ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (7-3) head baseball coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie has announced that this weekend's NSIC opening four game series against Minnesota Crookston (10-5) has been relocated to Veterans Field at Minnetonka High School.

The weekend series will remain on Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday's doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. followed by a noon start on Sunday.

LIVE COVERAGE
Live stats will be available to follow online all weekend, while the athletic department will produce a one camera video webcast of Sunday's games with play-by-play provided by Dan Flanagan. The Voice of the Golden Bears since 2008, Flanagan is a St. Paul native and a graduate of Fordham University in New York where he specialized in radio broadcasting.

STRONG START FOR THE BEARS
Concordia has already faced four teams from the NSIC, picking up a win against each of Minot State (1-1), SMSU (1-0), St. Cloud State (1-0) and Northern State (1-1).

The strong start for the Bears has them just one point shy of the NCBWA Central Region Top-10 in a poll conducted of select baseball sports information directors in the region. CSP has picked up 13 points in the poll, one shy of Minnesota State for the 10th spot.

LAST TIME OUT
Last week, Concordia opened the season with a doubleheader split with Minot State at US Bank Stadium before winning six of eight contests at the Tucson Invitational Games.
 
At the plate, the Golden Bears hit .324 (103-318) as a team while holding their opponents to .256 (79-308) over the 10 games on the week. CSP's pitching was equally dominant as they put together a 3.38 ERA with 86 strikeouts in 80.0 innings while their opponents had a 5.90 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 76.1 innings.
 
Drew Sannes paced the team offensively with a .500 average (16-32) and two triples while driving in seven and scoring six times in 10 starts. On the hill, Gus Varland picked up two wins while allowing just one run over 12.0 innings (0.75 ERA) to go along with 18 strikeouts in his two starts. Louie Varland shut out SMSU for five innings in his first career start to pick up the win while Josh Gaworski limited SCSU to just one run on two hits over 5.0 innings for the win in his CSP debut.
 
UMC SERIES HISTORY
CSP will look to continue their dominance of UMC in the all-time series as they have gone 42-6 in 48 previous meetings. The Golden Bears have been especially dominant in recent years with 39 wins in a row against the Golden Eagles dating back to the 2003 season. Concordia has rattled off a 20-2 mark on their home field against Minnesota Crookston while winning six of eight meetings at a neutral site.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE GOLDEN EAGLES
In last year's four-game series in Crookston, the Golden Bears cruised to a sweep as they took won 4-2 and 9-6 on Saturday before claiming 12-4 and 1-0 victories on Sunday.
 
In addition to being a successful weekend for the team, it was a historic weekend for head coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie as he moved past 400 wins in his career in the game two win.
 
On the second day of the series, it was a tale of two games in the doubleheader as the offense delivered 12 runs in the first game before the pitching staff delivered a shutout in the second game. The shutout capped a weekend in which Concordia's pitchers finished with a 2.25 ERA as a team with 41 strikeouts in 32.0 innings. Three of their four starters threw at least 7.0 innings while allowing two earned runs or less.
 
Connor Olson led the way with nine hits over the weekend as he bumped his average up over .300 for the first time all year at .314. Zach Elder added a .385/.529/.846 slash line with two home runs and eight RBIs as he moved his season total to eight home runs.