MINNETONKA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (15-9, 8-6 NSIC) shut out the University of Mary (2-28, 0-20 NSIC) in both games on Thursday morning as they picked up their ninth and 10^th shutouts of the season. CSP rolled to a game one win 6-0 before taking game two 7-0.
 
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Concordia will have a quick turnaround as they travel back to Plattsmouth, Neb. tomorrow for a huge doubleheader with #3 Augustana starting at 5 p.m. Due to inclement weather over the weekend, the initial four-game weekend series has been cut down to two game on Friday with the rest of the weekend being cancelled.
 
The Golden Bears head into Friday's doubleheader with an all-time mark of 4-23 against the Vikings. CSP has gone 1-9 against Augie at neutral sites in the all-time series. Last season, Augustana swept the four regular season meetings as well as a meeting in the NSIC Tournament.

In Thursday's doubleheader with U-Mary, the Golden Bears continue to pile up ridiculous pitching lines as they extended their lead in the nation in shutouts with two more. Incredibly, Concordia has now picked up shutouts in both halves of a doubleheader four times in seven tries in NSIC play.
 
Gus Varland came heartbreakingly close to his second no-hitter in 13 months (and third for the team) as a soft infield single spoiled the bid with two outs in the seventh in what ended up being a one-hit shutout to start the day. Zach Lauzon and Connor Hurley joined in the fun in game two as they combined for a three-hit, nine-inning shutout in game two. Varland dropped his ERA to 0.71 on the season as he picked up his fourth win while Lauzon dropped his down to 2.08 while grabbing his second win. Overall, the staff held U-Mary to an .088 average with no extra-base hits in the two games.
 
The effort lowered the team ERA to 2.87 through 194.1 innings while the staff has struck out 220 during that span and has compiled a .227 opponent batting average. Concordia's top four starters have been even better as Varland, Lauzon, Josh Gaworski and Louie Varland have combined for 147 strikeouts in 115.1 innings along with a miniscule 1.01 ERA.
 
The offense came through with a solid day of their own as they had five different hitters pick up at least three hits to finish with a .313 team average. Mickey Leius and Roch Whittaker helped lead the way as Leius had four hits, including two doubles, while driving in two, and Whittaker picked up three hits, two of which were doubles, with three RBIs.

GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 6, U-Mary 0
In what has already been an incredible season for the CSP pitching staff, Gus Varland (4-0) put together one of best outings of the season as he fell one out short of the no-hitter. The junior right-hander was in control from the start as he allowed just one over the minimum until the seventh and allowed only an infield hit and a walk on the day. Varland struck out 10 in the outing to give him a pair of double-digit strikeout performances on the year and six in his career.
 
The offense provided more than enough support for Varland as they put one on the board in the second, three more in the third, and two more in the fifth to give the Golden Bears a comfortable victory. It proved to be a true team effort with all nine hitters reaching base at least once. CSP also had five different hitters score and four drive in runs.
 
Mickey Leius and Roch Whittaker each delivered RBI doubles as Leius opening the scoring and Whittaker tacked on the final two insurance runs. Carter Schmidt drove in another run with a single while Isaac Hormann drove in a run of his own with a fielder's choice. Ryan Christopher was the lone Concordia hitter to register a multi-hit game as he went 2-3 with a pair of solid singles and a run scored.
 
Charles Bielejeski (0-3) took the loss for the Marauders as he allowed all six runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings in the start.
 
Things got off to an inauspicious start for Concordia as they went down in order in the top of the first before Varland walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the frame. Varland quickly right the ship as he coaxed a pop up on a bunt and picked up a groundball double play to end the inning. He would not allow another runner until hitting the leadoff hitter in the fourth.
 
The Golden Bears opened up the scoring in the second as Hormann led off with a single before coming around to score on a two-out double off the bat of Leius. An inning later, CSP took advantage of an errant throw on an attempted sacrifice bunt with two on and no out to allow Christopher to score. Schmidt followed with his RBI single and Hormann beat out a double play to pick up an RBI and extend the lead to 4-0.
 
Whittaker put it out of reach in the fifth as he came through with a big two-out double to the right center gap to score two more and bring it to the final score of 6-0.
 
The biggest drama that remained was the no-hit bid. Varland received some major help from his defense in the bottom half of the fifth as Christopher made an impressive diving catch in center before Schmidt made a sliding catch to end the inning. After a 1-2-3 sixth, the leadoff hitter reached on an error in the seventh to give U-Mary their first baserunner since the fourth. Varland pulled within an out of the no-no after a groundout and a strikeout, but an infield single on a slow roller up the middle off the bat of Chris Scott brought it to a close. Varland promptly struck out the next hitter on three pitches to finish off the complete game shutout.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 7, U-Mary 0
Zach Lauzon (2-3) picked up right where Varland left off as he blanked U-Mary over 7.0 innings to claim the win. The fellow North St. Paul native allowed just two hits while striking out seven on the afternoon. Connor Hurley came on for the eighth and ninth innings to seal the shutout win as he limited the Marauders to just a hit while striking out four.
 
The CSP lineup gave their pitchers some breathing room for the second game in a row as they scored in five of the first six innings to put it out of reach. It was the second consecutive contest in which all nine starters reached base safely.
 
Mickey Leius wrapped up a solid day by going 3-4 with a double, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI while Connor Trygstad matched his output with three hits as well.
 
Carter Schmidt also reached four times with a pair of hits and a pair of walk while Roch Whittaker registered two hits and a walk while driving in one and scoring one.
 
Jake Johnson (0-6) lasted just 2.0 innings for the University of Mary as he gave up four runs (three earned) to pick up the loss.
 
The Golden Bears used a two-out rally to open the scoring as back-to-back walks to Drew Sannes and Isaac Hormann set up another RBI hit for Whittaker as he lofted a single into left center to score Sannes.
 
CSP came right back in the second with three more runs to build an early edge. Connor Olson brought home the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to drive in Leius before Trygstad drove in Christopher with a two-out single. A dropped fly ball allowed another run to score as CSP pushed their lead to 4-0 heading to the bottom of two.
 
Concordia continued to add to their lead with single runs in three of the next four innings to start to pull away. A passed ball with the bases loaded in the third allowed the fifth run of the game to score before Olson added his second sacrifice fly in the fifth. Leius drew a bases loaded walk in the sixth to bring the score to 7-0 with three and a half innings to play.
 
That would be all in terms of scoring as Lauzon threw a scoreless seventh before Hurley came on shut down the Marauders over the final two frames.