ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (20-23, 11-19 NSIC) closes out the regular season this week as they travel to Winona State (21-19, 13-14 NSIC) on Wednesday and Sioux Falls (11-34, 9-22 NSIC) on Friday and Saturday.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Concordia opened the week with a 9-1 win over Wayne State before dropping the second game of the doubleheader and four games to Minnesota State over the weekend.
 
CSP slashed .268/.321/.363 as a team on the week as they picked up eight extra-base hits, including four home runs. The Golden Bear starting pitchers allowed one earned run or less in three of the six games on the week, including a complete game victory for Louie Varland against the Wildcats.
 
Ben Suits led the team with a .500 average (9-18) as he homered and drove in five while also pitching 3.0 shutout innings in a start against Minnesota State. Louie Varland delivered 7.0 innings of one-run ball as he allowed just five hits and struck out nine in the win over Wayne State.
 
PLAYOFF PICTURE
Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Golden Bears currently sit in 10^th place in the NSIC standings, within striking distance of the top eight as they look to claim a spot in the NSIC Tournament for the seventh year in a row. The Golden Bears open the week with one of the two teams directly ahead of them in the standings as Winona State holds the eighth spot with a 13-14 mark in league play. Upper Iowa is sandwiched between the two as they sit in ninth with a record of 12-18.
 
For Concordia to make the conference tournament, they would have to win at least four more games that the Warriors and at least one more game than the Marauders over the five-game stretch. CSP is set to face WSU and USF while Winona State has CSP and MSU on the schedule and UIU has SCSU and NSU.
 
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 baseball 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.
 
WSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia has had an extensive history with 76 previous meetings heading into this season against the Warriors. The Golden Bears have gone 36-40 all-time against Winona State, including a winning mark of 36-30 since May 5, 2002. CSP has been especially successful since 2016 as they have won nine of the past 12 meetings. The Golden Bears have gone 20-21 in 41 games in Winona.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE WARRIORS
Concordia capped off their home slate with a huge doubleheader sweep of Winona State (17-18, 16-12 NSIC) as they claimed a series win on the weekend.
 
In their final home weekend at Barnes Field, Concordia's seniors made it count as they helped guide the squad to take three of four from the Warriors. Tanner Holmquist and Connor Olson each tallied six hits on the weekend as Holmquist went deep three times while Olson picked up five hits and a homer just on Sunday. Sunday proved to be a memorable one for Olson in another way as he became the fourth member of the 200-hit club in the Division II era for Concordia with his seventh inning single in game two.
 
As a team, Concordia finished the weekend at .313 with 40 hits in 128 trips to the plate while knocking six home runs over the four game series.
 
USF SERIES HISTORY
Prior to this weekend, the Golden Bears have compiled a record of 17-7 in 24 meetings against the Cougars. After seeing USF take two of the first three and three of the first six in the series, CSP has rattled off 14 wins in 18 meetings since then. From May 4, 2014 to April 30, 2016 the Golden Bears won eight straight in the series before Sioux Falls took two wins one day later. Over the last two years, Concordia has shifted the momentum back in their favor by taking three of four in their final regular season home games both seasons. CSP has faced USF eight times in Sioux Falls with the Golden Bears winning six of those eight contests.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE COUGARS
Back on May 5, 2018, CSP closed out the regular season on a high note as they took two from Sioux Falls. The Golden Bears held on to win game one 8-7 in eight innings before taking a weather-shortened game two 12-2 in five.
 
On the day, Concordia's offense carried the load as they collected a staggering 27 hits in just 13 innings, resulting in 20 runs in their favor in the doubleheader. The Golden Bears got production throughout the lineup in both contests as eight of nine starters had hits in both games. Overall, ten different players collected at least one hit on the day.
 
After jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the early innings of game one, the Golden Bears were forced to extra innings after seeing USF score seven straight, but CSP managed to regain the edge in the eighth in the 8-7 victory.
 
In game two with the score even at 2-2 heading to the fourth, the Concordia offense exploded for four in the fourth and six in the fifth before weather brought the game to a close after five.