WAYNE, Neb. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (17-11, 10-8 NSIC) picked up a huge doubleheader sweep on the road at Wayne State (15-21, 13-13 NSIC) on Wednesday night as the Golden Bears took game one 5-3 and game two 8-3.
 
Entering the day a game behind the Wildcats in the NSIC standings and right on the edge of the top eight in the league, the Golden Bears picked up two crucial victories to move past WSC and slide into sole possession of sixth in the conference with eight games to play. CSP will face two more teams in a similar spot in the standings over the final two weekends as they play host to Winona State, who is a game ahead in fifth, and travel to Sioux Falls, who is a game and a half behind in eighth.
 
While the team's ability to rack up shutouts at a high rate has played a major role on their season, Concordia found another path to victory as they claimed their first two conference wins of the year that were not shutouts.
 
Despite not shutting out Wayne State in either contest, CSP's pitching staff still managed to compile a 1.69 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 16.0 innings on the day to pick up the two wins as they gave up a combined three earned runs. With a total of 11 strikeouts in the first game and 13 more in the second, Concordia's pitching staff has struck out double digit batters in 11 out of 28 games on the season. The two Golden Bear starters played a big role in the gaudy strikeout totals on the day as Varland struck out 10 in game one before Lauzon grabbed nine strikeouts in game two.
 
Drew Sannes had a huge day at the as he bumped his season average back up over .400 on the year as his five hits moved him to .411. Carter Schmidt and Isaac Hormann picked up three hits apiece as well to help guide the offense.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 5, Wayne State 3
Concordia spotted Gus Varland a pair of early runs before trading runs in the later innings to claim a 5-3 game one victory over the Wildcats.
 
Varland (5-1) picked up his fifth victory of the season as he worked six innings of three-run (two earned) ball in the win. The junior right-hander struck out double digits for the second straight outing and third time in his last five with 10 strikeouts while allowing six hits. Varland has now struck out 59 hitters in just 44.0 innings while allowing just five earned runs.
 
Riley Sweeney made it seven scoreless outings in his last eight with a shutout seventh to grab his fifth save on the season. Sweeney walked one, struck out one, and allowed one hit in the frame.
 
It was the middle of the Concordia order that did all of the damage as the two through five hitters picked up all eight hits and all three runs batted in in the contest. Drew Sannes paced the squad with three hits in three trips to go along with a run scored and an RBI. Carter Schmidt added a pair of hits, including a double, while scoring once.
 
Isaac Rubendall (2-2) was the losing pitcher for the Wildcats as he allowed all five runs (three earned) in 5.1 innings of work in the start.
 
After a quick first inning for both teams, the Golden Bears struck first in the top of the second with a pair of runs. Carter Schmidt kicked off the rally with a leadoff double before scoring on an RBI single off the bat of Drew Sannes one batter later. Sannes moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt and eventually came around to score on a fielding error on a ground ball hit by Patrick Bordewick to double the lead.
 
That lead remained until the fifth when CSP added to their advantage. The inning started off innocently as the first two hitters were retired before Ryan Christopher drew a walk and Connor Olson reached on an error to put two on for Connor Trygstad. Trygstad came through with an RBI single through the hole into right field before getting caught in a rundown between first and second one batter later to allow Olson to score the fourth run of the game for Concordia.
 
Following four scoreless frames with just one hit, the Wildcats responded with two runs of their own in their half of the fifth. With a runner on third and two down, Jackson Petersen put WSC on the board with a single to right to score the run. After stealing second, Petersen came around to score on a single off the bat of Tanner Simons to cut the CSP lead to 4-2 with two innings to play.
 
The Golden Bears pushed their advantage back to three with a run in the top of the sixth as three of the first four hitters picked up hits to start the inning. Isaac Hormann led off with a single before Sannes added one of his own two batters later and Roch Whittaker followed with a single to center to bring in Hormann. CSP loaded the bases later in the inning, but were unable to add any more runs as it remained 5-2 heading to the bottom of the sixth.
 
Wayne State threatened to tie it up or take the lead in the bottom of the inning as they scored one on a sacrifice fly before loading the bases, but Varland limited the damage with a fly out to end the inning. That would be it for scoring as Sweeney stranded a pair in a scoreless seventh inning.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 8, Wayne State 3
Concordia jumped ahead early again in game two before scoring in four consecutive innings in the later innings to pull away with an 8-3 victory.
 
Zach Lauzon (3-3) followed a similar script to Varland as he slowed down the Wildcats before giving way to the bullpen to claim the win. Lauzon tallied nine strikeouts over 5.0 innings to bring his season total to 55 in just 39.2 innings on the season. The junior transfer held Wayne State to three hits and three walks while neither of the two runs he allowed were earned before he turned it over to Ross Bastyr and Connor Hurley.
 
Bastyr and Hurley got the job done in the later innings as they pitched 2.0 innings apiece in relief of Lauzon while allowing a combined one run. Bastyr allowed one run on three hits while striking out two before Hurley scattered a hit and a walk while also picking up a pair of strikeouts.
 
Adam Hildebrandt made the most of his game two start at second base as he picked up two hits, a walk and a stolen base while scoring three of the team's eight runs in the game. Joining him with multi-hit performances were Isaac Hormann and Drew Sannes as Hormann singled twice and walked while driving in two and scoring one and Sannes picked up two singles and an RBI. Carter Schmidt also reached three time with a pair of walks and a single.
 
WSC starter Spencer Johnson did not fact in the decision as he left with the score tied at 2-2 after four innings. It was Adam Poldberg (0-1) who took the loss despite not allowing a hit as he walked two and gave up the go-ahead run in the losing effort.
 
It was Concordia that opened the scoring again in game two as they put up a pair of runs in the top of the third after a scoreless first and second. Hildebrandt got things started with a one out single before Schmidt walked and Trygstad singled to load the bases. An error on a grounder off the bat of Isaac Hormann brought home the first run before a Sannes RBI single made it 2-0.
 
Wayne State answered back with two runs in the fourth as Andrew Hanson drove in one with a single and Bryce Bisenius scored on a wild pitch, but Concordia quickly regained the lead.
 
It was Hildebrandt that once again played the role of catalyst with a leadoff walk before moving up to second on a wild pitch. Trygstad moved him over on a groundout to second base before he came home on another wild pitch to put CSP back in front at 3-2.
 
In inning later, Mickey Leius and Carter Schmidt each delivered run scoring singles to push it to a three run advantage before tacking on one more to make it 6-2 in the seventh on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Connor Olson.
 
The Warriors got one back with a run on a Travis Miller double in the bottom of the seventh before Isaac Hormann put it out of reach with a two-run single a half an inning later to bring it to the final score of 8-3.
 
The Golden Bears return home for their first and final home series of the season as they play host to Winona State on Saturday and Sunday at Bob Barnes Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.