WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (0-2) fell to #4 Central Missouri (10-3) on both games of a doubleheader on the first day of the season on Friday afternoon. The Golden Bears dropped game one 11-1 and game two 16-0 in seven innings.
 
GAME ONE: Central Missouri 11, Concordia-St. Paul 1
The Golden Bears saw the Mules pull away with a big six-run third inning as Central Missouri cruised to a game one victory.
 
Ryan Bastyr got his season off to a strong start with a pair of hits while Eathan Soeffker provided the team's first extra-base hit and run batted in with an RBI double in the loss. Jarod Wandersee drew a pair of walks while Patrick Bordewick and Matt Pietsch each added a hit apiece as well.
 
Blake Stelzer (0-1) took the loss as he worked the first 2.2 innings before departing. The right-hander ran into some unfortunate luck as just one of the seven runs he allowed were earned. Ryan Fering followed with a solid 2.1 innings of relief, allowing just one run on two hits, before TJ Johnson came on to work the final inning.
 
Mason Green picked up the win for Central Missouri as he limited CSP to five hits and a run with five strikeouts over 4.2 innings. Max Abramovich slammed the door with 2.1 perfect innings of relief.
 
After a scoreless inning and a half of play, UCM opened the scoring with a run in the bottom half of the second. Dusty Stroup opened the frame with a double before advancing to third on a lineout to center and coming around to score on a sacrifice fly.
 
The Mules took advantage of a Golden Bear miscue in the third as a fielding error extended the inning before the floodgates opened with six runs crossing the plate. Cole Taylor delivered the big hit in the inning as he drove in three with a bases-clearing triple.
 
Erik Webb added another run with a solo homer in the fourth before the Golden Bears got on the board a half inning later. Bastyr led off the fifth with a single to left before being pulled for pinch runner Mason Wolf. Wolf then raced around the bases as Soeffker laced a double to the gap in left center to drive him in.
 
Webb got that run back with his second homer of the game in the sixth before UCM tacked on two more to bring the score to the final margin of 11-1.
 
GAME TWO: Central Missouri 16, Concordia-St. Paul 0 (7 inn.)
Big innings hurt the Golden Bears again in the second game of the day as Central Missouri put up six in the third and nine in the sixth to invoke the run rule in what was originally scheduled to be a nine-inning contest.
 
UCM starter Jordan Fowler made things tough on the Golden Bears as he held them to just three hits over 6.0 innings of work to pick up the win. He walked none and struck out five in the outing.
 
Nick Thimsen picked up his first career hit, a double in the third, while Jack Young added singles as well.
 
Luke DeGrammont (0-1) took the loss on the mound as he worked 4.0 innings and struck out three. Joey Atkinson, Matt Sherman and Eric Lundell all made their CSP debuts out of the bullpen.
 
For the second game in a row, Central Missouri broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the second with a run. This time it was an Alex Madera RBI double that put the Mules in front.
 
UCM came out firing in the third as the first six hitters of the inning picked up singles before Gaven Strobel added a double a few batters later to extend the lead to 7-0 heading to the fourth.
 
That score held until the sixth as the Mules hung nine runs on nine hits on the boards to put the game away. All nine hits in the frame were singles as UCM sent 15 to the plate.
 
Cody Maier and Jack Becker each reached base in the top of the seventh, but CSP was unable to push any runs across as Central Missouri maintained the shutout.
 
The two schools will conclude the series tomorrow with a single game scheduled to start at noon.