ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (21-22, 15-16 NSIC) capped off a wild weekend with a 7-6 12 inning win in game two to salvage the split on Saturday with Sioux Falls (18-28, 15-21 NSIC). The Cougars took game one 5-3 in nine innings before Concordia's comeback win gave them a 3-1 series win.
 
Saturday featured 681 pitches in over six hours of game time in the doubleheader, while the teams played 39 innings compared to an expected 32 on the weekend.
 
The series win puts CSP in a prime position to clinch a spot in the NSIC Tournament next weekend in the final regular season series at Winona State. The Golden Bears held their spot in seventh in the league while Winona State and Minnesota Crookston both sit a game and a half back in eight and ninth, respectively. Sioux Falls, Bemidji State and Northern State all sit two and a half games back in the battle for the last few spots inside the top-8 in the conference.
 
GAME ONE: Sioux Falls 5, Concordia-St. Paul 3 (9 inn.)
The Cougars followed the same script in game three of the series that the Golden Bears used in game two as they battled back from an early deficit before going on to win the game in extra innings.
 
Austin Richey came up with the big hit as his two-out, two-run single up the middle gave Sioux Falls the decisive edge. Richey also added an RBI on a fielder's choice in the fifth to close the gap to one before Gunner Peterson executed a perfect safety squeeze to drive in the tying run in the sixth.
 
Tanner Holmquist finished as the lone Golden Bear to pick up more than a hit in the game by going 2-4 with an RBI single while Roch Whittaker also added a hit and an RBI on a fielder's choice. CSP finished with seven hits as a team.
 
Josh Lenz did a solid job of limiting the damage in the start for CSP as he allowed just three runs (two earned) on nine hits and a pair of walks while striking out two in 6.0 innings in the no-decision. Shane Benson (0-1) followed with two shutout innings before allowing the go-ahead runs in the ninth. In his 3.0 innings of work, Benson struck out one and gave up two runs on three hits in the loss.
 
Zak Wallner (4-1) went the distance for the Cougars, working all 9.0 innings and allowing seven hits and three runs in the winning effort.
 
USF jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead just three batters in as Josh Rehwaldt drove a double to the gap in left center to bring in Noah Durkin.
 
The lead held up until the bottom of the third when the Golden Bears did all of their damage. After singles from Connor Olson and Isaac Hormann, Holmquist went the opposite way with the first pitch he saw to bring in Olson. Hormann then scored on a wild pitch before Holmquist beat a throw from the second baseman to the plate to extend it to 3-1. That would be all they would get against Wallner as he shut the door for the next six innings to give his team a chance.
 
In the top of the fifth, the Cougars took advantage of a missed opportunity for the Golden Bears as the relay throw on a potential routine double play ball with one out and runners on the corners skipped past Whittaker and allowed Durkin to score.
 
One inning later, Sioux Falls played some small ball to tie the game up. Anthony Lopez got things going with a one-out pinch-hit single before pinch-runner Rob Johnson stole second and moved up on an errant throw into center. Gunner Peterson followed with a perfect bunt past the pitcher to allow Johnson to score to even the score at 3-3.
 
Both teams matched zeroes until Sioux Falls broke through with the eventual winning runs in the ninth. With runners on second and third with one out, Benson got a big out with a comebacker to hold both runners. Richey came through with a big two-out hit, however, as he rolled a single up the middle to bring in both runners.
 
CSP led off the bottom of the inning with a line drive single off the bat of Holmquist, but Wallner retired the next three hitters to finish off the extra-inning complete game win.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 7, Sioux Falls 6 (12 inn.)
In a four-game series that featured three extra inning games in a row, the two teams saved the most dramatic for last as Concordia overcame deficits in the second, seventh, ninth and 11^th innings before winning it in the 12^th.
 
After game one went extras, game two was scheduled to be a seven-inning affair, but it ended up being the longest of a long series. The fourth game of the series featured 410 pitches and lasted three hours and 48 minutes before Ben Suits' walk-off hit by pitch concluded play.
 
The sophomore duo of Jake Steckler and Carter Schmidt played a major role in the win as they combined for half of the team's 16 hits in the game to go along with four RBIs and a pair of runs scored. Coming into the game, Steckler had five hits to his name in his career at CSP. He nearly matched that total in one game by going 4-5 with a double as well as a career-best four runs batted in to help lead the team to victory. The four hits for Schmidt matched his career high as he also scored twice.
 
While those two played a big role, the Golden Bears needed to utilize a large chunk of their roster with 19 players stepping on the field.
 
While neither pitcher ended up with a decision, Connor Hurley and Jake Kounkel combined to limit the Cougars to just three earned runs through nine innings before Keanu Mendez worked a solid final three innings to pick up the win. Hurley went 6.0 innings in the start, allowing a pair of earned runs on seven hits while striking out three. Kounkel followed with 3.0 innings of work while allowing just one run on three hits to go along with two strikeouts. Mendez (2-5) made his first relief appearance of the season and recorded the victory as the only run he allowed was unearned while giving up three runs and striking out three.
 
Dylan Gavin and Stuart Maes split the game nearly right down the middle for Sioux Falls as Gavin threw 107 pitches and Maes thred 106 with both working 5.2 innings. Both allowed three earned runs as Maes (2-5) blew the save in the seventh and took the loss.
 
Richey picked up right where he left off in the first game of the day as he picked up another two-run, two-out single in the first inning of game two to put the Cougars ahead early.
 
Concordia responded in the second with a clutch two-out hit of their own as Steckler launched a deep fly ball off the top of the left field wall for a double to drive in Roch Whittaker and Patrick Bordewick to tie the game.
 
Steckler was back at it two innings later with a two-out single up the middle to bring home Bordewick for the second time in the game to give the Golden Bears a 3-2 edge through four innings.
 
Sioux Falls wasted little time in regaining the lead with an RBI double off the bat of Brent Griffing-Jarvis and an RBI single from Matthew Minnick in the top of the fifth to put them out front 4-3.
 
The Cougars came within an out of closing out the game in the regulation seven innings before Concordia extended the game to extras for a third game in a row. After Carter Schmidt roped a one-out single to left and moved up to second on a wild pitch, Maes picked up a strikeout to grab the second out. Up next was Whittaker, who extended the game with a run-scoring single off the glove of a diving Griffing-Jarvis into the left field corner to allow Schmidt to cross the plate as the tying run. After Elder lined a single to center to put the winning run in scoring position, Maes picked up another strikeout to push the game to the eighth.
 
CSP threatened to end it in the bottom of the eighth by loading the bases with one out, but Maes was up to the task by getting a pair of fielder's choices to end the inning and extend it to the ninth.
 
After Cole Sweeney sent a run-scoring single past Mickey Leius down the third base line in the top of the ninth, the Cougars once again found themselves in position to claim the win. This time it was Leius' turn to tie the game as he drove in Andrew Shotwell with a sacrifice fly before Maes worked out of another jam to force a 10^th inning.
 
After a scoreless 10^th, USF jumped back in front again in the 11^th via an opposite field single off the bat of Connor Merriam to drive in Rob Johnson. For the third time in five innings, Concordia found themselves three outs or less away from defeat. With runners on second and third with two down, Steckler drove a rocket through the left side of the infield to even the score at 6-6. As was the case in the previous two times that CSP tied the game, Maes limited the damage to just the tying run to keep the game alive.
 
With both teams on the brink of victory nearly every inning in extras, Concordia finally closed it out in their half of the 12^th. A double from Hormann followed by a bunt from Schmidt put runners on the corners before Holmquist was intentionally walked to load the bases with nobody out. The Cougars then took advantage of a five-man infield to cut off a run at the plate on a fielder's choice off the bat of Andrew Shotwell, but they would survive just one more pitch as Ben Suits was drilled in the back with the first pitch he saw to give CSP their second walk-off win in as many days.
 
The Golden Bears wrap up the regular season on the road next weekend as they travel to Winona State on Friday and Saturday for a four-game series.