ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The seventh-seeded Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (23-26) dropped a nail-biter by a score of 3-2 to sixth-seeded Minnesota Duluth (24-27) in Thursday afternoon's consolation game at Dick Putz Field.
 
After grabbing the first run of the game in the fourth, CSP rallied to tie it in the sixth before UMD collected the eventual game-winning run in the eighth.
 
The loss concludes the season for the Golden Bears as they wrapped up their sixth consecutive 20-win season and 12th in the past 13 seasons under head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie.
 
While offense was hard to come by in a game that featured just six hits apiece, first baseman Ben Suits was in the middle of much of CSP's success at the plate. The sophomore opened the scoring with a fly ball RBI double in the fourth before later tying the game with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Suits also got Concordia's ninth-inning rally started with an infield single as he finished with two of the team's six hits.
 
Fellow sophomores Isaac Hormann and Carter Schmidt also reached twice for the Golden Bears as well as both singled, walked, and scored a run in the game. The duo finished the season as CSP's top two hitters with Hormann hitting .364 and Schmidt hitting .343 on the season.
 
On the mound, Gus Varland shut down the Bulldogs for much of the afternoon as finished with seven strikeouts and just five hits and no earned runs allowed in 5.1 innings in the no-decision. Shane Benson (0-2) picked up right where Varland left off as he allowed just an unearned run on one hit with one walk and two strikeouts in 2.2 innings in a tough-luck loss. Coupled with a dominant start his last time out, Varland finished the season with a 3.27 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 63.1 innings on the year.
 
After Ryan Cunningham worked 5.1 solid innings in the start for the Bulldogs, the bullpen completely shut the door with 3.2 shutout innings, allowing just one hit in the process. Colton Sinning (3-3) picked up the relief win with 2.2 hitless innings while Colin Baumgard struck out two of the final three hitters of the game to pick up the save.
 
Both pitchers dominated in the early innings as the two teams combined for just one hit during that span. The Golden Bears threatened with two straight walks with one out in the first while the Bulldogs put runners on the corners in the second, but neither threat came to fruition as the game remained scoreless heading to the fourth.
 
The Golden Bears were the first ones to break through as Carter Schmidt started things off by beating out an infield single for CSP's first hit of the game to lead off the fourth. After moving up to third on a passed ball and a productive groundout to second, Ben Suits looped a high fly ball into deep left center for a double to bring in Schmidt. Concordia was robbed of another run as Patrick Bordewick hit a ball hard into the right center gap for an out before Ben Danielson made an outstanding diving play at third base to throw out Whittaker and end the inning.
 
Minnesota Duluth answered right back in their half of the fourth to take a one-run lead of their own with two runs in the inning. UMD took advantage of a dropped pop up to short with one down to extend the inning and allow Tyler Midas to step up to the plate. Midas came through with a line drive home run off the advertising board in right center field to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
 
After a scoreless fifth, CSP clawed their way back even by manufacturing a run in the top of the sixth. Isaac Hormann led off the inning with a single and moved up on a balk before Tanner Holmquist singled and moved up to second on the throw home to put two in scoring position with one out. It was once again Suits that played the role of run producer as he launched a SAC fly to center to bring in Hormann to tie it at 2-2.
 
UMD threatened to regain the lead just an half an inning later as a double, a single and a walk loaded the bases with one out, but CSP held strong to keep it tied. It was Benson who got the Golden Bears out of the jam as he entered the game after the walk and coaxed an inning-ending double play to kill the threat.
 
The two teams traded zeroes for the next few innings until the Bulldogs grabbed the decisive edge in the bottom of the eighth as they scored a run without a hit in the inning. With runners on the corners after a hit by pitch and a walk, Marco Lucarelli hit a hard shot at Whittaker at third base and forced an errant throw over Suits' head at first. Lucarelli and Suits collided heavily on the play as the ball rolled down the right field line allowing the runner from third to score before Zach Elder threw out the runner trying to score all the way from first to end the inning.
 
After a fairly lengthy injury delay, the Golden Bears found themselves down 3-2 with three outs to work with at the plate. Concordia put some serious pressure on UMD as Suits singled to lead off the inning before Adam Hildebrandt drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. Following a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Whittaker and a Leius strikeout, Zach Elder walked to load the bases for Connor Olson. Olson worked the count full against Baumgard, but swung through a tough 3-2 pitch as the Bulldogs sealed the victory to stay alive.
 
SENIOR NOTES

• Kevin Woebke leaves as the program's all-time leader in pick offs with 18 while he also ranks sixth in strikeouts (173) and seventh in innings pitched (197.0) to go along with a career record of 12-12 and a 4.80 ERA
• Josh Lenz finishes his career in sixth in appearances (44) and sixth in saves (5) while compiling a 13-8 record and a 4.10 ERA with 125 strikeouts in 147.0 innings
• Jake Kounkel concludes his time at CSP with the fourth-most saves (6), including the second-most in single-season history with five in 2017, as well as the second-best single-season K/9 at 12.46 in 2016
• Andrew Shotwell finishes his career as a .282 hitter with four homers and 53 RBIs over 114 games, including a career year in 2016 with a .318/.389/.457 slash line
• Joe Muench closes out his career with .232 average with one home run and 19 RBIs in 66 games, including a .261 average over 35 games as a freshman
• Patrick Courtney wraps up his career with a 5.14 ERA with nine strikeouts in 14.0 innings, including an impressive 1.29 ERA in 7.0 innings in his senior year
• Erik Monson worked 48.2 innings and struck out 26 in his three seasons at Concordia, highlighted by his 2.25 ERA against NSIC opponents in the 2016 season
• Erick Kivi finishes his career with seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings to go along with a save, including a .231 opponent average and 3.00 ERA over 3.0 innings in 2015