CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (16-10, 10-4 NSIC) completed the four-game weekend sweep of Minnesota Crookston (11-15, 5-9 NSIC) to make it seven wins in a row overall. The Golden Bears pulled away for a 12-4 win in game three before picking up a 1-0 shutout win in game four.
 
Concordia continued their trend of success against UMC as their winning streak hit 39 against the Golden Eagles while their record moved to 42-6 in the all-time series overall.

In addition to being a successful weekend for the team, it was a historic weekend for head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie as he moved past 400 wins in his career in Saturday's game two win. His career record now sits at an impressive 402-302 in his 18 seasons at the helm.
 
It was a tale of two games in the doubleheader as the offense delivered 12 runs in the first game before the pitching staff delivered a shutout in the second game.
 
The shutout capped a weekend in which Concordia's pitchers finished with a 2.25 ERA as a team with 41 strikeouts in 32.0 innings. Three of their four starters threw at least 7.0 innings while allowing two earned runs or less.
 
Connor Olson led the way with nine hits over the weekend as he bumped his average up over .300 for the first time all year at .314. Zach Elder added a .385/.529/.846 slash line with two home runs and eight RBIs as he moved his season total to eight home runs.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 12, Minnesota Crookston 4
Concordia's offensive outburst from game two carried over into the third game of the series as they collected 15 hits en route to putting 12 runs on the board in the win. CSP took advantage of some small ball with 14 of their 15 hits being singles. The Golden Bears put up two in the first, two in the third, five in the fourth and three in the fifth as they scored early and often.
 
After a big day for the bottom of the order on Saturday, CSP's top four hitters all finished with multi-hit games. The group finished 10-18 (.556) with a pair of walks, four runs batted in and three runs scored.
 
Isaac Hormann and Tanner Holmquist each collected three hits while Connor Olson, Carter Schmidt and Mickey Leius each picked up two. Leius drove in four in the game while Zach Elder added his second homer in as many days as he pulled within one of the league lead with eight.
 
After Keanu Mendez worked the first three innings of the game, Ray Wellner came on in relief to pitch four effective innings to pick up his first career win. Wellner (1-0) allowed just one run on three hits while striking out three to hold the Golden Bear lead.
 
Gabriel Cavasos (1-4) was chased after 3.0 innings of work for UMC as he allowed six runs on 10 hits while walking four.
 
The Golden Bears wasted little time opening the scoring as Leius came through with a big two-out single in the top of the first to bring in Hormann and Roch Whittaker and give CSP a 2-0 lead.
 
Minnesota Crookston answered back with two of their own in the bottom of the inning an Ethan Mushitz drove a solo home run and Jame Cullinane crossed the plate on a passed ball.
 
Concordia jumped back in front in the third on two-out RBI singles from Olson and Hormann before UMC got one back in their half of the third on Cullinane fielder's choice to make it 4-3.
 
CSP broke it open from there with a big five-run inning in the fourth. Leius collected his second two-run single of the game before Adam Hildebrandt, Hormann and Holmquist all added run-scoring singles in the inning as well.
 
After a quick 1-2-3 inning from Wellner, CSP tacked on three more to their lead. Schmidt and Leius both drew walks sandwiched around a fielder's choice before Zach Elder delivered a three-run homer to push it to 12-3.
 
Wellner continued to blank the Golden Eagles until a Reed Hjelle leadoff triple in the seventh set up their fourth run. That would be all they would get in the inning as Wellner finished off the 12-4 win.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 1, Minnesota Crookston 0
While the offense hammered out 12 runs in the first game of the day, the CSP pitching staff only needed one in the series finale.
 
Josh Lenz (2-1) hurled eight shutout innings before Jake Kounkel finished off the five-hit shutout with a perfect ninth to grab his third save of the year. Lenz was dominant throughout the afternoon as he struck out 11 while scattering five hits to drop his ERA to 2.77 on the year. Kounkel's two strikeouts moved his total to 12 in 8.2 innings this season as he has now gone five straight outings without allowing a run.
 
Connor Olson gave the Golden Bears a bright spot at the plate as he collected four of the team's eight hits and only extra base hit with a double. Adam Hildebrandt also added two hits while Roch Whittaker and Zach Elder each had one.
 
The Golden Bears threatened in nearly every inning as they put runners on in every inning except the fourth and they put runners in scoring position in six of nine innings, but they were only able to manage one run.
 
After stranding runners in scoring position in the second, third and fifth innings CSP finally put a run on the board in the top of the sixth. Tanner Holmquist reached on an error to start the inning before Whittaker singled to left for a one-out single. After a Mickey Leius fielder's choice, Zach Elder kept the inning alive with a walk to bring up Ben Suits. Suits proceeded to get hit by a pitch to bring home Holmquist before a fly out ended the inning.
 
That would be enough for Lenz as he cruised his way into the eighth before working out of a jam in his final inning of work. In each of the first seven innings, the senior left-hander did not face more than four hitters in an inning as he barely ran into trouble. The only two times a runner moved into scoring position before the eighth came in the second on a leadoff single followed by a bunt as well as a leadoff double followed by a bunt in the fifth, but Lenz worked out of both.
 
In the eighth, David Olson led off the inning for the Golden Eagles with a pinch-hit single to get things out. After a fielder's choice and a strikeout, Jeremy Spinner made it runners on the corners with two down. UMC followed with another pinch-hitter, this time Patrick Higgins, but Lenz shut the door with a fly out to end the inning and end his day.
 
After Olson delivered a one-out double but failed to score in the top of the ninth, Kounkel made quick work of Minnesota Crookston in the bottom of the inning. The right-handed closer finished off the game with a strikeout, a foul out, and another strikeout to close it out.
 
The Golden Bears will look to keep their winning streak alive this week as they travel to Minnesota State on Wednesday before making the trip to St. Cloud State over the weekend.