TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (6-1) got back in the win column with a 3-1 win over Southwest Minnesota State (0-1) on Thursday night at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in the Tucson Invitational Games.
 
Pitching was the name of the game as the two teams combined for 28 strikeouts, including 15 for the Golden Bear pitching staff. The total of 15 was the fifth-most in a game in the DII-era at Concordia and the most since striking out 16 against Winona State on April 28, 2018.
 
Sophomore Ryan Christopher (1-0) picked up the win on the mound as he struck out eight hitters and allowed just three hits and one run over 5.0 innings before handing it off to the bullpen. The left-hander made life especially tough on the Mustangs left-handed hitters as he held them to a combined 1-10 with seven strikeouts in game.
 
The CSP relievers picked up right where Christopher left off as Blake Stelzer worked 3.0 scoreless frames while allowing just two hits and striking out six while Shane Benson nailed down his second save of the year with a scoreless ninth in which he also tallied a strikeout.
 
SMSU starter Justin Clark (0-1) was saddled with the loss as he allowed three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in 4.2 innings. He worked four scoreless innings to start the game but was unable to make it out of the fifth as the Golden Bears put three on the board. Alex Jorgensen and Teddy Broxterman followed with 4.1 scoreless innings in relief.
 
At the plate, Roch Whittaker collected three of the team's seven hits, going 3-5 in the game with an RBI and a run scored. The three-hit day moved him to .440 on the year.
 
Christopher added to his pitching effort by reached base safely three times, picking up a single, a pair of walks and a run scored. Ryan Bastyr added an RBI as well with a pinch-hit go-ahead RBI single in the fifth.
 
In the bottom of the second, the Mustangs broke the scoreless tie as Jayden Fleck deposited a 1-2 pitch over the left field wall to make it 1-0.
 
That score held until the fifth inning when the Golden Bears broke through against Clark. After a leadoff double to deep left center off the bat of Carter Schmidt, it looked like the rally was going to fizzle out as the next two hitters were retired in order. Whittaker then came through with a big two-out hit to score Schmidt before moving into scoring position on a Christopher walk. That set up Ryan Bastyr to come up with another clutch pinch hit appearance as he poked a single through the right side of the infield to give CSP the lead. A wild pitch a few pitches later allowed Christopher to come in to score from third to give Concordia a 3-1 lead heading to the bottom half of the fifth.
 
That proved to be all the scoring the Golden Bears would need as the pitching staff took care of the rest. Christopher blanked SMSU in the fifth before Stelzer and Benson combined for four shutout frames out of the pen. The Mustangs put just one runner in scoring position against CSP's relievers as the bullpen avoided much trouble.
 
The Golden Bears and Mustangs meet again tomorrow night with a 7:30 p.m. start time.