average in his rookie season while maintaining a 3.69 ERA.

Senior right hander Tyler Schmitz finished each game, working 1.1 scoreless innings with a strikeout while retiring all four batters he faced.