ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (18-12, 11-9 NSIC) battled their way to a tense doubleheader split with Winona State (17-16, 16-10 NSIC) on Saturday on Senior Day at Barnes Field. CSP came from behind for a 2-1 win in game one before Winona State stormed back to take game two 8-6 in 11 innings.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 2, Winona State 1
After falling behind just three batters into the game, the Golden Bears battled their way back to tie it up on the fifth before grabbing the go-ahead run in the sixth to take game one of the series.
 
It was Tanner Holmquist that played the role of hero as his solo home run with two down in the bottom of the sixth proved to be the difference. The homer was Holmquist's first of the season and second hit of the game as he came through with a big game on Senior Day.
 
Holmquist was not the only senior to put together a solid game as Adam Hildebrandt added two hits of his own and scored the game-tying run in dramatic fashion. Isaac Hormann chipped in an RBI single while Connor Trygstad had a hit as well.
 
Josh Gaworski did not have his best stuff on the day, but the junior battled throughout the outing to hold the Warriors to just one run over 5.0 innings. The right-hander picked up a no-decision after scattering five hits and three walks while striking out three.
 
Riley Sweeney (1-1) put up another dominant performance out of the bullpen to claim the win as he retired all six hitters he faced. The junior struck out the side to keep the score at 1-1 in the sixth before coaxing two fly outs and a groundout to preserve the one-run edge in the seventh.
 
It was a tough luck loss for Winona State starter Aaron Mutter (3-2) as he allowed just two runs and six hits while striking out four in the complete game effort.
 
The Warriors spotted Mutter an early lead as Zac Stange led off with a single before coming around to score two batters later on a Sam Kohnle RBI single up the middle. That proved to be the only damage against Gaworski as he stranded two in the first and at least one in each of the next four innings as well to keep the score at 1-0.
 
After being stymied over the first four innings, the Golden Bears broke through in the fifth as they managed to manufacture a run. Hildebrandt opened up the frame with an opposite field single to left before moving into scoring position on a Carter Schmidt sacrifice bunt. After a fly out for the second out, Hormann beat out a single on a grounder to the shortstop in the hole and Hildebrandt kept on running all the way from second to score. While the throw looked to beat Hildebrandt by several steps at the plate, he acrobatically leaped around the catcher and avoid the tag to score.
 
Sweeney held it there with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth before Holmquist stepped up to the plate with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the inning. On a 2-1 pitch, Holmquist launched one over the high fence in left to send the CSP dugout into a frenzy.
 
Sweeney closed the door in the top of the seventh with another 1-2-3 inning to close out the 2-1 victory.
 
GAME TWO: Winona State 8, Concordia-St. Paul 6 (11 inn.)
The Golden Bears looked to be headed to a doubleheader sweep as they erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to carry a 6-3 lead into the eighth, but the Warriors stormed back with three in the eighth and two in the 11^th to salvage the split.
 
Concordia finished the game with 13 hits while they stranded eight runners in the contest. Isaac Hormann had a massive game as he finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-6 with three RBI and two runs scored with his first home run of the season.
 
Carter Schmidt, Drew Sannes and Patrik Bordewick all chipped in two hits apiece to help the offense while Schmidt scored twice in the game.
 
Despite no factoring in to the decisions, Louie Varland contributed another solid outing as he limited the Warriors to a pair of earned runs in 6.0 innings before handing it off to the bullpen. Ross Bastyr followed with 1.1 innings in relief before Connor Hurley came on for the final 3.2 innings. Hurley (0-2) took the loss despite striking out six and walking just one in the game.
 
Jacob Watzka (2-1) picked up the win in relief as he threw 3.0 hitless innings with three strikeouts to finish off the game.
 
The Warriors followed a similar script to game one as they opened the scoring in the top of the first for the second consecutive game. Three of the first five hitters reached safely, including two straight with two out, capped by an RBI single off the bat of Taylor Field to make it 1-0.
 
That margin held until the top of the fourth when Winona State doubled their advantage with another run. This time it was Nathan Loomis' turn to deliver the run scoring single with two outs as he drove in Tanner Williams to extend it to 2-0.
 
CSP erased the deficit a half an inning later as they evened it up at 2-2 with a pair of runs. Drew Sannes, Connor Olson and Mickey Leius picked up back-to-back singles to load the bases with nobody out to start the frame. After an unlucky break on a hard liner back to the pitcher resulted in an out on a fielder's choice at the plate, Ben Suits lifted a deep fly ball for a sacrifice fly to push across the first run. The Golden Bears then executed the first and third play as Zach Elder got caught in a rundown between first and second to allow Leius to cross the plate and tie the game.
 
Williams put WSU back in front with an RBI single in the top of the fifth before Concordia answered with two in the bottom of the fifth to take their first lead of the contest. Carter Schmidt got the rally started with a one-out single before Hormann hooked a ball around the left field foul pole for a two-run homer to give CSP a 4-3 edge.
 
Two innings later, Concordia added two more to pad their lead as Hormann looped a double down the left field line to score Patrick Bordewick before Holmquist drove in Hormann with a single up the middle.
 
Those two insurance runs proved to be important as the Warriors scored three runs in the eighth to tie the score. Loomis cut the deficit to one with a double to the right center gap before scoring on a double to left center for Stange to tie it.
 
With both teams threatening to score the go-ahead run over the next few innings, Winona State broke the deadlock in their half of the 11^th as a leadoff single, a fielder's choice in which no out was recorded, and a balk put two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Field came through with a solid single to left to score the eventual game-winner before another run scoring single off the bat of Mitchell Heid brought it to the final score of 8-6.
 
The Golden Bears and Warriors will wrap up the four-game series tomorrow afternoon with another doubleheader at Bob Barnes Field. First pitch in game one is scheduled for noon.