ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (15-11, 8-8 NSIC) returns to action with six games this week as they travel to Wayne State (14-19, 12-11 NSIC) on Wednesday before hosting Winona State (14-15, 13-9 NSIC) on Saturday and Sunday.
 
SENIOR DAY
The Golden Bears will honor their nine seniors on Saturday afternoon against the Warriors on Senior Day. Following the completion of game two of the doubleheader, Bram Minser, Adam Hildebrandt, Mickey Leius, Connor Olson, Gunnar McCarthy, Zach Elder, Tanner Holmquist, and Connor Trygstad will be honored during a brief on-field ceremony. The group has helped the Golden Bears to 89 wins over the past four years while helping the team to the NSIC Tournament in each of the past three seasons.
 
HOME PLATE TAILGATE
In addition to being Senior Day, the Concordia University Alumni Association and Department of Athletics have teamed up for the Home Plate Tailgate event for alumni and their families this Saturday, April 28 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. between Barnes and Carlander Fields behind Gangelhoff Center. The event is in conjunction with the softball team hosting U-Mary at 1 p.m. at Carlander Field and the baseball team hosting Winona State at 1:30 p.m. at Barnes Field. Please RSVP for the event at ave.csp.edu/homeplate2018.
 
WATCH ONLINE VIA MULTIPLE DEVICES
Sunday's games will be streamed online, free of charge through Stretch Internet's GameCentral portal. The in-house production is a one camera, high definition feed with audio play-by-play by Dan Flanagan, the Voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. Flanagan, a St. Paul native, is a graduate of Fordham University in New York where he trained as a broadcaster.
 
The game is available on numerous devices aside from the standard online stream, viewers can view the game on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku. Simply search for the keyword "NSIC" on the preferred device.
 
Fans can also follow along on live stats through Concordia's traditional live stats page on both Saturday and Sunday as well as Wayne State's live stats page on Wednesday.
 
CHASING 200
Entering the week, Connor Olson sits just six hits shy of becoming the fourth member of the 200 career hit club at Concordia with 194. Olson recently passed former teammate Eric Fasnacht (184 career hits) to move into fourth and sits 31 hits behind another former teammate, Kyle Dalton (225 career hits), in third.
 
KINGS OF THE HILL
The Golden Bear pitching staff has been dominant so far this year as they rank near the top of the country in several statistical categories on the mound. CSP leads the country with ten shutouts while also ranking seventh in ERA (3.11), seventh in hits allowed per nine innings (7.47 per 9), ninth in WHIP (1.27), and 12th in strikeouts per nine innings (10.1). Concordia also has a few pitchers that rank near the top in the country as Louie Varland is second in the nation with his 0.62 ERA while Gus Varland also ranks near the top of the nation in several statistical categories. His 0.71 ERA puts him in fourth in the nation, his 0.79 WHIP ranks sixth, his 4.74 hits allowed per nine innings ranks ninth, and his 11.61 strikeouts per nine innings rank 38th. Zach Lauzon also ranks in the top-30 in a pitching category as his 11.94 strikeouts per nine innings ranks 28th.
 
At the plate, CSP has another player ranking near the top as Carter Schmidt is the 16th-hardest hitter to strike out in the country heading into the weekend with a strikeout every 17.4 at-bats while Connor Trygstad's .407 average ranks 43^rd.
 
WSC SERIES HISTORY
Concordia heads to Wayne, Nebraska with a record of 11-33 all-time against the Wildcats. Wayne State dominated the series from the first meeting in 2000 all the way up to 2012 with a record of 33-7 during that span. CSP managed to win back-to-back games just once, taking two in a row in 2008, through the first 40 meetings. The Golden Bears have shifted the momentum in recent years as they have won all four meetings since 2015. Concordia grabbed a doubleheader sweep in the 2015 season before winning single games in each of the past two seasons. In 26 contests in Wayne, CSP has gone 7-19.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE WILDCATS
In US Bank Stadium back on March 9, 2017, pitching was the story again in game two of the day as the Golden Bears rode the duo of Connor Hurley and Josh Lenz to a 4-3 victory to claim the split.
 
Hurley was impressive in his first collegiate start, retiring the first 11 hitters he faced en route to picking up the win. The freshman right-hander allowed just one run on two hits as he struck out eight in 5.0 innings before giving way to Lenz.
 
Lenz picked up his second save of the year as he worked the final four innings while sending the first nine hitters he faced down in order. Overall, he allowed two runs on four hits with three strikeouts, lifting his ERA to 1.38 on the year.
 
Steven Nessler produced from the bottom of the order as he collected three of the team's five hits. He doubled, drove in two, stole a base and scored a run in the game.
 
WSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia has had an even more extensive history with 72 previous meetings heading into this season against the Warriors. The Golden Bears have gone 33-39 all-time against Winona State, including a winning mark of 33-29 since May 5, 2002. Heading into the final day of the regular season last year, Concordia had won six in a row over the Warriors before WSU took the last two. The two teams have met just 20 times in St. Paul with a CSP going 8-12 on their home field.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE WARRIORS
On the last day of the regular season last year in Winona, Winona State swept day two of the weekend series with an 8-1 win in game one and a 10-6 win in game two.
 
Despite the losses, Concordia finished the weekend where they started as they locked up the seventh seed in the NSIC Baseball Tournament.
 
After a pair of closely contested games that CSP won the day before, WSU jumped ahead early and pull away for a comfortable 8-1 victory in the third game in the series. The Warriors scored in each of the first five innings, including three in the first, to come out on top.
 
In game two, outs were hard to come by in the early going of the regular season finale as the two teams combined to score 15 runs in the first four innings and 16 runs overall in the game. In addition, the teams also combined for 26, including 18 from the Warriors, as both offenses closed out the regular season swinging.
 
The Golden Bears emptied the bench in the final game of the regular season as 21 different players made appearances in the game. At the plate, the offensive output was spread out throughout the lineup with seven different players picking up hits, including two from Connor Olson. Olson also scored twice while Isaac Hormann led the way with three runs batted in.