HAMMOND, Ind. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (3-1) finished the weekend strong as they swept Purdue Northwest (3-3) on Sunday to pick up a series win on the road. The Golden Bears claimed a 7-4 win in game one before winning game two 8-2.
 
After a tough matchup in the first game of the series, Concordia stormed back to win the final three games of the weekend. During the three-game winning streak, CSP reached base at a .410 clip while holding their opponents to a sub-.300 mark at .297. The Golden Bears added a team average of .295 with 10 extra-base hits while PNW finished at .231 with just four extra-base hits during that span.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 7, Purdue Northwest 4
The Golden Bears got off to a fast start with four runs in the first and they didn't look back as they tacked on two more in the third and another in the fourth to secure the 7-4 victory.
 
CSP showed patience at the plate as they drew seven walks to go along with eight hits in the contest. It was a balanced effort as all nine starters reached base at least once, with four different players reaching base multiple times.
 
Leadoff man Jack Young reached three times in his season debut, picking up a pair of singles and a walk while scoring twice. Ryan Bastyr matched him with a hit and two walks, driving in a run and scoring another. Eathan Soeffker delivered a key extra-base hit for the second day in a row as he drove in two with a double in the third.
 
Michael Voss got the start on the hill, working 3.1 innings and striking out a pair in a no decision. TJ Johnson followed Voss and delivered the best performance of his career as he collected his first career win, pitching 3.2 shutout innings while allowing just one hit and striking out four.
 
CSP was ready to go from the start as they opened the game with a Young walk, a Christopher single and a Jarod Wandersee walk before Patrick Bordewick drew the third walk in the first four hitters of the game to make it 1-0. Following a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Shea Pekarek legged out an infield single and Bastyr drew another walk to extend the lead to three. Bordewick came around to score on a passed ball one batter later to put four on the board before the Golden Bears even took the field.
 
The Pride managed to get one back in the bottom half of the frame as Ray Hansen collected the team's third single of the inning to drive in the team's first run before they pulled within a run one inning later. In the second, PNW put runners on second and third with nobody out before a pair of RBI groundouts made it 4-3 heading to the third.
 
The CSP bats took advantage of a PNW miscue in the third as two-out error followed by a walk set the stage for Soeffker. The junior third baseman drove a two-run double to score Bastyr and Chandler Ibach to push the lead back to three at 6-3.
 
Concordia tacked on another insurance run in the fourth as Young came all the way around to score from first with the help of three wild pitches after leading off the inning with an infield single. That run was answered in the bottom of the frame on a Hunter Thorn RBI infield single, but Johnson slammed the door from there.
 
The senior reliever entered with the go-ahead run at the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth and promptly coaxed an inning-ending double play. He picked up where he left off from there as he faced just one over the minimum over the final three innings to seal the win.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 8, Purdue Northwest 2
The Golden Bears grabbed an early lead with one in the second and two in the third before breaking it open with a five spot in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
 
Concordia hammered out 11 hits and drew nine walks in another balanced team performance with four players registering multi-hit games and nine different players reached base.
 
Ryan Bastyr finished off a strong weekend going a perfect 2-2 with three walks while driving in a run and scoring another. Eathan Soeffker also picked up where he left off in earlier games going 2-4 with a double, a walk and three RBIs.
 
Matt Pietsch joined in the fun with three hits, a double and a pair of runs scored while Ryan Christopher went 2-4 with a walk. Shea Pekarek added three runs while picking up a hit, a walk and an RBI.
 
Christopher (1-0) added to his efforts at the plate with 2.0 solid innings on the mound in the start. The left-hander picked up the win in the committee game as he allowed two hits and struck out three.
 
The trio of Wyatt Rudolf, Eric Lundell and Ryan Fering were impressive in relief as they combined for 7.0 innings of two-hit ball, allowing just one earned run. Rudolf made the most of his first career appearance as he worked 3.0 innings of one-run ball while Eric Lundell did not allow a hit over his 3.0 innings of work, striking out five. Fering finished things off with a perfect ninth, registering a strikeout in the frame.
 
After a scoreless first, the Golden Bears opened the scoring in the second with three straight hits to start the inning. Pekarek and Bastyr got things started with back-to-back singles before Soeffker drove a double over the head of the right fielder to bring home the game's first run.
 
That would be all they would get in the inning, but they quickly bounced back and added two more in the third. With two outs and none on, Pietsch laced a double down the right field line before Pekarek drew a walk to bring Bastyr to the plate. The first baseman brought in Pietsch with a single before Soeffker picked up his second run-scoring hit in as many inning to make it 3-0.
 
The big inning came in the fifth as the Golden Bears broke the game open. The first five hitters reached safely in the inning with Pekarek driving in a run on an error before Soeffker drew a bases loaded walk to bring in another. Justin McGuigan brought home the third run of the frame with an RBI groundout before a wild pitch and a passed ball led to two more to balloon the lead to 8-0 heading to the bottom of five.
 
Anthony Agne pulled one back for PNW in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double, but the bullpen silenced the bats from there. An unearned run in the eighth was all the Pride could muster as CSP cruised to an 8-2 win to finish off the series.
 
Concordia opens up conference play next weekend as Minnesota Duluth comes to town for a four-game series on Saturday and Sunday.