ST. PAUL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul head baseball coach Mark "Lunch" McKenzie has announced that this weekend's series with Minnesota State has been shifted to Friday and Sunday at Barnes Field with doubleheaders scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. both days.
SCHEDULE INFORMATION
Concordia (20-19, 11-16 NSIC) will play host to Minnesota State (30-10, 21-7 NSIC) in the first and only home weekend played at Barnes Field with a split series set to be played on Friday and Sunday.
With cold weather and rain in the forecast for Saturday, the two teams agreed to move the first two games of the series up a day with a seven-inning game followed by a nine-inning game set to begin at 1:30 p.m.
The two schools also agreed to add a non-conference contest to the schedule on Sunday to extend the series to a four-game set. CSP and MSU will conclude the conference portion of the slate with a nine-inning game starting at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday before playing the seven-inning non-conference game shortly after the completion of the first game.
SENIOR DAY
Following the completion of Sunday's doubleheader, the Golden Bears will honor their 16 seniors on Senior Day with a brief on-field ceremony. The group of
Cole Kirchoff,
Steven Nessler,
Isaac Hormann,
Carter Schmidt,
Zach Lauzon,
Kyle Horstmann,
Jake Steckler,
Roch Whittaker,
Ben Suits,
Tom Austin,
Drew Sannes,
Josh Gaworski,
Cody Marek,
Keanu Mendez,
Nate Stolte and
Jeffrey Kressler have helped guide Concordia to three consecutive trips to the NSIC Tournament over the last three years, including two trips to the NSIC Championship game in their career.
WATCH ONLINE
For those unable to make it to Sea Foam Stadium this Thursday and Saturday,
the games will be streamed online and available to watch free of charge through Concordia's agreement with Stretch Internet with the NSIC. The high definition, single camera webcast features audio commentary by Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. The St. Paul native is a graduate of Fordham University (N.Y.) where he trained in broadcasting in multiple sports including the Rams football team in the Patriot League.
The games will also be available to follow along with
live stats.
STREAMING DEVICES
The campus streamed webcast is now available through widely used streaming devices like the Roku, Amazon FireTV, Apple TV and Android TV. Simply search for NSIC to find the Stretch Internet application for the conference to watch games on your TV and in HD (where available).
DOWNLOAD THE CSP BEARS GAMEDAY FAN APP
Follow the Golden Bear lacrosse team along with the rest of your favorite CSP Bears squads by downloading the
new gameday fan app, hosted by From Now On. The app provides users with a unique and customizable experience, allowing each user to select the sports they want to follow and how they are connected to CSP (fans, students, faculty/staff, alumni, etc). The app will also be a new way to stay updated on the action as well as to be the first to find out about promotions and special events.
MSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia has met Minnesota State 38 previous times heading into this weekend's meetings as they have compiled a record of 7-31 in those meetings. After winning two out of the first seven meetings, CSP dropped 22 of the next 24 innings as the Mavericks took control of the series. The Golden Bears took the final regular season meeting in 2016 before claiming another win in the conference tournament to pick up their first ever winning streak against MSU. That streak came to a close last season as Minnesota State has won four in a row before CSP picked up a win in last year's conference tourney.
LAST MEETING WITH THE MAVERICKS
Last season, the fifth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul knocked off fourth-seeded Minnesota State by a score of 7-4 in the opening round of the NSIC Baseball Tournament at Sioux Falls Stadium.
Timely hitting played a major role in the game as the Golden Bears turned 10 hits into seven runs while the Mavericks were held to just four runs despite hammering out 15 hits. CSP finished with six left on base compared to a massive 12 for MSU.
Zach Lauzon was tremendous in limiting the damage as he scattered eight hits and a walk while allowing two runs in his 6.0 innings of work. The right-hander continued to flash swing-and-miss stuff as he struck out seven in the game.
The bullpen worked similar magic as
Connor Hurley allowed just one run on three hits and a walk over 2.0 innings before
Riley Sweeney worked around four hits to give up just one run in the ninth.
The offense came from everywhere in the lineup as each of the top eight hitters either scored or drove in a run and each of the top seven hitters registered at least one hit on the day.
Connor Olson continued his late season surge by going 1-3 with his sixth home run on the year as he scored twice and drove in one.
Isaac Hormann peppered the gaps as he picked up a team-best three hits, including two doubles, while scoring once.
Carter Schmidt added two doubles of his own as he picked up an RBI and a run scored.
