ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The seventh-seeded Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (23-25) dropped their opening round game in the NSIC Tournament to second-seeded Augustana (36-20) by a score of 11-2 on Thursday night at Joe Faber Field.
 
The Golden Bears will face the loser of the contest between St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. at Dick Putz Field in an elimination game.
 
The Vikings scored four in the second and five more in the fifth as they cruised to a comfortable 11-2 victory to give them five wins in five meetings between the two schools on the season.
 
The loss drops CSP to 11-16 in NSIC Tournament play and 4-23 against the Vikings in the all-time series.
 
Mickey Leius provided the Golden Bears with a bright spot at the plate as he picked up two of the team's three hits in the game while scoring both runs. Carter Schmidt added the other hit as he drove in both runs for CSP.
 
Augustana starter Dalton Lehnen (3-3) stifled Concordia in his 7.0 innings of work as he allowed just one hit and struck out five in the win. Jasper Elfrink and Zach Reed both came on to throw an inning for Augie to finish off the game.
 
Sam Baier and Patrick O'Donnell paced the offensive output for the team with three hits apiece while Baier, Kris Ashland and Lucas Barry each picked up a pair of RBIs in the game.
 
Kevin Woebke (3-4) took the loss for Concordia as he worked 4.2 innings in the start, allowing eight hits and nine runs (seven earned) with two walks and two strikeouts before giving way to the bullpen. Louie Varland came on to work the next 2.1 innings before Patrick Courtney pitched a shutout inning in the eighth.
 
After a quick inning and a half, Augie opened the scoring with a four spot in the bottom of the second. Three of the first four hitters reached base in the inning before Jacob James drew a bases loaded walk to put the first run of the game on the board. Riley Johnson was then hit by pitch and Sam Baier drove in two more with a single to make it 4-0.
 
Concordia threatened a half inning later by loading the bases with one out, but they were held to one run as Lehnen worked out of the jam. Carter Schmidt nearly made it more with a deep shot to center, but Johnson made the play to hold it to a sacrifice fly before a groundout ended the inning.
 
The 4-1 score remained until the bottom of the fifth when the Vikings put the game out of reach. The first two runs of the inning came on an error and a groundout with the bases loaded before Lucas Berry drove in two with a double and Tommy Field drove in another with a single as Augie broke it open with an eight run lead.
 
The Vikings added two more in the sixth on a Kris Ashland RBI double and a wild pitch before CSP grabbed a late run to cut the final deficit to 11-2. Leius picked up his second hit of the game with a solid leadoff single to center before eventually being driven in on a Carter Schmidt run-scoring single to the gap in the left center.
 
That would be all for the scoring as Augie closed out the 11-2 win to remain in the winner's bracket heading into day two.