MINNETONKA, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (5-1, 2-0 NSIC) shut out Minnesota Duluth (2-2, 0-2 NSIC) for 16 innings on Saturday as they picked up a pair of sweeps at Veterans Field. The Golden Bears took game one 1-0 and game two 7-0.
 
Concordia's quartet of pitchers, Griffin Lapp, Luke DeGrammont, Connor Hurley and Eric Lundell, held the Bulldogs to a .151 batting average with eight hits in 53 at-bats while registering an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio on the day. The Golden Bears lowered their season ERA to 2.30 and their opponent average to .202 on the season.
 
Offensively, Matt Pietsch and Shea Pekarek both reached base at a .714 clip as Pietsch finished 5-7 with a double and a pair of runs while Pekarek went 4-6 with a double and a walk in the two games.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 1, Minnesota Duluth 0
With the wind howling in from center field, offense was hard to come by in the series opener.
 
Luke DeGrammont (1-1) made life even harder for the Bulldogs as he mixed speeds and kept UMD off balance throughout the contest. The senior delivered 6.0 shutout frames, allowing just three hits and three walks while striking out five to pick up his first win of the year. Connor Hurley picked up right where he left off with a scoreless seventh to pick up a save.
 
Mitchell Waletzki (1-1) took the loss for Minnesota Duluth despite allowing just a single run on three hits while striking out eight in 5.0 innings.
 
At the plate, Shea Pekarek provided a bright spot as he reached safely all three times up, registering a pair of hits and a walk while scoring the game's lone run. Ryan Bastyr drove in that run with a double while Matt Pietsch added a single.
 
Both teams put runners in scoring position in the first to threaten before the Golden Bears opened the scoring one inning later. Pekarek worked the count full with one out in the bottom of the second before drawing a walk, setting the stage for Bastyr. The left-handed hitter found the chalk down the right field to bring home Pekarek all the way from first. A pair of strikeouts ended the rally, but CSP got the run they needed.
 
That lead looked to be in danger in the top of the third as Tim Pokornowski opened the inning with a double before Henry George drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. DeGrammont then coaxed a fly out and picked up a strikeout before getting some help from his defense. Trevor Gustafson looked to have found the hole between third and short, but Patrick Bordewick stretched all the way out to keep the ball in the infield. Pokornowski rounded third base hard looking to scamper home to tie the game, but Bordewick was able to make the short throw to Eathan Soeffker at third to tag him out.
 
Both pitchers settled in over the next few innings as DeGrammont retired eight in a row while Waletzki worked around a pair of singles in the fourth to keep it a one run game.
 
The Bulldogs used a two-out double in the top of the sixth to put some pressure on DeGrammont, but the left-hander picked up an inning-ending groundout to finish his day. They put another runner in scoring position with a single and a wild pitch in the seventh, but Hurley closed it out with a strikeout and a fly out to seal the win.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 7, Minnesota Duluth 0
Concordia's pitching continued their dominance in game two as Griffin Lapp and Eric Lundell combined for a second consecutive shutout.
 
Lapp (1-0) was nearly unhittable in the contest as he faced the minimum through the first 7.2 innings of the game, including retiring 19 in a row to end that stretch. He finished with 10 strikeouts and no walks while limiting UMD to four hits in 8.0 innings for the win. Lundell followed with a quick 1-2-3 ninth to finish off the shutout.
 
After being held to one run through five innings, the Golden Bears broke it open with one in the sixth and five in the seventh to put it out of reach.
 
Matt Pietsch went a perfect 4-4 with a double to lead the way while Patrick Bordewick collected three hits while providing stellar defense at short. Ryan Christopher and Shea Pekarek added multi-hit efforts with two hits apiece as well.
 
After a scoreless first two and a half innings in which Justin McGuigan gunned down a pair of attempted base stealers to wipe out any scoring chances for UMD, CSP got on the board in the third. Jack Young led off the inning with a walk before moving over to third on an errant pickoff throw. Christopher followed with an RBI groundout to make it 1-0.
 
That score held until the bottom of the sixth when Pekarek roped a double over the head of the right fielder to bring in Pietsch.
 
The Golden Bears exploded for five runs in the seventh as Bordewick drove in a run with a single before Pietsch drove in another with a double. Bordewick scored on a passed ball, Jarod Wandersee added an RBI with a sacrifice fly and Ryan Bastyr rounded out the frame with an RBI single to bring it to the final score to 7-0.
 
That was more than enough as Lapp and Lundell closed out the shutout win to complete the doubleheader sweep.
 
The two teams will complete the series tomorrow with another doubleheader at Veterans Field. Game one will be a nine inning conference game while game two will be a seven inning non-conference game.