WINONA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (23-24, 17-18 NSIC) closed out the regular season with a pair of losses at Winona State (17-33, 17-23 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
 
Despite the losses, Concordia finished the weekend where they started as they locked up the seventh seed in the NSIC Baseball Tournament this week in St. Cloud. The Golden Bears will take on the second-seeded Augustana Vikings at Joe Faber Field at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.
 
The Warriors, who entered the weekend with a chance of catching CSP with a sweep, will instead settle for finishing in a tie for 11^th in the league.
 
The trip to the NSIC Tournament marks the team's fifth trip in a row as they have finished seventh or better every year since 2013. This season also represents head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie's sixth consecutive 20-win season and 12^th in the past 13 seasons as they enter postseason play with 23 wins.
 
GAME ONE: Winona State 8, Concordia-St. Paul 1
After a pair of closely contested game yesterday, WSU jumped ahead early and pull away for a comfortable 8-1 victory in the third game in the series. The Warriors scored in each of the first five innings, including three in the first, to come out on top.
 
Sam Kohnle paced the Warriors with his third straight multi-hit game in the series as he went 3-4 with pair of RBIs in the win.
 
Hayden Krimmer (1-3) slowed down the Golden Bear offense as he allowed five singles and just one run while striking out eight in the complete game victory.
 
Concordia's five hits were spread out evenly as nobody collected more than a hit in the game. Isaac Hormann reached twice with a single and a walk while Roch Whittaker drew two walks in the game. Patrick Bordewick drove in the team's lone run with an RBI groundout.
 
Keanu Mendez (2-6) took the loss for CSP as he worked the first 3.0 innings before Riley Sweeney and Patrick Courtney came out of the bullpen to finish off the game. Sweeney worked 2.0 innings before Courtney worked a scoreless sixth.
 
The Warriors built an early lead with run-scoring singles from Kohnle, Youngquist and Mutch in the first and continued to add on from there. They benefitted from Concordia errors in the second and third to score runs before Kohnle added another RBI single in the fourth. Mutch rounded out the scoring for WSU in the fifth with another RBI single before scoring on a wild pitch to make it 8-0.
 
The Golden Bears grabbed a consolation run in the top of the sixth as three straight reached base with one out to load the bases before Bordewick brought home Tanner Holmquist with a groundout.
 
GAME TWO: Winona State 10, Concordia-St. Paul 6
Outs were hard to come by in the early going of the regular season finale as the two teams combined to score 15 runs in the first four innings and 16 runs overall in the game. In addition, the teams also combined for 26, including 18 from the Warriors, as both offenses closed out the regular season swinging.
 
The Golden Bears emptied the bench in the final game of the regular season as 21 different players made appearances in the game. At the plate, the offensive output was spread out throughout the lineup with seven different players picking up hits, including two from Connor Olson. Olson also scored twice while Isaac Hormann led the way with three runs batted in.
 
Six different players for Winona State registered at least two hits as the unit combined to hammer out 18 in the game.
 
Both teams used four different pitchers in the game as Connor Hurley, Ray Wellner, Erik Monson and Patrick Courtney all got in on the mound for CSP. Wellner (1-1), who came in in the third, took the loss while Courtney delivered his second scoreless outing of the day as he worked the final three innings, while striking out three, to lower his ERA to 1.50 in six innings on the year.
 
Brett Herber (1-4) retired both hitters he faced for Winona State to pick up the win before Joe Kubera pitched 5.0 shutout innings with eight strikeouts to pick up the save.
 
It was Concordia's turn to hang three runs on the board in the second game of the day as Tanner Holmquist drove in two runs with a triple before Ben Suits brought him in with a sacrifice fly.
 
The Warriors turned the momentum in their favor from there with one run in the bottom of the first, another in the second, and four in the third to pull ahead. Jesus Cazares opened the scoring for WSU with an RBI single in the first before Andrew Pliner added one of his own in the second to cut the deficit to one.
 
The duo played a role in the four-run third as well with Cazares picking up a run-scoring double before Chad Herbst added an RBI single, Pliner tacked on another RBI double and Derek Martin drove in another with a single to put them out front 6-3.
 
That lead lasted just a half an inning as Concordia tied the game up with three runs in the top of the fourth. After Patrick Bordewick, Mickey Leius, and Zach Elder all reached base without a hit to load the bases, Isaac Hormann unloaded them with a bases clearing triple to tie it up.
 
Winona State responded with three of their own in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good. Kohnle was at it again as he put WSU in front with a single to drive in a run before two bases loaded walks pushed that advantage to 9-6.
 
After the Warriors tacked on another run in the fifth on a first and third play that scored the runner from third, the bats went quiet for both teams. Both teams put up threats but neither could capitalize as WSU held on to win the game 10-6 to close out the season with a four-game split.