JOPLIN, Mo. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (10-4, 2-1 NSIC) claimed a series victory with a 7-1 win over Southwest Minnesota State (2-6, 1-2 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon as the Golden Bears took the series two games to one.
CSP made it six straight seasons with a conference-opening series win as they improved to 4-1 against SMSU on the year.
Keanu Mendez (2-1) was dominant on the hill for the Golden Bears as he finished the day with nine strikeouts in his 7.0 innings of work to grab the win. The senior right-hander did not allow a run until the eighth as he allowed just one run on six hits in the outing.
Josh Gaworski and
Shane Benson each registered a shutout inning in relief to seal a comfortable victory.
The offense was nearly as impressive as they knocked out 13 hits and scored seven runs in eight trips to the plate. The 13 hits were the second most on the year for the team while the seven runs tied for second. The production came from everywhere in the order as eight different players tallied at least a hit, including five with multi-hit performances.
Making his third start of the season,
Jarod Wandersee took advantage of the opportunity as he picked up his first two-hit game and connected on his first career homer in the win. He finished the day 2-4 with a pair of runs driven in. Fellow middle infielder
Isaac Hormann added a home run of his own, his second in as many days, while also going 2-4.
Drew Sannes chipped in three RBIs in a two-hit day while
Carter Schmidt and
Cole Kirchoff had a pair of hits apiece as well.
CSP knocked around SMSU starter Cole Peterson (0-2) as they tagged him with 10 hits and four runs (three earned) in his 6.1 innings to hand him the loss. Nathan Kuhn registered the lone RBI for SMSU as he finished the game 2-3 with a double and a walk to lead the way.
The Golden Bears opened the scoring in the bottom of the second as they made the Mustangs pay for giving them an extra out with an error in the inning. Two batters after an errant throw on a potential double play ball,
Drew Sannes came to bat with two outs and two on and snuck a single past a diving first baseman into right field to score the game's first run.
CSP was right back at it one inning later as they strung together three hits to double their lead. The top three in the Golden Bear order,
Carter Schmidt,
Isaac Hormann and
Roch Whittaker, made it back-to-back-to-back singles capped off by Whittaker's run-scoring knock to left.
Another run in the fifth gave the Golden Bears a little more breathing room as it was Wandersee's turn to deliver the run-scoring hit. The freshman came to the plate with Steckler standing on second and dropped a single just inside the right field foul line to score him.
Concordia added the icing on the cake in the seventh as the CSP middle infield combination both went deep in the inning. Wandersee took the first pitch he saw in the at-bat over the left field wall before Hormann followed with a deep shot that landed in the same area two batters later to extend the lead to 5-0.
Southwest Minnesota State did manage to spoil the shutout bid, however, as the Mustangs finally got to Mendez a half inning later in the eighth. A leadoff single followed by an RBI off the bat of Nathan Kuhn put an end to the shutout and brought an end to an impressive outing for Mendez. Gaworski came on and registered all three outs in the inning to keep the Golden Bear lead at four.
CSP got that run back and more in their half of the eighth as Sannes collected his second RBI hit of the contest. The senior third baseman hugged the right field line with an opposite field liner to bring in two runs and grow the Concordia lead to 7-1 heading to the ninth.
Benson came on for the ninth and worked around a pair of hits as he coaxed a game-ending double play to finish off the win.
CSP is scheduled for five games at home next week with a doubleheader on Wednesday against Minot State and a three-game weekend series with Minnesota Crookston. Check back for any potential schedule updates.
