MINNETONKA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (11-5, 4-2 NSIC) dropped both contests on a cold Sunday afternoon at Veterans Field against St. Cloud State (11-6, 4-1 NSIC). The Huskies took game one 4-1 in 13 innings before pulling away for an 11-1 win in game two.
 
GAME ONE: St. Cloud State 4, Concordia-St. Paul 1 (13 innings)
While the scoreless inning streak came to an end in the first, it was yet another pitcher's duel as the two teams remained deadlocked at 1-1 into the 13^th inning. Jackson Goplen delivered the decisive blow as he broke the tie with a three-run homer to give the Huskies a game one victory.
 
After allowing a run just three batters into the game, Gus Varland recovered to put together a strong outing. Varland worked the first 8.0 innings and allowed just the lone run on seven hits while striking out seven in the no-decision. Riley Sweeney and Ross Bastyr continued the streak of zeroes as Sweeney got four outs before Bastyr shut out the Huskies for 2.2 innings to keep the game going. Shane Benson (0-1) ended up taking the loss as he allowed the three-run homer in his one inning of work.
 
It was a tough game at the plate for the Golden Bears as they stranded 15 runners in the game while scoring just one run. CSP's top seven hitters of the lineup all picked up at least one hit as the squad compiled 10 hits and a pair of walks in the contest. Connor Trygstad, Carter Schmidt and Mickey Leius all grabbed a pair of hits in the game while Trygstad drove in the lone run for Concordia.
 
Dominic Austing got the start for St. Cloud State and nearly matched Varland's outing exactly as he threw 7.0 innings of one-run ball with six hits allowed and four strikeouts before giving way to the bullpen. Nathan Strobel followed with 4.0 shutout frames before Kyle Boser (2-2) came on for 2.0 scoreless innings to claim the relief win.
 
The Huskies jumped on Varland right out of the gate with a one-out double for Jordan Joseph before Mitch Mallek dropped a single in the left center gap to drive him in. Varland settled in from there with four scoreless innings to keep the score at 1-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth.
 
The Concordia offense broke up the shutout to tie up the score in their half of the fifth. Leius got things started with a leadoff single up the middle before moving up on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Ben Suits. After a fly out for the second out, Connor Olson was hit by a pitch to set up an RBI single to right field to even it up at 1-1.
 
Neither team mounted a serious threat until the eighth when the Huskies put the go-ahead run on second with one down before Varland retired the next two to end the inning. SCSU threatened again in the 10^th as they put runners on second and third with one out, but it was Bastyr's turn to work out of trouble as he hit the first batter he faced before coaxing an inning-ending double play to hold it at 1-1.
 
The Golden Bears had several chances to put the game away with the leadoff hitter reaching safely in the 10^th and 11^th inning in addition to putting two on in the 12^th, but they were unable to push across the winning run.
 
St. Cloud State took advantage in the 13^th as Goplen's one-out, three-run shot over the right field wall gave them the decisive 4-1 edge. CSP went down in order in the bottom of the inning as Boser finished off the win.
 
GAME TWO: St. Cloud State 11, Concordia-St. Paul 1
Game two looked to be headed to another low-scoring finish as the Huskies held a 2-0 lead into the fifth, but the bats came alive for nine runs over the final three innings for St. Cloud State as SCSU cruised to an 11-1 win.
 
Zach Lauzon (1-2) battled through 5.0 innings as he took the loss for the Golden Bears. He allowed four runs on five hits while striking out eight in the game. Michael Voss and Nate Stolte each worked an inning in relief.
 
Matthew Osterberg (2-0) came within three outs of a complete game shutout as he allowed just one unearned run in the seventh to bring his day to a close. In his 6.0 innings of work, Osterberg gave up just two hits and one walk while striking out seventh to pick up the win.
 
Both of Concordia's hits came from the same spot in the lineup as Carter Schmidt singled in the first and his replacement, Jake Steckler, drove in a run with a single in the seventh.
 
St. Cloud State got off to another fast start in game two as they constructed a two-out rally in the top of the first to open the scoring. After the first two hitters struck out, a hit by pitch and a walk set the stage for a two-run single off the bat of Caeden Harris to make it 2-0.
 
The Huskies added to their lead in the fifth with two more runs as a single for Aaron Hammann followed by back-to-back RBI doubles for Ethan Ibarra and Bo Schmitz extended the lead to 4-0. SCSU added another in the sixth before blowing it open with six more, capped by a Mathew Meyer grand slam, in the seventh.
 
Concordia got a consolation run to spoil the shutout bid in the seventh as Zach Elder reached on a three-base error to start the inning before Jake Steckler drove him in with an RBI single one batter later. That spelled the end of the day for Osterberg as Zach Iten recorded the final three outs to end the game.
 
The two teams will return to action tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.