MINNETONKA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (6-4, 2-3 NSIC) dropped a pair of games to the University of Mary (4-3, 2-0 NSIC) on Thursday afternoon at Veterans Field as the Marauders took game one 5-3 and game two 9-2.
 
GAME ONE: UMary 5, Concordia-St. Paul 3
The Marauders won the battle of the long ball in the first game of the day as they launched four of the game's five home runs to come out on top.
 
Jarod Wandersee provided the lone blast for the Golden Bears as he tied the game with a solo shot in the sixth. He added an RBI fielder's choice as he drove in two of the team's three runs.
 
Seven different CSP hitters registered a hit in the game, including a double from Chandler Ibach and an RBI single from Matt Pietsch. Jack Young added a single, a walk, a stolen base and a run scored as well.
 
On the mound, Ryan Christopher (1-1) took the loss as he fell victim of the long ball as three of the four hits he allowed in his 2.1 innings of work were home runs. Eric Lundell added an efficient 3.2 innings of relief, allowing no runs on one hits while striking out three.
 
Jonathan Draheim (2-0) got the win for the Marauders as he allowed three runs on seven hits in 6.0 innings before handing it off to Paxton Miller in the seventh. Miller delivered a 1-2-3 seventh with a pair of strikeouts to grab the save.
 
Three batters into the game, Calvin James put UMary in front with a solo homer over the scoreboard in right field. The score remained 1-0 until the third when Derek Shoen followed suit with a solo shot to left. James made it back-to-back homers with his second blast of the day as he sent a 2-2 offering about 30 feet to the left of his first blast.
 
Concordia showed their resilience as they answered back with two runs in the bottom of the frame to remain within one. Young got the rally started with a one-out walk before back-to-back-to-back singles from Christopher, Patrick Bordewick and Pietsch brought him home. Wandersee beat out a potential inning-ending double play one batter later to cut the deficit to 3-2.
 
The Golden Bears threatened with a Young single and steal in the fifth, but it was Wandersee that tied it up one inning later. On the second pitch of the frame, Wandersee launched a no doubter over the left field wall for his first home run of the season.
 
The tie would last for just an half an inning as UMary regained the lead for good with two in the top of the seventh. Ty Jones wasted little time as he led off the inning with a solo home run before Shoen added an insurance run with an RBI infield single later in the frame to bring it to the final score of 5-3.
 
GAME TWO: UMary 9, Concordia-St. Paul 2
The Marauders once again jumped ahead early and this time they didn't look back as they cruised to a 9-2 game two win.
 
Timely hitting played a big role in the game as the Golden Bears fell just two hits shy of UMary with nine while they also drew two more walks with six. CSP stranded 14 runners for the game while UMary finished with nine.
 
The trio Matt Pietsch, Nick Thimsen and Justin McGuigan all collected two hits apiece while Thimsen scored one of the two runs for the team. Jack Young added an RBI single and a walk and Shea Pekarek also reached base safely in two trips to the plate with a single and a walk.
 
Wyatt Rudolf (0-1) made his first career start and took the loss as he worked the first 2.2 innings of the day. Joey Atkinson added 3.1 innings in relief, followed by 2.0 from David Go before Ray Wellner struck out three in a scoreless ninth. The four CSP pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts in the game
 
Five UMary pitchers combined to allow just one earned run while striking out 13.
 
The Marauders put three straight hitters on base to start the game as they loaded the bases with nobody out. Rudolf recovered from there as he allowed just one run to score on a sacrifice fly, retiring the next three in order.
 
UMary padded their lead over the next few inning as they tacked on two in the second and two more in the third. Shoen delivered the big blow in the second with a two-run double while Alex Kowski and Tyrus Barclay each delivered run-scoring hits in the third to make it 5-0.
 
The lead grew again in the sixth as the Marauders added two runs on just one hit to push their advantage to 7-0.
 
Concordia's bench got the offense going in the home half of the sixth as Nick Thimsen opened the frame with a line drive single to center before Mitch Klass drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. Justin McGuigan loaded the bases two batters later with a bunt single before Jack Young got the Golden Bears on the board with an infield single of his own. A second run crossed the plate on the play as an errant throw to second by the shortstop allowed Klass to score from second.
 
That would be all the Golden Bears could muster, however, as UMary put up zeroes in the each of the final three innings and added a two-run homer off the bat of James to claim the doubleheader sweep with a 9-2 win.
 
The Golden Bears will return to Veterans Field this weekend with a three-game series with Northern State. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.