TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (5-2) saw their four-game winning streak come to a close as they dropped their lone contest of the day on Friday to Mount Marty (10-5) by a score of 9-5.
 
The Golden Bears struggled to find the big hit in key situations as they stranded a staggering 16 runners over nine innings of action. CSP managed just two hits in 15 trips to the plate with runners in scoring position and had just one hit in 10 at-bats with two outs on the day.
 
Adam Hildebrandt picked up one of the lone hits with runners in scoring position as he drove in a team-best two runs with an RBI single off the bench while Mickey Leius and Roch Whittaker each drove in one with sacrifice flies. Leius also added a single and drew a walk in the game.
 
Drew Sannes raised his average yet again with his fourth straight multi-hit performance as he went 3-4 with a walk to move to .478 on the year. During that four-game span, Sannes has hit an even better .625 (10-16) to go along with two walks. Isaac Hormann knocked out three hits as well, giving him hits in six of the first seven games of the year. Connor Trygstad also extended his hitting streak as he has now hit safely in all seven games, including five games with two hits, giving him a .444 average.
 
Nate Stolte (0-1) was a victim of a lot of soft contact dropping in for hits as he took the loss after allowing five runs on 10 hits in 5.0 innings. Dallad McBroom added a promising relief effort in his debut as he allowed just an unearned run through his first two innings before running out of gas and picking up just one more out in his third inning of work. Ryan Bastyr came on and gave up no runs on one hit and a walk in the final 1.2 innings in his first appearance for CSP.
 
Blake Svoboda scattered 11 hits to give up just two runs in 5.1 innings to pick up the win for MMC before Deric Denning worked the final 3.2 innings for the save.
 
Both teams put a run on the board in the opening frame as the game appeared to be headed towards a high-scoring affair. An RBI single for Gabriel Leon with two down in the top of the first put MMC out front before Concordia worked the first-and-third double steal to perfection in the bottom of the inning as Connor Trygstad crossed the plate to tie it up.
 
The Lancers regained the lead with two runs in the third before tacking on another in the fourth to build a 4-1 advantage. Caden Skinner delivered a one-out run-scoring double to give Mount Marty the lead before Philip Vornhagen drove in another in the third with a two-out double. A Derek Miller single one inning later pushed the edge to three.
 
MMC tacked on another run in the fifth on blooper single just past the outstretched glove of Leius in the outfield grass to make it 5-1, but the Golden Bears answered right back with a run of their own. Singles from Isaac Hormann and Sannes put runners on the corners before a Leius sacrifice fly pulled it back to 5-2 after five innings of play.
 
In the seventh, the Lancers pushed it back to four as they took advantage of a misplayed ball in the corner on a double, but CSP responded again in the bottom of the inning as they threatened to close the gap. Another Sannes hit, a Leius walk, and a Suits walk loaded the bases to bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Hildebrandt followed with a big two-run single to center to cut the deficit in half with still no outs in the inning. That would be all that CSP would get out of the inning, however, as a pair of foul outs and a groundout brought the frame to a close with no further damage.
 
Mount Marty came back and made things difficult for Concordia as they scored two more in the top of the eighth to negate CSP's progress the previous half-inning. Miller delivered a triple to the left center gap to drive in the first run before Skinner doubled him home one batter later to extend it to 8-4.
 
As was the case in each of the games yesterday, the Golden Bears continued to fight back as they got one back in the bottom of eight to keep within striking distance. With the bases loaded and one down, Roch Whittaker hit a deep fly ball to center to score Hormann, but that was all they could muster again as a few more were stranded.
 
The Lancers added one more in the top of the ninth on a CSP error before the Golden Bears were retired in order to bring the game to a 9-5 final.
 
CSP is set for an earlier start time tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 1:30 p.m. against Northern State. The two schools are scheduled to play two seven-inning contests in a doubleheader.