ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (20-12, 13-9 NSIC) capped off their home slate with a huge doubleheader sweep of Winona State (17-18, 16-12 NSIC) as they claimed a series win on the weekend.
 
In their final home weekend at Barnes Field, Concordia's seniors made it count as they helped guide the squad to take three of four from the Warriors. Tanner Holmquist and Connor Olson each tallied six hits on the weekend as Holmquist went deep three times while Olson picked up five hits and a homer just on Sunday. Sunday proved to be a memorable one for Olson in another way as he became the fourth member of the 200-hit club in the Division II era for Concordia with his seventh inning single in game two.
 
As a team, Concordia finished the weekend at .313 with 40 hits in 128 trips to the plate while knocking six home runs over the four game series.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 7, Winona State 2
With the wind blowing out to left at Barnes Field, the long ball played a big role as the Golden Bears hammered out three two-run home runs to aid the winning effort.
 
Tanner Holmquist made it two straight days with a homer while Connor Olson hit his fourth of the year and Connor Trygstad hit his third. Each of the three registered two hits in the game as Trygstad drove in three and Holmquist and Olson each drove in two. Joining in with a multi-hit performance was Isaac Hormann, who added two hits and a pair of runs scored.
 
On the mound, Keanu Mendez (2-1) was in control throughout as he held WSU to two runs on seven hits with just one walk while striking out six over 6.0 innings to pick up the win. Zach Lauzon followed with a rare relief appearance as he worked a scoreless seventh to finish off the game.
 
Dillon Whittaker (4-1), brother of Golden Bear first baseman Roch Whittaker, took the loss for the Warriors as he was tagged for six runs (four earned) over 4.0 innings in the start. He walked none and struck out three in the losing effort.
 
Holmquist delivered the first blow as he stepped up to the plate with a runner on first and one out in the bottom of the first and deposited one over the right center wall to make it 2-0.
 
Winona State got one back two innings later in the top of the third as Nathan Loomis walked to start off the inning before Sam Kohnle scored him with an RBI double, but the Golden Bears quickly regained momentum. With two outs and Holmquist standing on second in the CSP half of the frame, Connor Olson launched a two-run shot to left to extend the lead to 4-1 heading to the fourth.
 
It was Trygstad's turn to go deep in the fourth as he followed a one out double off the bat of Patrick Bordewick with a two-out, two-run blast to left to extend the Concordia advantage to five at 6-1.
 
The Warriors cut into the lead with a run in the top of the sixth, but CSP regained their five-run cushion in the bottom of the inning with a run scoring double off the bat of Hormann. Lauzon worked around a single in the seventh to hold the final margin at 7-2.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 5, Winona State 4
Concordia jumped ahead early again in game two and managed to hold off the Warriors in the later innings to secure the series win by taking the second game of the day by a score of 5-4.
 
Tanner Holmquist made it three homers while Connor Olson provided a three-hit game for his second consecutive multi-hit game. In total, eight of the nine CSP hitters registered hits in a balanced offensive attack.
 
Ryan Christopher kept the Winona State lineup off-balanced in his 5.0 innings as he held them to four hits and one run while registering six strikeouts in his second career start. Despite leaving with the lead, Christopher registered a no-decision.
 
Out of the bullpen, it was Gus Varland (6-1) that picked up the win as he left the contest with the game tied before CSP put two on the board to give him the win. Luke DeGrammont followed with a clean seventh before Riley Sweeney came on to work the final 2.0 innings to pick up his sixth save of the season.
 
Austin Savary (4-1) was the losing pitcher for the Warriors as he worked 7.0 innings and gave up five runs before giving way to the bullpen.
 
It was Holmquist that opened the scoring again in game two as he launched his third home run of the series on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first.
 
The Golden Bears doubled their advantage one inning later as Ben Suits was hit by a pitch with one down before Tom Austin extended the inning with a two-out single through the hole on the left side of the infield. Jake Steckler capped off the rally with a bloop single to center to score Suits.
 
From there, WSU scratched their way back into the game with single runs in the fourth and the sixth to even the score at 2-2. Winona State could have had an even bigger inning in the first as they had runners on second and third with nobody out, but Christopher allowed just one to score on a wild pitch while retiring the final three hitters of the inning. Against Varland in the sixth, Mitchell Heid came through with an RBI groundball single up the middle to tie it up.
 
Concordia quickly jumped back out front as Olson led off the bottom of the inning with a single before a fielder's choice brought Suits to the plate. Suits delivered a low liner to center that got under the centerfielder's glove and rolled all the way to the wall for an RBI triple. Mickey Leius followed with a deep sacrifice fly to center to push it to 4-2.
 
CSP grabbed one more insurance run in the seventh as Hormann doubled before eventually scoring on a wild pitch later in the inning.
 
The Warriors made things interesting in the ninth with a pair of home runs from Loomis and Andrew Pliner to cut it to one, but Sweeney shut the door from there with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
 
Concordia will take on the University of Minnesota on the road for a single non-conference contest on Tuesday night before wrapping up the regular season next weekend at Sioux Falls. The Golden Bears and Cougars will meet for two games on Friday and two more on Saturday.