TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (2-4) opened the Tucson Invitational Games with a 9-5 win over Mount Marty (8-3) at Kino Sports Complex on Sunday night.
 
The Golden Bears saw an early 6-1 lead shrink to one in the middle innings, but they buckled down to hold the Lancers off the scoreboard over the final three frames while adding three insurance runs in the ninth to seal the 9-5 victory.
 
The Golden Bears smacked a season-best 14 hits as eight different players registered hits, including five finishing with multi-hit games. Mount Marty matched that total with 14 hits of their own with their top four hitters combining for 10 of them.
 
Ryan Christopher made it two straight multi-hit performances with a 3-5 effort in which he delivered a triple and drove in three runs. Chandler Ibach and Shea Pekarek each finished 2-3 with a double in the game as Ibach drove in a pair and Pekarek scored twice. Jack Young added two hits and an RBI while Eathan Soeffker also provided a pair of hits and scored twice. Patrick Bordewick also drove a run in while providing stellar defense at shortstop.
 
Luke DeGrammont picked up a no-decision in the start as he allowed two runs over 4.2 innings while walking two and striking out six. The CSP trio of Ross Bastyr, Connor Hurley and Shane Benson finished the game strong as they combined for 4.0 scoreless innings of relief. Bastyr (1-0) picked up his second career win as he shut out Mount Marty  for 2.2 innings before Hurley picked up the final out of the eighth and Benson came on to record the final three outs.
 
The Golden Bears opened the scoring in the top of the third as they did their damage without too many hard hit balls as they opened the inning with three infield singles to go along with another bloop single later in the frame. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Ibach came around to score on a double play up the middle before Christopher dropped a single in no man's land behind the shortstop with two down to bring in Soeffker to make it 2-0.
 
The Lancers got one back in the bottom of the inning on a two-out RBI single off the bat of the pitcher, Martinez, but the Golden Bears quickly responded with two more in the fourth.
 
With one out in the CSP half of the fourth, Ryan Bastyr laced a single to right before Shea Pekarek followed with a double down the left field line to put a pair in scoring position for Ibach. The CSP catcher quickly followed suit as he bounced one over the third base bag to bring home both runners with a double.
 
The Golden Bears further added to their advantage in the fifth as they made it three straight two-run innings. Jarod Wandersee grounded a single up the middle to start the inning to set up Christopher, who drove a triple deep into the right center gap to score him. Patrick Bordewick added a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 6-1.
 
Mount Marty stemmed the tide, however, as they answered with one run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to trim the deficit to one at 6-5. The Lancers took advantage of a hit, a pair of walks and a hit by pitch to push a run across in the fifth before Josh Roemen drove in two with a single and Mason Townsend added with an RBI single of his own one inning later.
 
The Lancers put the tying run on third base in both the seventh and the eighth, but Ross Bastyr slammed the door in the seventh before Connor Hurley came on to coax a pop out in the eighth.
 
Concordia added some insurance a half inning later as they put three on the board in the ninth to extend the lead to 9-5. Pekarek, Justin McGuigan and Soeffker each reached safely to start the inning before Jack Young beat out a high-hopper to short to bring in the first run of the inning. Another run-scoring double play followed before Christopher lined his third run-scoring hit through the right side to bring it to the final score of 9-5.
 
Concordia will return to action tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. as they take on Presentation in their lone game of the day.