ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (17-15, 8-12 NSIC) dropped a pair of mid-week NSIC games to #12 St. Cloud State (24-6, 12-4 NSIC) by a score of 5-2 on Tuesday afternoon at Faber Field.
GAME ONE: St. Cloud State 5, Concordia-St. Paul 2
Despite SCSU's Blake Flint carrying a perfect game into the sixth, Concordia clawed their way back in the game with a pair of late runs before falling short in the first game of the day.
Flint (4-1) allowed just one baserunner, a one-out single off the bat of
Drew Sannes in the sixth, in his 6.0 inning of a work as he struck out five in the win. The Huskies' bullpen did not have the same success as CSP tagged reliever Zach Walz with two runs without him recording an out. Shannon Ahern also allowed a double but ended the threat as he recorded the final three outs to close out the game.
Ryan Christopher (3-2) worked the first 2.0 innings for CSP but took the loss as he allowed three earned runs in the outing.
Connor Hurley delivered 4.0 solid innings out of the bullpen as he struck out four and allowed three hits and a run in the game.
At the plate,
Ben Suits and
Ryan Christopher joined Sannes in picking up hits as Suits picked up the lone extra-base hit with an RBI double.
Isaac Hormann added a run batted in with an RBI groundout as well.
After a scoreless inning and a half, the Huskies opened the scoring with three runs in the second. A leadoff double followed by three straight one-out walks brought home the first run of the game. An ensuing strikeout left the bases loaded with two outs before a Najee Gaskins double scored two more to make it 3-0.
The Huskies were back at it in the third as a CSP error gave SCSU an extra out and allowed a run to cross the plate on a double play a few batters later. Gaskins added another RBI in the fourth as he singled home a run to make it 5-0 through four innings.
That would be it offensively for the Huskies as Hurley blanked St. Cloud State over the final two frames to give Concordia a chance to get back in the game.
The Golden Bears put together their push in the seventh as
Carter Schmidt opened the inning with a walk before Christopher singled to put two on with no outs. After a fly out, Suits doubled home a run before Hormann scored another on an RBI groundout. Another fly out brought the inning to a close as CSP fell short in the 5-2 loss.
GAME TWO: St. Cloud State 5, Concordia-St. Paul 2
A big second inning for the Huskies proved to be the difference again in game two as SCSU scored four in the second before hanging on for a second consecutive 5-2 victory.
The Golden Bear pitching staff held the high-powered St. Cloud State offense to just one earned run on four hits in the game.
Josh Gaworski (1-2) took the loss as he allowed four unearned runs on one hit in 2.0 innings of work. The bullpen group of
Blake Stelzer,
Luke DeGrammont and
Shane Benson shut down the Huskies with 6.0 combined innings of one-run ball, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out two.
Ben Suits picked up another RBI hit in game two as he tallied one of the team's four hits in the game.
Carter Schmidt added an RBI and a hit of his own while
Patrick Bordewick doubled and scored a run.
Steven Nessler picked up a single and scored the team's other run while
Drew Sannes drew two walks.
Dominic Austing (4-1) grabbed the win for the Huskies as he allowed two runs (one earned) over 5.0 innings while striking out nine. Sheldon Miks struck out three in 2.1 hitless innings while Matt Butler struck out two in 1.2 perfect innings to pick up the save.
The Huskies utilized a Golden Bear error in the second to extend the inning as the first run scored on a sacrifice fly that would have ended the inning. They added three more runs later in the inning to make it 4-0 as Lenny Walker unloaded the bases with a single as the runners were going on the pitch.
Concordia got one back in the top of the third as Schmidt drove in Nessler with a sacrifice fly, but SCSU quickly got the run back on a Haskamp RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
A leadoff double in the fourth for Bordewick set up a run-scoring single for Suits one batter later, but that proved to be all the offense for the day for both teams. CSP managed baserunners in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings but were unable to advance any past first base as St. Cloud State claimed the 5-2 win.
Concordia is scheduled to play a non-conference contest at St. Olaf on Thursday before returning home over the weekend for a three-game series with Augustana. Make sure to check back to cspbears.com for any potential schedule changes.
