MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (1-4) bounced back from a 7-0 game one loss to win game two 7-6 in walk-off fashion to give head coach
Neil Lerner his first win as head coach against St. Cloud State (6-2) on Wednesday morning at US Bank Stadium.
GAME ONE: St. Cloud State 7, Concordia-St. Paul 0
In a game that had the look of a pitcher's duel in the early innings, the Huskies broke through with four runs in the third and three more in the fifth to claim the decisive 7-0 advantage.
Eight of Concordia's nine starters reached base safely in the contest as the Golden Bears put on at least one runner in each inning, but they were unable to take advantage as they left 10 runners on base in the game.
Jarod Wandersee reached base twice as he singled and drew a walk while
Ryan Christopher,
Ryan Bastyr,
Shea Pekarek,
Jack Young and
Justin McGuigan all added singles as well.
Connor Hurley (0-1) managed to strike out five Huskies in his 2.2 innings of work, but the senior right-hander was tagged with the loss as he allowed four third-inning runs.
Ross Bastyr struck out a pair in his 2.1 innings of relief before
Ray Wellner worked a 1-2-3 sixth in his season debut.
SCSU starter Blake Flint (1-0) spent much of the game working from the stretch, but he held the Golden Bears off the board for 6.0 innings while allowing six hits and a walk to go along with two strikeouts in the win.
While both teams put a few baserunners on over the first two and a half innings, both pitchers managed to work out of trouble as the game remained scoreless until the SCSU half of the third.
Hurley looked poised to work out of trouble again in the third as he picked up two quick outs after a leadoff double, but the Huskies kept the inning alive with a big two-out rally. A hit by pitch followed by a walk loaded the bases before two more walks to Aaron Hammann and Drew Bulson brought home the game's first two runs. Tyler Hajjar followed with a two-run single to double the advantage as St. Cloud State took a 4-0 lead into the fourth.
For the third time in five innings, the Golden Bears put a runner in scoring position in the fifth as
Jarod Wandersee drew a two-out walk before Christopher singled to right to put runners on the corners. A nice play by the third baseman Hajjar one batter later kept Concordia off the board heading to the bottom of the fifth.
In that frame, the Huskies saw four of the first five hitters deliver singles as Bulson and John Nett both picked up RBIs in the process. St. Cloud State added a third run on an inning-ending line drive double play in which the runner from third crossed the plate before the runner attempting to move up from second to third was tagged out on the play.
Concordia threatened again in the seventh inning as the first two hitters reached safely before
Patrick Bordewick drew a walk to load the bases two batters later, but the Huskies coaxed a grounder to short to bring the inning and the game to a close.
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 7, St. Cloud State 6
After seeing an early 2-0 lead erased in the middle innings, the Golden Bears clawed their way back late with two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to walk off the Huskies and pick up their first win of the season.
After a quiet first few games offensively, the CSP lineup broke out in the second game of the day as they hammered out 10 hits en route to putting a seven spot on the scoreboard.
The middle of the order played a big role as
Ryan Christopher and
Patrick Bordewick combined for five hits and drove in three while
Matt Pietsch delivered a game-tying double and also drew a walk. Christopher, the game's starting pitcher, finished 2-4 with a double and a triple with two runs scored and two driven in while Bordewick reached safely four times, contributing three hits and a pair of runs in the game.
The bottom three also made their mark on the game as
Eathan Soeffker doubled home two runs while
Chandler Ibach had two hits and
Nick Thimsen had one as well.
Ryan Christopher picked up a no-decision on the mound as he worked the first 3.1 innings, allowing just a three-run homer and striking out three in the start.
Blake Stelzer added 1.2 scoreless frames out of the bullpen while
Shane Benson (1-0) picked up the win as he worked the final 1.1 innings.
The Golden Bears jumped all over Koenig to start the game as Wandersee drew a leadoff walk before Christopher roped an RBI triple to the right center gap and
Patrick Bordewick followed with a first-pitch single to left to make it 2-0. Koenig recovered from there, however, as he picked out back-to-back strikeouts before a caught stealing ended the frame.
Both pitchers matched zeroes from there until the top of the fourth as St. Cloud State was finally able to get something going against Christopher. With runners on first and second and one down, Bulson delivered the big blow as he launched a three-run home run into the first row in left field to give the Huskies a 3-2 edge.
Trevor Koenig allowed both of the first two hitters he faced score before working 5.0 scoreless innings from there. Avery Stevens (0-1) was tagged with the loss in relief as he gave up two runs in 0.2 innings of work.
Two innings later, the Huskies took advantage of some two out hitting to pad their lead as Hammann provided a two-run single up the middle to extend the advantage to 5-2.
It was Concordia's turn to benefit from some clutch hitting in the bottom of the frame as Concordia used a Bordewick single and a Pietsch walk to put a pair on base before two quick outs brought Soeffker to the plate. The third baseman burned the left fielder with a line drive double off the wall to shrink the deficit back down to one at 5-4 before the Huskies' centerfielder made a nice running play in the right center gap on a liner off the bat of
Justin McGuigan to end the inning.
The Huskies added a crucial insurance run in the top of the seventh as Lenny Walker singled home a run to bring the Golden Bears up to the plate in the bottom half trailing 6-4. Thimsen put the pressure on SCSU with a leadoff single before Christopher drove him in with his second extra-base hit of the game, this time a one-out double to the left center gap, to put the tying run in scoring position. Bordewick made it two on with one out as he was hit by a pitch before Pietsch burned the centerfielder to tie the score at 6-6 and put the winning run on third. The Huskies then intentionally walked
Ryan Bastyr to load the bases to bring
Shea Pekarek to the plate. Pekarek saw five pitches, with just one of them crossing the plate as a strike, as the sophomore drew a game-winning walk to complete the comeback.
The Golden Bears will be back in action on Sunday night as they open up play in the Tucson Invitational Games against Mount Marty in their first of eight games on the trip.
