ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fifth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (23-14) will open up play in the NSIC Tournament against fourth-seeded Minnesota State (31-14) on Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. at Sioux Falls Stadium.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
The top eight teams will converge on Sioux Falls, S.D. this week for the NSIC Tournament with action beginning on Wednesday and concluding on Saturday. The tournament utilizes an eight-team, double elimination bracket with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. The Golden Bears and Mavericks will meet in the opening round at Sioux Falls Stadium on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. with the winner taking on the winner of Minot State and Northern State at Karras Park on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The loser of CSP and MSU will face the loser of Minot and NSU at noon on Thurday at Karras Park. Live video and live stats for all tournament contests will be available on the
tournament website.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Concordia is making its 11th appearance in the NSIC Tournament, carrying two tournament championships into the event (2003, 2008). Concordia enters this year's tournament with a record of 11-17 in conference tourney action and are making their sixth appearance in a row. In 2016, CSP put together their deepest run in tourney play last season since winning the 2008 NSIC Tournament and earning its first NCAA Central Region Tournament appearance. In that trip, the Golden Bears knocked off Minnesota State in the first round while also handing top-seeded Minnesota Duluth a pair of losses before falling to St. Cloud State in the championship. Last season, the Golden Bears fell to Augustana in the opening round before being knocked out by Minnesota Duluth the next day.
CONFERENCE STANDOUTS
With the conference regular season in the books, the Golden Bears had several players finish near the top of the NSIC in several different statistical categories. The Concordia pitching staff was especially well-represented as they had three of the top five in ERA in the league.
Gus Varland took home the crown with a 1.12 mark in NSIC action while
Louie Varland finished third at 1.54 and
Zach Lauzon finished fifth at 1.77. CSP had even more near the top in opponent batting average as
Gus Varland's mark of .161 ranked second,
Zach Lauzon's mark of .184 ranked third,
Louie Varland's mark of .202 ranked sixth, and
Josh Gaworski's mark of .202 ranked seventh. The quartet also all ranked in the top six in hits allowed and runs allowed as well.
At the plate,
Carter Schmidt put together an impressive conference campaign as his .381 average ranked sixth in the league while he also ranked sixth in on-base percentage at .458.
LAST TIME OUT
Concordia opened the week with a 5-0 loss against the University of Minnesota before taking three of four at Sioux Falls over the weekend to clinch a spot in the NSIC Tournament. The Golden Bears earned the five seed in the tournament as they qualified for the postseason for the sixth consecutive season.
CSP limited their opponents to just 25 hits and a .200 average over the five games on the week while putting up 44 hits and a .288 average at the plate. Concordia took advantage of their depth on the week as 13 different hitters received at least one at-bat and 11 different pitchers made an appearance in the five contests.
Gus Varland picked up his seventh win on the season after working 7.0 innings of two-hit ball with nine strikeouts in game one against USF. After allowing a double and a homer to the first two hitters he faced,
Michael Voss faced just one over the minimum over his five innings of work against the Gophers.
Connor Olson picked up a team-best seven hits with a home run and a double to compile a .350/.350/.550 slash line.
MSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia has met Minnesota State 37 previous times heading into this week's meeting as they have compiled a record of 6-31 in those meetings. After winning two out of the first seven meetings, CSP dropped 22 of the next 24 innings as the Mavericks took control of the series. The Golden Bears took the final regular season meeting in 2016 before claiming another win in the conference tournament to pick up their first ever winning streak against MSU. That streak came to a close last season as Minnesota State has won the last four in a row.
LAST MEETING WITH THE MAVERICKS
Back on April 5, CSP dropped both contests to Minnesota State at Plattsmouth High School as the Mavericks took game one 13-2 and game two 5-1.
In game one, the Mavericks put pressure on the Golden Bears throughout the entire contest with runs in six of the seven innings as they pulled away for a comfortable game one victory.
The offensive explosion was more than enough for the Minnesota State ace as Dalton Roach limited Concordia to just two runs on five hits while striking out six in his 6.0 innings of work to stay unbeaten on the year.
Mickey Leius provided the pop in the Concordia lineup with his first homer of the season while
Carter Schmidt was the lone Golden Bear with a multi-hit game as he registered his 10th with two hits in three trips.
Connor Trygstad and
Isaac Hormann provided the other two hits for CSP.
In game two, Minnesota State followed a similar recipe for success in game two as they took an early lead before pulling away late. The Mavericks held a 1-0 lead until the Golden Bears tied it in the fifth, but MSU scored in three of the final four frames to grab the 5-1 win.
After having six of MSU's 13 runs in the first game go as unearned runs, three of the five in the second game also came off of Concordia errors.
Zach Lauzon was harmed by unearned runs in the game as he gave up four runs (one earned) over 6.1 innings in the start as he took the loss.
The Golden Bears scattered five hits throughout the order as no player picked up more than one.
Mickey Leius was once again the lone run producer as his RBI triple scored CSP's only run in the game.
