Baseball | 3.31.17

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (12-10, 6-4 NSIC) will have a quick turnaround after Thursday's doubleheader sweep of Bemidji State as they travel north to take on Minnesota Crookston (11-11, 5-5 NSIC) in a four-game series this weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday at Jim Karn Field.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears opened up their 12-game road trip with a sweep of Bemidji State on Thursday, taking game one 6-3 and game two 13-2 in eight innings.
 
CSP moved back above .500 in conference play as they held an edge in nearly every statistical category. The Golden Bears slashed .348/.436/.500 as a team compared to .154/.258/.173 for the Beavers. On the mound, Concordia held an edge of 3.00 to 9.00 in ERA and 17 to 5 in strikeouts as well. CSP also committed just one error while the Beavers had five.
 
Concordia received production from several places in the lineup, but Isaac Hormann, Roch Whittaker and Tanner Holmquist led the way with at least four hits apiece. Hormann slashed an impressive .714/.778/1.286 as he was retired just twice in nine trips to the plate. He also drove in four and scored three, including falling a triple shy of the cycle in game two. Whittaker picked up four hits in six trips (.667 average) to go along with a pair of walks as he picked up two hits and drove in two runs in each game. Holmquist registered five hits in nine at-bats, including his first homer of the year, while scoring three and driving in two to go along with a steal.
 
SERIES HISTORY
CSP will look to continue their dominance of UMC in the all-time series as they have gone 38-6 in 44 previous meetings. The Golden Bears have been especially dominant in recent years with 35 wins in a row against the Golden Eagles dating back to the 2003 season. In 14 contests in Crookston, Concordia has gone 12-2. The two schools had a four-game series scheduled to be played in Crookston last season, but they were unable to get any of the four games in due to weather.
 
LAST MEETING
The Golden Bears claimed a four-game sweep over Minnesota Crookston to open NSIC play in the 2015 season.
 
The second day of the weekend series was played in mid-30 degree temperatures with an overcast sky that was ready to dump anywhere from three to six inches of snow. For most of the day, the snow held off until the second game's final few innings, with no accumulation. Within an hour of the conclusion of the series, the field was coated in a thick blanket of snow as the teams played all 32 innings in the series just before the sky opened.
 
Starting pitching was a highlight as left handed game one starter Kevin Woebke provided the Golden Bears with their first complete game as he shutout the Golden Eagles. Left handed starter Kody Knaus added a fifth straight quality start in game two, allowing a run over six innings.
 
Shortstop Eric Fasnacht stayed hot at the plate, coming a few inches short of a cycle in the first game, delivering a single, double and triple in his first three at bats before being potentially robbed of the home run to end Concordia's sixth inning on a fly out to center. Kyle Dalton went 3-6 and extended his hitting streak to 14.