ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team will travel to Winona State for a crucial final weekend of the regular season as they look to lock down a spot in the NSIC Tournament. The Golden Bears and Warriors will play two games on Friday and two on Saturday to finish off the league slate.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Friday's doubleheader at Loughrey Field will begin at 1:30 p.m. while Saturday's doubleheader starts at noon. Live stats and live video will be available both days at the links listed above. As was the case last season, both Winona State's and Concordia's senior classes will be honored on the field on Saturday with a brief graduation ceremony.
 
PLAYOFF PUSH
After taking three of four games from Sioux Falls last weekend, the Golden Bears find themselves in the driver's seat in claiming one of the top eight spots in the league to earn an NSIC Tournament berth.
 
Currently in seventh place, percentage points behind UMD in sixth, CSP holds a half game lead over Minnesota Crookston, a game and a half lead over Northern State, and two and a half game leads over Sioux Falls, Winona State and Bemidji State. With the schedules of all the teams involved this weekend, Concordia can guarantee a place inside the top-8 with two or more wins against the Warriors this weekend. CSP would still be in the mix to earn a spot if WSU were to win the series, but would need help elsewhere to maintain their spot if that were to happen.
 
The NSIC Tournament will get underway in St. Cloud next Wednesday, May 10 at Dick Putz and Joe Faber Fields.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears claimed a crucial series win in their final home weekend last weekend as they took three from Sioux Falls.
 
The final three games of the series went to extra innings, with CSP claiming wins in two of those contests to improve to 3-1 in extra-inning games this season. In the series finale the Golden Bears were three outs or less away from losing in the seventh, ninth and 11th, tying it up each time before going on to win it on a walk-off hit by pitch in the 12th.
 
Pitching played a major role on the weekend as CSP compiled a 2.54 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 39.0 innings while not allowing a home run at hitter-friendly Barnes Field in the series
 
SERIES HISTORY VS WSU
The 68 meetings between the Golden Bears and the Warriors heading into the weekend mark the largest total against any opponent for CSP. In those 68 previous meetings, Concordia has gone 31-37 in those contests. After Winona State dominated early on with 17 wins in the first 21 meetings, including the first 10 in a row, CSP has claimed a winning record with 27 wins in the last 47 matchups. The Golden Bears have been especially successful in recent seasons with wins in six of the last eight, including a four-game sweep of the series last year. The two teams have nearly split the meetings in Winona, with the Warriors holding a slight 19-18 edge on their home field.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE WARRIORS
In the final weekend of the regular season last year, CSP picked up a huge four-game sweep at Winona State.
 
The offense exploded in games one, two and four with 15-9, 15-4 and 12-8 wins, respectively, while they edged WSU 2-1 in game three to complete the sweep.
 
The series result sent Concordia soaring into their eventual postseason run with a 9-2 record over the last 11 games of the regular season, including a 5-game road winning streak.
 
The sweep also eliminated Winona State from postseason play as the Warriors dropped to 10th in the final regular season standings.
 
Then-senior shortstop Eric Fasnacht went 9-19 with 13 RBI, nine runs, two doubles, a triple and four home runs in the four game series, lifting his average from .302 to .324 and sending his RBI total from 20 to 33 while doubling his season home run total.