SUPERIOR, Wis. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (14-9, 6-6 NSIC) picked up a pair of dramatic wins again Minnesota Duluth (4-14, 2-8 NSIC) at Superior High School on Sunday afternoon as they took the two games 4-2 and 10-8 to sweep the doubleheader.
 
The Golden Bears saved the decisive blow until the end in both contests as they scored three in the seventh in game one and two in the ninth of game two to take the lead in the final inning of both.
 
It was a big day at the plate for Patrick Bordewick as the CSP shortstop went 6-10 (.600) with a home run, four runs driven in and three runs scored to guide the offense. Bordewick also extended his hitting streak to 13 as he picked up his sixth and seventh multi-hit games during the streak. Carter Schmidt added a pair of multi-hit games as well to finish the day 4-8 (.500) with a double, two runs and two RBIs.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 4, Minnesota Duluth 2
In a game that featured some missed opportunities at the plate for both teams, Patrick Bordewick took full advantage of his in a crucial situation. The CSP junior delivered a go-ahead three-run home run in the top of the seventh to give the Golden Bears the decisive edge in the first game of the series.
 
The homer was one of two hits on the day for Bordewick as all of Concordia's top three hitters in the lineup delivered multi-hit games. Carter Schmidt and Isaac Hormann added 2-4 efforts as well as the trio combined for six of the team's 10 hits in the win.
 
Louie Varland (3-2) left the game in line to take a hard-luck loss before Bordewick's blast delivered his third victory of the year. Varland was solid as he struck out eight on the afternoon and held the Bulldogs to two runs on seven hits in the game. Blake Stelzer added his first career save as he worked around a pair of hits in the seventh with two straight strikeouts to finish off a scoreless inning of work.
 
Reece Dietrich was impressive in a no-decision for the Bulldogs as he allowed an unearned run on seven hits with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Sean Flaherty (1-3) picked up a blown save and a loss as he was tagged with three runs on three hits in his lone inning of work.
 
The Golden Bears threatened early with hits in each of the first three innings, including three in a row to load the bases with nobody out in the third, but were unable to capitalize as the game remained scoreless until the fifth.
 
In that fifth inning, it was a defensive miscue that allowed the first run of the game to score. With Drew Sannes, who reached on a leadoff infield single, standing on second base with two down, a grounder off the bat of Isaac Hormann resulted in an errant throw to allow Sannes to cross the plate and give CSP a 1-0 lead.
 
UMD evened it back up a half inning later as a double and a bunt single put runners on the corners with one down. The Bulldogs then successfully executed a double steal to tie the game before Varland worked out of trouble to keep the score at 1-1 heading to the sixth.
 
After a scoreless top of the sixth, the Bulldogs scored for the second inning in a row to take a 2-1 lead. With runners on the corners and two outs, Eric Yachinich came through with the go-ahead RBI with a single to the right center gap.
 
That lead would not last, however, as Bordewick provided the heroics in the seventh. Back-to-back one-out singles for Carter Schmidt and Isaac Hormann set the stage for Bordewick. The Golden Bear shortstop did not disappoint as he sent a deep drive over the left field fence to turn a 2-1 CSP deficit into a 4-2 lead.
 
Minnesota Duluth managed to put the tying run in scoring position in their half of the inning with runners on second and third with one out, but Stelzer slammed the door shut with two straight strikeouts to close out the victory.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 10, Minnesota Duluth 8
The dramatics did not stop after the opener as the two teams combined for 16 runs on 28 hits over the first eight innings before the Golden Bears scored a pair in the ninth without a hit to claim the win.
 
Bordewick provided another massive performance at the plate with a four-hit effort in game two while Schmidt and Jarod Wandersee each added a pair of hits as well. Bordewick scored twice and drove in one while Schmidt doubled, walked twice, drove in two and scored another in a big game. Ryan Bastyr and Ryan Christopher each picked up a pair of RBIs as well in the win.
 
The Golden Bear bullpen kept CSP in the game as they combined for 5.2 innings of two-run ball to go along with nine strikeouts. Luke DeGrammont (1-0) came on to retire six of the final seven hitters of the game, including three via the strikeout, to pick up his first win of the year
 
Eric Yachnich was a tough out for the Bulldogs as he collected five hits in five trips while scoring three times and driving in two more in the loss.
 
Following a three-run outburst in the last inning of game one, CSP repeated that output in the first inning of game two as they quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Three straight hitters reached safely with one out in the inning capped by a UMD error with Ryan Christopher at the plate that allowed the first run to score. One batter later, Bastyr brought home two more with a single up the middle to extend the lead to three.
 
The Bulldogs put together a crooked inning of their own in the bottom of the second as they erased the CSP advantage. UMD used some small ball to push across three runs as none of their three hits in the frame left the infield. UMD took the lead an inning later as Henry George singled home a run to make it 4-3 in their favor moving to the fourth.
 
The lead proved to be short-lived as the Golden Bears exploded for five runs in the top half of the fourth. Schmidt opened the scoring with a two-run double before Bordewick drove him in with a single of his own. Whittaker then brought home a run with a ground-rule double and Christopher added a sacrifice fly to push the lead out to 8-4.
 
The offensive outburst continued in the bottom of the frame as Minnesota Duluth cut the deficit in half. UMD pulled off a double steal with runners on first and third to score the first run in the inning before Yachnich doubled home another.
 
Minnesota Duluth completed the comeback a few innings later as they tacked on a run in the sixth and another in the seventh to tie the score at 8-8. Anders Brown delivered an RBI single to cut it to one before Yachnich contributed another run-scoring hit to even the score.
 
The Golden Bears once again waited until the ninth to take the decisive advantage as they scored two without a hit in the inning. CSP utilized four walks and three wild pitches to fuel their effort in the frame as Jake Steckler, pinch-running for Ryan Bastyr who led off the inning with a walk, came home to score on a wild pitch before Drew Sannes, who also drew a walk, crossed the plate on another two batters later.
 
DeGrammont sealed the win in the bottom of the ninth as he delivered a second scoreless inning to finish off the sweep of the day.
 
The two teams will play two more contests tomorrow with a nine-inning NSIC contest scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with a seven-inning non-conference game to follow.