ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (18-19, 12-13 NSIC) kicked off the 10-game home stand with a pair of losses to Augustana (27-16, 22-6 NSIC) at Barnes Field on Saturday afternoon. The Vikings took game one 15-3 and game two 11-7.
 
GAME ONE: Augustana 15, Concordia-St. Paul 3
While game one was billed as a likely pitcher's duel between two of the better pitchers in the NSIC, the Vikings offense stole the show by putting up 15 runs on 20 hits to pull away in a comfortable win.
 
Augustana has 11 different players collect hits, including six with multi-hits games, as they scored in all seven innings of the game. Sam Baier, Kris Ashland and Tyler Field all homered while Jacob James paced the squad with four hits in four trips from the nine spot in the order.
 
Connor Olson provided the lone multi-hit day for the Golden Bears as he went 2-3 while Carter Schmidt added an RBI single and Ben Suits added an RBI double in the loss.
 
Augustana starting pitcher Jacob Blank (9-0) gave up his first earned runs of the season after collecting a perfect 0.00 ERA through 43.1 innings entering the day, but still managed to pick up his ninth win. The junior held CSP to three runs (two earned) on five hits while walking two and striking out four in his 6.0 innings. Tyler Field, who started the game at first base, came on to work a scoreless seventh to finish off the game.
 
It was a tough outing for Gus Varland as the sophomore right-hander lasted 3.0 innings in the loss. Varland (5-3) allowed six runs and struck out one in the outing.
 
The Vikings set the tone in the first inning as three of the first four batters of the game drove extra base hits, capped by a two-run blast off the bat of Ashland to make it 2-0.
 
CSP took advantage of a pair of errors to bring in a run in the bottom of the first, but Augie answered back with one in the second and three in the third to push it to 6-1. Jacob James provided a run-scoring double in the second before Sam Baier hit the Vikings' second home run of the day followed by RBIs from Patrick O'Donnell and Lucas Barry in the third.
 
In his 46^th inning of work of the season, the Golden Bears finally broke Blank's streak of not allowing an earned run in the third. Carter Schmidt collected a clutch opposite field single with two outs to drive in Adam Hildebrandt before Ben Suits doubled down with an opposite field run-scoring double to cut the gap to 6-3.
 
That would be all the closer the Golden Bears would get as the Vikings put the game out of reach with five in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh. Field's two-run homer capped the five-run fourth while the Augie bench took over from there.
 
GAME TWO: Augustana 11, Concordia-St. Paul 7
The Golden Bears staged a dramatic comeback with six runs in the eighth to tie the game at 7-7, but the Vikings answered back with four in the ninth to claim the doubleheader sweep.
 
CSP used six hits, a walk and a hit by pitch in the inning to turn a potential blowout into a nail-biter as they clawed their way back into it. Overall, Concordia matched Augie's 14 hits in the game as eight of the 14 came in the final two innings.
 
The Golden Bears got production from throughout the lineup, led by Patrick Bordewick's 3-5 game with a homer and a double with three RBIs to put him a triple shy of the cycle. The home run was the first of the freshman shortstop's career in navy and gold.
 
Isaac Hormann reached in five straight plate appearances after flying out his first time up as he went 3-4 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Connor Olson also added three hits and a walk while Roch Whittaker came off the bench to collect two hits and a pair of RBIs.
 
Dalton Lehnen was excellent in the start for the Vikings as he worked 6.0 innings of one-run ball while striking out eight, but he finished with a no-decision as the bullpen came on. Collin Lovell (2-0), who came on in a tough situation in the eighth and allowed the tying run to score, was credited with the win in relief.
 
Kevin Woebke also picked up a no decision for the Golden Bears as he worked the first 6.2 innings before Shane Benson worked the next 1.1 innings and Jake Kounkel worked the ninth. Kounkel (1-1) had his streak of seven straight scoreless outings and 10.0 straight scoreless innings snapped as he allowed four runs in the ninth to take the loss.
 
Augustana struck first again in game two as Kris Ashland unloaded on his second home run of the day to lead off the second inning.
 
The Vikings added another to their lead the third as Lucas Berry led off with a single before moving up to second on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Sam Baier knocked a two-out single to the gap in right center to bring home Berry.
 
Concordia got one back in their half of the third as they strung together three singles in the inning to push a run across. Zach Elder led off the inning with a solid single to right and Isaac Hormann followed with a line drive single of his own to left before Adam Hildebrandt executed a near-perfect sacrifice bunt to move them both into scoring position. Connor Olson followed with an infield single that took a tough hop on the third baseman to bring home Elder, but that would be all they would get as a strikeout and fly out ended the rally.
 
Both pitchers settled in for the next few innings until Augustana doubled their run total with two more in the sixth. With two outs and a runner on second, Ford Schroeder deposited a 1-1 pitch over the short fence in left center to extend the lead to three at 4-1.
 
After a Jacob James RBI single in the seventh pushed it to 5-1, the Golden Bears threatened in their half of the inning. Hormann and Hildebrandt drew walks to put two on with nobody out against reliever Zach Reeg, but Dalton Allen came retired the next three hitters to keep them from scoring.
 
The Vikings appeared to put the game out of reach with a pair of runs on a Lucas Barry RBI double in the top of the eighth, but Concordia came storming back in the bottom of the inning. The Golden Bears collected three of the four legs of the cycle in the first three hitters of the inning as Whittaker singled, Mickey Leius doubled and Bordewick homered to cut the gap in half with nobody out. After a pitching change, CSP also had the next two reach base via a walk and a hit by pitch before the Vikings made yet another pitching change. Lovell then came on and sandwiched a Connor Olson single with two strikeouts to load the bases with two outs and a three-run lead. A Carter Schmidt line drive run-scoring single to left set up Whittaker's second hit of the inning, this time a two-run single up the middle to tie the game up at 7-7.
 
The score would not remained tied long as Augie responded to CSP's six-run eighth with a four-run ninth to build the decisive edge. Riley Johnson led off the inning with a bouncing ball down the left field line into the corner for a double before moving up to third on a wild pitch. Kounkel nearly worked out of the jam as he followed by getting a groundout to short and a strikeout while Johnson remained at third. After an intentional walk to Ashland, a wild pitch allowed Johnson to cross the plate for the go-ahead run. Another walk set up a Ryan Menssen three-run home run to put the game out of reach.
 
The Golden Bears and Vikings will conclude the series with a doubleheader at Barnes Field tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for noon.