TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (7-3) capped off their trip to Arizona with a dominant 10-0 win in seven innings against Dickinson State (0-2) on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Golden Bears ended the trip the same way they started it, with a decisive victory, as they moved to 6-2 in their eight contests at the Tucson Invitational Games.
 
The duo of Gus Varland and Zach Lauzon gave CSP their second consecutive shutout as they overpowered the Blue Hawks over seven innings. Varland (2-0) struck out nine for the second start in a row while scattering four hits and walking none in his 5.0 innings of work. The junior right-hander lowered his ERA to a miniscule 0.75 whie also bumping his total to 18 strikeouts through 12.0 innings of work on the year. Lauzon picked up right where Varland left off as the fellow North St. Paul grad allowed just one hit in 2.0 relief innings while striking out three.
 
Not to be outdone, the offense compiled 15 hits in 6.1 innings before bringing the game to a close. The top of the order was especially impressive as the one through six hitters combined to go 14-29 (.483) with nine RBIs in the game.
 
Concordia's top two hitters through the first 10 games of the season continued to tear the cover off the ball as Drew Sannes added three more hits along with three RBIs while Connor Trygstad also drove in three with two hits. Sannes upped his average to an even .500 on the year after collecting 16 hits in 29 trips in Arizona. Trygstad actually dropped his lofty average to .432 (16-37) after collecting two hits against DSU on Sunday.
 
Isaac Hormann added three hits of his own while Connor Olson, Carter Schmidt and Mickey Leius chipped in two apiece as well.
 
After a quick top of the first, CSP opened the scoring in the bottom of the frame. Carter Schmidt reached on an error to extend the inning before stealing second to put himself in scoring position. Hormann followed with a rope to center to drive him in.
 
Concordia added to their lead one inning later as they put three more on the board. Sannes and Leius led off with back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Next up, Ben Suits drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch with the runner breaking from first as the catcher threw it past the second baseman to allow Sannes to score. Holmquist followed with a sacrifice bunt to move both runners up to set up a Trygstad two-run single to double the lead to 4-0 through two.
 
Facing runners on first and third with nobody out in the top of the fourth, Varland kept the Blue Hawks from scoring as he struck out the next two and induced a comebacker to end the threat.
 
CSP responded by growing their edge in the bottom of the fourth. Three straight singles from Leius, Hildebrandt and Olson led to a run before a Schmidt single two batters later extended it to 6-0.
 
Varland finished out strong by striking out the side in the fifth before Patrick Bordewick reached on a three-base error and Sannes brought him home with a single.
 
The trend of scoring nearly every inning continued in the sixth as the Golden Bears scored twice more to push the advantage to nine. With two outs and nobody on, Schmidt got another rally started with a single before Hormann added one of his own and Bordewick walked to load the bases. Sannes then delivered his second run-scoring hit in as many innings as he drove in both Schmidt and Hormann to make it 9-0.
 
The Golden Bears then took care of business in their half of the seventh as a Roch Whittaker walk and an Olson single set up an opposite field RBI hit for Trygstad to invoke the run rule for a 10-0 victory.
 
Concordia returns home this week to open up NSIC play. They are scheduled for a four-game series at home as they play host to Minnesota Crookston on Saturday and Sunday. Check back to cspbears.com throughout the week for any potential schedule changes.