SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The fifth-seeded Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (25-14) scored three times in the bottom of the ninth to secure a 5-4 walk-off win over eighth-seeded Northern State (21-19) on Thursday evening at Karras Park.
Concordia advances to play second-seeded #11 Augustana at Karras Park on Friday at noon in the NSIC Tournament semifinal with the winner advancing to the title game. The win moves the Golden Bears within one game of reaching the NSIC Championship for the second time in three years as they improved their all-time mark to 13-17 in their 11 trips.
CSP's run in the winner's bracket looked to be in serious jeopardy heading into the bottom of the ninth as NSU put three on the board in the top of the inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Golden Bears showed some incredible resilience as six straight hitters reached base safely with one out in the inning, capped off by a bases loaded, walk-off single to right field off the bat of
Carter Schmidt to win it.
Schmidt led the way with two RBIs in the contest as he also drove in CSP's first run of the game with a double.
Tanner Holmquist added a multi-hit game as he scored twice and drove in another while
Isaac Hormann reached safely three times with two hits and walk.
Mickey Leius also added two hits in the win.
Gus Varland put together yet another dominant outing with 8.1 innings of four-hit ball, but the junior finished with a no decision on the day. Varland allowed just one run and struck out 10 before departing. The outing was his fourth double-digit strikeout performance on the year while he allowed four hits or less for the eighth time in 10 starts.
Louie Varland (5-1) came on with one down in the ninth and gave up three runs (one earned) in his 0.2 innings out of the bullpen, but he picked up the win as the Golden Bears grabbed the decisive edge in the bottom of the ninth.
Luke Chevalier (4-4) was matching Varland for much of the afternoon as he allowed just one run through seven and two runs through eight before being tagged with three in the ninth to take the loss. Chevalier worked 8.1 innings in the start, allowing five runs (four earned) on 10 hits while walking one with eight strikeouts. Mike Wiesmann came on to protect a one-run lead but allowed all three hitters he faced to reach safely to bring the game to a close.
After a 1-2-3 opening frame for Varland, the Golden Bears took the lead in their half of the inning. Holmquist dropped a single to left before Schmidt launched a double deep into the left center gap to score Holmquist all the way from first.
Drew Sannes drew a walk to put two on the bases, but CSP was held to just one in the inning.
The Wolves erased the Concordia lead in the top of the third as they took advantage of some two-out hitting to tie it. Mikey Adams led off with a single before a sacrifice bunt, a strikeout and a wild pitch put him on third with two down. Jack Schmidt fell behind 1-2 in the count, but roped a double between Sannes and the third base line to score Adams.
Neither team was able to put up much of a threat over the next several innings as the score remained 1-1.
Isaac Hormann picked up a leadoff double in the fifth, but a fly out and a pair of strikeouts brought the rally to a close quickly. Starting with the top of the third,
Gus Varland sent down 13 batters in a row until a leadoff single to center to kick off the eighth inning. The junior right-hander retired the next three in order to keep it even heading to the bottom of the eighth.
The Golden Bears benefitted from a Northern State miscue in the bottom of the frame as Holmquist reached safely and moved up to second on an errant throw from short to lead it off. Schmidt followed with a sacrifice bunt to move him up to third to set the stage for
Adam Hildebrandt. The pinch hitter put down a perfect bunt on a suicide squeeze to bring in Holmquist and give Concordia a 2-1 lead with three outs to go.
The top of the ninth began innocently enough with a fly out to left, but
Gus Varland was forced to leave the game one batter later. Against the younger Varland, the Wolves picked up two straight singles to put the go-ahead run on base. A high hopper to third one batter later resulted in a throw skipping past first base and into right field to allow both runners to score. Justin Barreneche added to the NSU lead with an RBI single one batter later to make it 4-2 moving into the last of the ninth.
The Golden Bears saved their best for last as they strung together five hits and a walk to pick up the win.
Roch Whittaker got the rally started with a double to the gap before
Mickey Leius and
Patrick Bordewick each added singles to cut the deficit to one. That would be all for Chevalier as Wiesmann came on and walked Hormann on four pitches to load the bases. Holmquist followed with a huge line drive to the opposite field to tie the score and bring Schmidt to the plate. Schmidt battled back from down 0-2 to lace a single of his own to right to cue the dog pile in shallow right field.
