MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (20-13) made life tough on the #20th-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (29-12) before falling 5-0 in non-conference action at Siebert Field on Tuesday night.
Despite a bit of a rocky start,
Michael Voss (0-1) put together an overall strong performance on the hill for the Golden Bears. In his second career start, the freshman right-hander retired 14 of the final 16 hitters he faced as he allowed just two runs in 5.0 innings in the loss. Voss allowed just four hits and walked none while striking out two.
Luke DeGrammont cruised through his first two innings of work before running into trouble in his third. The freshman left-hander finished his day with three runs allowed on one hit over 2.1 innings out of the bullpen.
Shane Benson came on to grab the final two outs.
At the plate,
Connor Olson stayed hot with a single and a double to give him seven hits over the last three games.
Tanner Holmquist,
Carter Schmidt and
Mickey Leius all added singles as well.
Two big hits made the difference for the University of Minnesota as Riley Smith delivered a two-run blast in the first while Micah Coffey chipped in a two-run double in the eighth to add some cushion.
Seven different Gopher pitchers combined for the shutout as Nick Lackney and Joshua Culliver each threw two innings before five more pitchers added an inning apiece. Culliver (2-2) picked up the win as he struck out three while allowing two hits in his 2.0 innings on the mound.
After a scoreless top of the first, the Gophers came out swinging in their half of the inning. Luke Pettersen led off with a double before Riley Smith launched a two-run homer to left to hang two runs on the board before an out was recorded. Voss quickly settled down from there as retired the next three in order.
Connor Olson followed with a leadoff double to left center to start the second, but was stranded there after a pair of groundouts and a deep fly out to right to end the inning.
Voss continued to roll from there as he sent the next six hitters down in order as well before facing the minimum again in the fourth to keep the score at 2-0.
Concordia started the fifth with a single, but were once again unable to push the run across as the Gophers came to bat in the bottom of the frame with the shutout intact. In that frame, Voss worked around a one-out double to pick up his fourth consecutive scoreless inning to end on a high note.
DeGrammont picked up right where Voss left off as he worked around a two-out walk in the sixth and a two-out single in the seventh to keep CSP within striking distance.
CSP put baserunners on in both the seventh and eighth innings as they continued to put pressure on the U of M, but were still unable to pick up the big hit to get on the board.
The Gophers picked up a trio of insurance runs in the eighth as four of the first five hitters reached via the walk before a two-run double off the bat of Micah Coffey brought the score to the final margin at 5-0.
The Golden Bears wrap up the regular season this weekend with a four-game series against Sioux Falls with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday.
