MINNETONKA, Minn. – It was a historic day at Veterans Field as Gus Varland threw the first recorded no-hitter in program history for the Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (7-7) in a 6-1 game one win before Southwest Minnesota State (6-6) took game two 2-0 to complete the split on Saturday.
 
Varland (3-1) was dominant from start to finish as he also fell just two strikeouts shy of the program record, striking out 14 of the 24 hitters he faced, in addition to collecting the no-hitter. Only Jake Schmidt's 16 strikeouts against Minnesota Crookston on April 18, 2009 were more. Of the three baserunners that reached, two reached via the walk and the other reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout. The sophomore flirted with perfection by retiring the first 15 he faced before a leadoff walk to start the sixth ended the streak.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 6, Southwest Minnesota State 1
While Varland stole the show in game one, the offense came to life as well by busting out with 11 hits and six runs to help the team to a comfortable win.
 
The Golden Bears picked up a run in the second and five more in the fourth before the Mustangs collected a consolation run in the sixth to bring it to the final score of 6-1.
 
Tanner Holmquist collected three hits in three trips to the plate and scored twice while Patrick Bordewick contributed a pair of run-scoring singles to drive in three. Carter Schmidt also added two hits and an RBI in the win.
 
Varland set the tone in the top of the first by striking out the side in an efficient manner. He came back with another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second while adding another strikeout.
 
In the bottom of the inning, Holmquist got a rally started with a leadoff single to right before Roch Whittaker laid down a solid bunt to move him into scoring position. After a groundout moved him up to third, Bordewick laced the first of his two RBI hits through the hole into left field to make it 1-0.
 
Varland went right back to work from there as he struck out eight of the next nine hitters (12 of the first 15 overall) to keep the perfect game going.
 
He received some breathing room in the CSP half of the fourth as five singles and a Mustang error led to five runs for Concordia. Holmquist once again led off the inning with a solid single before Whittaker put down another solid bunt, this time for a hit, to put two on with nobody out. A second consecutive bunt down the third baseline led to an errant throw to load the bases before Bordewick promptly drove in two more with another hit. After two quick outs, Isaac Hormann and Carter Schmidt each came through with two-out run-scoring singles before Hormann eventually came across on a balk to make it 6-0.
 
With the perfect game still intact heading to the sixth, Cole VanderBeek coaxed a tough walk as he held back on close 3-2 pitch to draw a walk and give SMSU their first baserunner. VanderBeek moved up to second on a wild pitch and over to third on a grounder to short for the first out, but remained there after Varland fielded his position for the second out. He nearly held onto the shutout, but a wild pitch on a strikeout of Jayden Fleck allowed Fleck to reach base and allowed VanderBeek to score. After a walk of Tanner Strommen, Varland shut the door with another strikeout, his 14^th of the day, to end the inning.
 
Varland left out any dramatics in the seventh as he crafted a workmanlike 1-2-3 inning with a fly out and a pair of groundouts before being swarmed by his teammates in celebration.
 
GAME TWO: Southwest Minnesota State 2, Concordia-St. Paul 0
Concordia received another solid pitching performance but were unable to replicate the game one success at the dish in game two.
 
Kevin Woebke (1-3) went the distance as he struck out 10 batters and walked none in his 9.0 innings of work. He allowed just two runs on eight hits in the tough luck loss.
 
Cole Petersen (3-0) worked the first 7.1 innings of the shutout win before Shawn Williams and Jared Tschetter set up Alex Jorgensen for his third save of the season. Petersen allowed five hits and struck out five in an efficient outing for the Mustangs.
 
Carter Schmidt made it back-to-back multi-hit games as he went 2-4 and Roch Whittaker added a pair of hits as well.
 
Woebke picked up right where Varland left off by retiring the first 12 hitters he faced, including five via the strikeout, to extend the hitless streak to 11 innings.
 
CSP threatened in the bottom of the fourth with a one-out single off the bat of Carter Schmidt before he moved up on a wild pitch, but they were unable to drive him in as the game remained scoreless.
 
The Mustangs broke the deadlock in the fifth as Derek Branson led off the inning with a triple before Brian Redemske brought him in with a single. They nearly added a second on a two-out infield single with Redemske trying to score from second, but Suits made a strong throw to the plate to tag him out to end the inning.
 
The scored held there until the top of the seventh when Redemske looped a double to center with nobody out and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Shane Sellner followed with a sacrifice fly to double the lead to 2-0.
 
Concordia put up their best rally in the eighth as Steven Nessler and Connor Olson picked up back-to-back singles and Isaac Hormann added a walk to load the bases with one out. With the go-ahead run on base Schmidt made a bid for his third hit of the day with a hard hit ball up the middle but second baseman Cole VanderBeek stepped on the bag and threw to first to end the inning with a double play.
 
Whittaker singled with one out in the ninth to allow the tying run to come to the plate, but that would be all as Jorgensen closed out the 2-0 win to finish off the split.
 
Concordia and Southwest Minnesota State will continue the series tomorrow with another doubleheader at Veterans Field in Minnetonka at 10 a.m.