CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (8-13, 4-12 NSIC) dropped a pair of closely contested games at Minnesota Crookston (15-1, 11-1 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at UMC Baseball Field. UMC edged out CSP 4-2 in the first before taking game two 6-3.
 
GAME ONE: Minnesota Crookston 4, Concordia-St. Paul 2
A tough first inning proved to be the difference in the series opener as the Golden Bears blanked UMC over the final six innings but were unable to erase a 4-0 deficit as they fell 4-2.
 
CSP pitchers Luke DeGrammont and Connor Hurley held the powerful Golden Eagle offense to just four hits and zero earned runs while striking out 11 in 6.0 innings in the loss. DeGrammont (1-4) delivered three shutout frames after allowing four unearned runs in the first as he worked 4.0 innings, allowing four hits to go along with six strikeouts. Connor Hurley struck out five of the six hitters he faced in a perfect 2.0 innings.
 
Jake Dykhoff (3-0) picked up the complete game victory for Minnesota Crookston as he struck out 14 in 7.0 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks.
 
The top seven hitters in CSP's lineup all picked up hits in the game as Nick Thimsen delivered his third homer of the year, a solo shot, to lead the way. Patrick Bordewick finished 1-3 with a run batted in while Jack Young matched him with a 1-3 effort and a run scored.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves in an early hole as UMC took advantage of three CSP errors to push four runs across the plate.
 
Concordia clawed their way to a run in the third as Young beat out an infield single, moved up to third after two wild pitches and came around to score on Bordewick's single.
 
Thimsen trimmed the deficit to two at 4-2 with a solo shot over the wall in left center in the fifth, but that would be all the closer Concordia would get against Dykhoff as the Golden Eagles claimed the 4-2 win.
 
GAME TWO: Minnesota Crookston 6, Concordia-St. Paul 3
The Golden Bears came out swinging with three runs in the opening frame but were held off the board the rest of the way as the Golden Eagles came from behind to pick up their second win on the day.
Ryan Christopher, Justin McGuigan and Ryan Bastyr picked up two hits apiece to lead Concordia in game two as Christopher went 2-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a steal while Bastyr went 2-4 with a double and McGuigan went 2-5 with a double and a run scored.
 
On the mound, Griffin Lapp (2-1) took the loss as he allowed seven hits and four runs while striking out five in 4.2 innings. Eric Lundell struck out four in 2.0 innings of two-run ball while Matt Sherman delivered 1.0 scoreless with a strikeout.
 
Matt Nelson (3-0) bounced back from a rough first inning for the Golden Eagles to pick up the win as he gave up three runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. Alex Koep and Brody Sorenson combined for 4.0 scoreless relief innings as Sorenson registered the save.
 
The script was flipped early in the second game as it was the Golden Bears that put up a big first inning. CSP hung three on the board while collecting four of the their eight hits for the game in the frame as Bordewick drove in Thimsen with a sacrifice fly, Christopher drove in McGuigan with a single and Wandersee brought home Christopher with a single of his own. Concordia threatened to blow it open as Bastyr followed with a double to put two more in scoring position, but a strikeout ended the inning.
 
The 3-0 lead held until the bottom of the fourth as Lapp cruised through the first three innings without much trouble. Tyler Jochen delivered a sacrifice fly to put the Golden Eagles on the board with a run in their half of the fourth before they stormed into the lead with three more in the fifth. After a walk and a single to start the bottom half of the fifth, Mason Ruhlman blasted a three-run home run to give UMC a 4-3 lead.
 
The Minnesota Crookston lead grew in the seventh as Jake Hjelle delivered a solo homer before Landyn Swenson made it 6-3 with a run-scoring triple.
 
The three run lead held up as UMC completed the doubleheader sweep by the same score.
 
CSP and UMC will wrap up the series tomorrow with a nine-inning conference game followed by a seven-inning non-conference game.