TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (6-3) bounced back from a 5-2 game one loss to win game two by a score of 2-0 to salvage a doubleheader split with Northern State (5-4) on Saturday afternoon at the Tucson Invitational Games.
GAME ONE: Northern State 5, Concordia-St. Paul 2
After hammering out 13 or more hits in three of the previous four games, the bats went quiet against NSU's ace in the first game of the day.
Luke Chevalier (1-0) limited CSP to just five hits and a pair of runs in his 6.0 innings of work while striking out eight to claim his first win of the year. Thomas Sertic picked up where he left off with a scoreless seventh, allowing just one hit and striking out two.
Connor Hurley (0-1) took a tough luck loss as he worked 5.1 innings and allowed three earned runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in the game.
Riley Sweeney came on to pick up the final five outs without allowing a run.
Tanner Holmquist was the lone Golden Bear to grab two hits in the contest as he also drove in a run while
Drew Sannes also reached safely twice with a hit and a walk.
The Wolves put the Golden Bears in an early hole by scoring twice before CSP even stepped up to the plate. An error out in right field gave NSU an extra out and they took advantage with a two-out, two-run single up the middle to jump ahead.
After a quick inning and a half, Northern State was at it again as Lucas Lorenz drove a ground-rule double over the wall in left center to extend the lead to 3-0.
As the game shifted to the middle innings, Concordia clawed their way back as they put two on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Sannes sparked the rally with an impressive at-bat as he fought off nine two-strike pitches in a 15 pitch at-bat before coaxing two-out walk. After moving up on a wild pitch, Sannes came around to score on a soft single over the shortstop's head off the bat of
Mickey Leius. A
Ben Suits single followed by a wild pitch set up a
Tanner Holmquist infield single to bring in Leius.
That proved to be all that CSP could push across as they were held scoreless over the final three frames.
The Wolves did manage to tack on two insurance runs in the sixth as Justin Barreneche drove in one with a triple and Ben Carolin scored him with a successful suicide squeeze to bring the game to the final score of 5-2.
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 2, Northern State 0
The offense spotted the pitching staff a run in the first and another in the second and that proved to be more than enough as Northern State managed just one hit in the game.
Keanu Mendez (1-0) and
Riley Sweeney gave the NSU hitters fits as they kept them off-balance over seven innings. Mendez carried a no-hitter into the fourth before allowing a lone single to break it up. Despite his dominance, the right-hander was unable to complete the shutout on his own as he walked six and hit four in 5.0+ innings of work while also striking out four. Sweeney came in and worked out of a jam in the sixth before shutting the door in the seventh, striking out five en route to grabbing his second save of the season.
After going hitless for the first time all year in the first game,
Connor Trygstad responded with his sixth multi-hit game as he went 2-3 in the late game.
Isaac Hormann and
Tanner Holmquist each chipped in a hit and an RBI while
Mickey Leius doubled for CSP's only extra-base hit.
Just like in game one, the visiting team took the lead for good in the top of the first as
Connor Olson and Trygstad kicked things off with back-to-back hits. After a double play put Olson on third with two outs, Hormann delivered a line drive single to right to bring him home.
In the second, it was Leius's turn to start the rally as he led off the inning with a double to the gap. Two batters later, Holmquist drove an opposite field single into the right field corner to double the lead to 2-0.
The Wolves picked up their only hit with two down in the fourth as Seth Sullwold lined a single to center before Hayden Hall reached via a walk.
Perhaps the biggest threat for Northern State came in the sixth when the first two hitters walked to put two on with no outs. After Sweeney struck out the first guy he faced, another walk loaded the bases. An attempted suicide squeeze, their second of the day, did not pan out this time as the runner heading home was tagged out trying to get back to third base for the second out. Another strikeout brought the inning and the threat to a close.
Sweeney made quick work of NSU in the seventh as he struck out the side to preserve the shutout victory.
Concordia concludes play at the Tucson Invitational Games with a 2:30 p.m. start against Dickinson State in a single nine-inning contest.
