ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (17-15, 11-9 NSIC) dropped a pair of games to St. Cloud State (24-8, 15-5 NSIC) as the Huskies took the final three games of the weekend series. CSP fell 9-3 in game one and 8-5 in game two on Saturday at Joe Faber Field.
 
The Golden Bears led in three of the four games in the series but came out with just one win as the Huskies came from behind to pick up the 3-1 series win, moving the season series to 4-2.
 
GAME ONE: St. Cloud State 9, Concordia-St. Paul 3
Game three got off to a quiet start before St. Cloud State put up back-to-back four run innings in the third and the fourth to grab the decisive advantage.
 
The Huskies had Jordan Joseph, Bo Schmitz and Zach Metzger launch back-to-back-to-back home runs in the third to highlight the offensive output.
 
Dominic Austing (4-2) picked up the win for SCSU as he worked 5.0 innings, allowing five hits and two runs while collecting eight strikeouts.
 
For the Golden Bears, Keanu Mendez (1-4) couldn't get out of the fourth as he worked 3.1 innings in the losing effort. Louie Varland came on to work the final 2.2 innings without allowing an earned run to go along with three strikeouts.
 
Isaac Hormann was the lone Golden Bear to finish with a multi-hit game as he went 2-4 with a double in the game. Zach Elder moved into double digits in home runs with his 10^th, tying him for the conference lead, while Connor Olson chipped in an RBI double.
 
After two and a half scoreless innings, the Huskies broke things open with three homers in the bottom of the third. Mendez bounced back from a leadoff walk in the inning to retire the next two hitters, but Jordan Joseph went deep for a two-out, two-run blast. Bo Schmitz followed with a solo home run before Zach Metzger his one of his own to make it back-to-back-to-back home runs to make it 4-0.
 
Concordia responded by loading the bases in the top of the fourth but had nothing to show for it as SCSU held their lead. They doubled that lead in the bottom of the inning as the Huskies started to pull away. Four of the first five hitters reached base, capped off by an Ethan Ibarra run-scoring single and a Judd Davis two-run triple, before a Joseph sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 8-0.
 
The Golden Bears broke up Austing's shutout in the fifth as singles from Patrick Bordewick and Adam Hildebrandt set up a Connor Olson RBI double. Tanner Holmquist brought home another with an RBI groundout before a strikeout ended the inning.
 
CSP added another run in the sixth as Elder launched a solo homer, but that would be all they would get as SCSU added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning to bring it to a 9-3 final.
 
GAME TWO: St. Cloud State 8, Concordia-St. Paul 5
Concordia collected 11 hits in game two but turned them into five runs while St. Cloud State took advantage of 10 hits to score eight runs to claim the series win.
 
Isaac Hormann, Roch Whittaker, Carter Schmidt and Ben Suits all picked up two hits apiece as Schmidt drove in three and Suits drove in a pair in the loss.
 
It was a bullpen day for the Golden Bears as three different pitchers worked at least 1.2 innings in the game. Ray Wellner went the first 1.2 innings before Shane Benson went 3.2 and Erik Monson went 2.2 to finish it off. Monson took the loss as he allowed a three-run eighth in the losing effort.
 
Miles Nablo picked up the win for the Huskies as he closed out the game with 3.2 perfect innings.
 
The final game of the series was a back and forth contest as the game featured four lead changes as the Huskies scored three in the bottom of the eighth to build the decisive advantage.
 
The Golden Bears struck first as Isaac Hormann got things going with a one-out double before Tanner Holmquist added a single. After a pop out, Ben Suits came through with a run-scoring single to bring in Hormann to make it 1-0 in favor of CSP.
 
St. Cloud State answered back in the second as Cooper Maas drew a leadoff walk before Judd Davis tripled him home and Jordan Joseph singled Davis home to give the Huskies a 2-1 advantage.
 
SCSU remained out front until the fifth when five straight reached base to open the inning for CSP. Carter Schmidt put the Golden Bears in front with a two-run single before Ben Suits drove in another with a single to double that lead at 4-2.
 
The two teams traded runs the next two half innings as Logan Swann picked up an RBI double for SCSU while Carter Schmidt drove in Connor Olson with a fielder's choice to push the lead back to two at 5-3.
 
The lead disappeared in the sixth as Joseph went deep and Zach Metzger doubled in the tying run.
 
With the score tied 5-5, the Huskies struck again in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead for good. Mathew Meyer put SCSU on top with a two-out RBI single before Mitch Mallek added a pair of insurance runs with a two-run double.
 
The Golden Bears were retired in order in the ninth to finish off the 8-5 defeat.
 
Concordia returns home to host U-Mary on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. before taking next weekend off.