BOONE, Iowa – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (17-16, 8-13 NSIC) dropped the first game of the series to Augustana (24-10, 17-3 NSIC) by a score of 5-1 at DMACC Baseball Field on Saturday afternoon.
The defending national champions jumped ahead with two runs in the third and maintained the lead throughout as they grabbed a 5-1 win in the first of three games on the weekend.
Augustana starter Max Steffens (4-0) got some help from some strong defensive plays behind him as he went the distance in the victory. The right-hander allowed just three hits and an unearned run while walking none and striking out five in his 9.0 innings of work.
Ben Suits picked up the first hit off Steffens with a single in the fifth to extend his hitting streak to 10 game before scoring the team's lone run in the seventh.
Cole Kirchoff drove him in with a single of his own and
Ryan Christopher also added a hit as well on the day for CSP.
While the Vikings took some hits away from CSP in the field, their offense found some fortune at the plate as they picked up seven hits, all singles, against Golden Bear starter
Louie Varland (3-4) despite very little hard contact. Varland took the loss as he ended up allowing four runs (two earned) on those seven singles with a walk and six strikeouts.
Ross Bastyr and
Luke DeGrammont relieved Varland and combined to allow no earned runs over 2.0 innings.
After a tidy first two innings, Augustana took the lead in the third as they picked up a big two-hit to take the lead. Back-to-back singles to start the inning for Michael Svozil and JT Mix followed by a double steal one batter later put Augie in prime position to open the scoring, but Varland picked up a crucial out as the Golden Bears caught Svozil in a rundown on a fielder's choice to register the second out of the inning. With runners still on second and third, Will Olson stepped up and came through with a two-run single to right to make it 2-0 in favor of the Vikings.
Augustana added runs in both the fourth and the fifth to double their lead as Steffens continued to put up zeroes. The Vikings utilized Golden Bear errors to push across unearned runs in both frames as an errant throw on a stolen base attempt set up an RBI infield single in the fourth before a passed ball allowed a run to score on a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
The Golden Bears got a run back in the bottom of the seventh as it was their turn to take advantage of a miscue. With two outs and a runner on first base,
Isaac Hormann reached on an error to extend the inning and put a runner in scoring position.
Cole Kirchoff took advantage of the extra out as he singled to left field to bring home Suits and cut it to 4-1.
The Vikings answered with a run of their own a half inning later as two wild pitches and a passed ball allowed pinch-runner Lucas Wylie to come all the way around to score from first to push the lead back to four.
CSP was unable to do any more damage against Steffens as he retired the Golden Bears in order in each of the final two innings to preserve the 5-1 final.
The two teams will conclude the series with a doubleheader tomorrow. First pitch in game one is scheduled for noon.
