ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (6-8, 2-7 NSIC) dropped their home opener to St. Cloud State (6-5, 4-2 NSIC) by a score of 13-1 in eight innings at Barnes Field on Tuesday afternoon.
For the first time in 702 days, the Golden Bears were able to play on their home field as their last home game came all the way back on April 28, 2019 against Minnesota State. The Golden Bears had to wait a little bit longer than expected to make their return to Barnes Field as the start time was pushed back to 3 p.m. and the doubleheader was cut down to a single nine-inning game due to cold temperatures.
The Golden Bears picked up six hits on the day as six different hitters collected hits in the contest.
Nick Thimsen each delivered doubles in the game while Thimsen drove in the lone run and
Ryan Bastyr scored it after picking up a single of his own.
Cody Maier,
Ted Elsner and
Brayden Roybal all added singles off the bench.
Joey Atkinson provided a bright spot with 3.1 innings of relief, allowing just one earned run and striking out three.
Things got off to a tough start for the Golden Bears as a pair of walks were sandwiched around a ground ball double loaded the bases with nobody out. CSP appeared to be set to escape the inning with minimal damage after a ground ball double play, but a two-run homer off the bat of Caleb Marquez extended the lead to 3-0.
The Huskies tacked on a fourth run with an RBI single off the bat of Matt Quade in the third before Concordia answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame. Bastyr singled and
Ryan Christopher drew a walk to put two on with none out before Thimsen drove a double off the wall in left center to cut the deficit to 4-1.
St. Cloud State pulled away from there as they scored one in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the sixth, two in the seventh and three in the eighth to bring it to the final score of 13-1. SCSU continued to utilize the long ball as Drew Bulson launched a two-run shot in the fifth, Marquez added his second homer of the game, a solo shot in the sixth and John Nett delivered a two-run home run in the seventh to give the team four for the game.
The Golden Bears will look to get back in the win column this weekend as they travel to Southwest Minnesota State on Friday and Saturday for a three-game series.
