SUPERIOR, Wis. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (18-17, 12-11 NSIC) came up on the short end of a pitching duel as they fell 1-0 in a nine-inning contest to Minnesota Duluth (17-18, 12-11 NSIC) on Wednesday afternoon.
The two teams were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader at Bulldog Park on the campus of Minnesota Duluth before field conditions necessitated a switch to a single nine-inning game to be played at Superior High School.
While the two teams made the trip across the border into Wisconsin, it appeared the bats stayed behind as the contest featured just the lone run with a combined six hits. Both pitching staffs were tremendous as they combined to strike out 18 total batters while allowing just one extra base hit.
Josh Lenz (2-4) was the recipient of another tough luck loss as he lowered his ERA to 2.05 with 7.0 solid innings of work. The senior left-hander limited the Bulldogs to just one run on three hits while walking a pair and striking out six.
Jake Kounkel worked out of trouble in the eighth for his seventh consecutive scoreless outing to drop his ERA to an even more impressive 1.17. Kounkel chipped in a pair of strikeouts to give him 18 in 12.0 innings on the season.
Not to be outdone, Minnesota Duluth used three pitchers to blank the Golden Bears in the winning effort. Ryan Cunningham (4-2) was dominant in the start as he allowed just one hit while striking out nine in 7.0 innings before Colin Baumgard worked 1.1 shutout innings to set up Colton Sinning, who got the final two outs to pick up the save.
Ben Suits picked up the only hit against Cunningham while
Isaac Hormann walked and added the other hit with an infield single in the ninth.
Mickey Leius also reached base twice as he drew two of the team's six walks on the day.
The two pitchers were lights out through the first six and a half innings as just one runner combined moved into scoring position during that span.
The lone real chance came in the bottom of the second as Marco Luccarelli drew a leadoff walk before Kyle Hoffman added a two-out single to put runners on the corners. Lenz stepped up and picked up a strikeout to work out of the jam.
Outside of the second, Lenz worked a 1-2-3 first before retiring 12 UMD hitters in a row after another leadoff walk in the third.
CSP put runners on base in the first, second, third, fifth and seventh innings but were unable to move the runner into scoring position in any of those frames as Cunningham did a solid job of scattering the baserunners. The lone hit during that stretch came in the form of a
Ben Suits single to lead off the second inning.
The Bulldogs broke through with the decisive run in their half of the seventh as the duo of Luccarelli and Hoffman once again provided the offense. Luccarelli led off the inning with an infield single and advanced on a bunt before Hoffman came through with a clutch two-out double down the right field line to bring in the go-ahead run. Lenz picked up a strikeout to end the inning, but the damage was done.
UMD threatened again in the eighth as they started off the inning with a single, a walk and a sacrifice bunt to greet Kounkel, but the senior right-hander picked up back-to-back strikeouts to strand both runners.
Concordia's best chance to score came in the ninth as Hormann beat out an infield single before being bunted into scoring position by
Tanner Holmquist. A pair of walks for
Carter Schmidt and
Mickey Leius sandwiched a strikeout to load the bases with CSP's leading home run hitter
Zach Elder at the plate. After swinging through the first pitch, Sinning coaxed a pop up to right field to end the game and preserve the shutout.
The Golden Bears return home for a big 10-game home stand to wrap up their home slate at Barnes Field before concluding the regular season on the road. CSP will host Augustana at 1:30 p.m. this Saturday and noon on Sunday.
