MINNETONKA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (11-8, 3-5 NSIC) dropped the third game of the series to Minnesota Crookston (13-7, 6-0 NSIC) by a score of 4-3 on Monday afternoon at Veterans Field.
The Golden Eagles followed the same recipe for success in all three games as they jumped ahead early before holding off CSP to claim the win. UMC picked up just their second series win ever against the Golden Bears and first since 2001 as they dropped Concordia to 46-9 in 55 meetings all-time.
It was a game of missed opportunities for both teams as the Golden Bears stranded 10 runners while the Golden Eagles left 13 on base. CSP did manage to out-hit UMC in the game as they tallied 11 hits compared to 10 for Minnesota Crookston.
It was the middle of the CSP order that did most of the damage as the 4-5-6 hitters combined to go 7-13 (.538).
Cole Kirchoff led the way with a three-hit day, including an RBI triple, while
Roch Whittaker and
Ryan Christopher added two hits apiece. Whittaker and Christopher remained tied for the team lead with seven multi-hit games with their performances.
Jeffrey Kressler also had a productive day at the plate as he picked up his first career multi-hit game, going 2-3 with a run batted in.
Patrick Bordewick added a single to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
Keanu (2-2) took the loss for the Golden Bears on the mound as he was charged with three earned runs over 5.0 innings while striking out four.
Blake Stelzer added an impressive relief outing as he held UMC scoreless over 4.0 innings, scattering two hits and two walks while striking out three.
Nate Albrecht (2-1) picked up the win for Minnesota Crookston despite being tagged with nine hits and three walks in 5.0 innings of work. The left-hander allowed just two runs as he worked out of trouble much of the afternoon. The bullpen added 4.0 innings of one-run ball, capped off by a perfect 2.1 innings of work for Dalton Grose as he registered his sixth save.
For the third time in as many games in the series, the Golden Eagles opened up the scoring in their half of the second to build an early advantage. Mason Ruhlman drove in the game's first run with a triple just out of the reach of
Carter Schmidt before Landyn Swenson pushed the lead to 3-0 with a two-run single to the right center gap.
The Golden Bears responded with a productive inning of their own as they trimmed the deficit to one with two runs in their half of the second. After singles from
Cole Kirchoff and
Ryan Bastyr to start the inning,
Jeffrey Kressler added a single of his own one batter later to drive in a run.
Carter Schmidt then walked to load the bases to set up an
Isaac Hormann sacrifice fly before a groundout ended the frame.
The 3-2 score held until the fifth when Minnesota Crookston added an insurance run. Back-to-back singles from Travis Conoryea and Scott Finberg put runners on the corners before Ruhlman drove in Conoryea with a sacrifice fly.
After a few more scoreless innings, Concordia managed to shrink the gap back down to one in the seventh. With two outs and nobody on,
Ryan Christopher kept the inning alive with a single up the middle before moving into scoring position on a balk. He would score easily one batter later as Kirchoff followed with a triple over the head of the centerfielder. CSP was unable to push across the tying run, however, as Kirchoff was stranded at third when a fly out ended the inning.
That proved to be all the scoring for the game as Grose retired the Golden Bears in order in both the eighth and the ninth to seal the win for the Golden Eagles.
CSP returns to Minnetonka High School this Wednesday as they take on Bemidji State in a doubleheader set to begin at 5 p.m.
