ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (11-14, 7-12 NSIC) took advantage of the site reversal to their home field as they cruised to a doubleheader sweep of Bemidji State (3-19, 2-15 NSIC) on Thursday afternoon at Barnes Field. The Golden Bears took game one 7-3 in eight innings before claiming a 13-9 game two win.
 
Concordia's bats played a major role in the sweep as the team slashed an impressive .408/.449/.704 with 29 hits in 71 trips to the plate. 11 of those 29 hits went for extra bases, including five home runs from five different players. Four different Golden Bear players collected at least four hits on the day as Jarod Wandersee, Nick Thimsen, Matt Pietsch and Ryan Christopher combined to go 19-33 (.573) with three home runs, five doubles, nine RBIs and 12 runs scored.
 
GAME ONE: Concordia-St. Paul 7, Bemidji State 3 (8 inn.)
Trailing 3-1 heading to the fifth inning, the Golden Bears clawed their way to a victory as they scored one in the fifth and another in the sixth to force extra innings before exploding for four runs in the eighth to come out on top.
 
Despite a 12-4 advantage in hits in the contest, including both home runs, it took until the eighth to decide the winner. Nick Thimsen picked up a third of those hits as he delivered his first career four-hit game, going 4-5 with his fourth home run on the year along with a pair of steals. The sophomore leadoff man improved his average to .310 on the year with the effort.
 
Jack Young added a solo homer of his own, his second of the year, while Matt Pietsch went 2-4 with two runs scored. Ryan Bastyr and JT Hoffmann each added a pair of RBIs with two-run singles in the decisive eighth inning.
 
Concordia's four pitchers combined to allow just four hits and three walks while striking out seven in the win. Ryan Christopher got the start on the mound and gave up one run without allowing a hit as he struck out two in 2.0 innings in a no-decision. Logan Shaffer added 3.0 innings of two-run ball as he walked none and struck out three before TJ Johnson chipped in a scoreless sixth. Eric Lundell (2-1) picked up the win out of the bullpen as he did not allow a hit or a walk in two innings to go along with a strikeout in the win.
 
The Golden Bears took advantage being the visiting team on their home field in the top of the first as Thimsen sent the second pitch over the center field wall to give CSP a 1-0 lead.
 
The Beavers tied the game in the second without the benefit of a hit as a hit by pitch and a walk set up a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly to even it up at 1-1.
 
BSU was back at it two innings later as they led off the bottom of the fourth with a Sam Kalberer single and a Parker Borg double to put two in scoring position with nobody out. Both came around to score two batters later as John Perkins doubled home both with a soft line drive just inside the foul line past third base.
 
With time running out in the seven inning contest, the Golden Bears showed their resilience as they chipped away in the fifth and the sixth to pull back even. Young got the first one back with a leadoff home run on the second pitch of the fifth inning before the tying run crossed the plate on a wild pitch in the sixth. Pietsch led off the sixth with a single up the middle before a high fly ball off the bat of Bordewick dropped inside the left field foul line for another single. A sacrifice bunt moved up both runners before Morris uncorked a pitch to the backstop to allow Pietsch to score and tie the game at 3-3.
 
Both teams put runners in scoring position in each of the next three half innings, but neither was able to bring in the go-ahead run as the game moved to extra innings.
 
The Golden Bears wasted little time jumping out front in the eighth as a Pietsch single, a Bordewick hit by pitch and a Wandersee walk loaded the bases for Bastyr. The CSP first baseman promptly bounced the first pitch he saw up the middle to bring home two runs. After two quick outs, Hoffmann added some insurance runs with a pinch-hit, line drive single over the head of the second baseman before stealing second a few pitches later.
 
That 7-3 lead proved to be more than enough for Lundell as he worked around a two-out error to blank the Beavers in their half of the eighth and seal the 7-3 win.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 13, Bemidji State 9
While it was the Beavers that scored first with a run in the second, that lead quickly disappeared as CSP hammered out 10 runs over the next two innings en route to a 13-9 win.
 
After game one's 12-hit outburst, they exploded for 13 runs on 17 hits in game two. Concordia's top five hitters in the order were especially impressive as they combined to go 13-21 (.619) with seven extra-base hits in the contest.
 
Matt Pietsch drove in five of the team's 13 runs as he finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-5 with his first career home run, a grand slam, and scoring two more. Cody Maier also delivered his first career home run as he went 2-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
 
Not to be outdone, Jarod Wandersee also needed just a triple for the cycle as he went a perfect 4-4 with a home run, a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Ryan Christopher added a 3-4 effort while Nick Thimsen chipped in two doubles and Ryan Bastyr contributed two hits as well.
 
On the mound, Joey Atkinson (1-0) grabbed his first career with as he limited the Beavers to two earned runs over 5.0 innings while striking out a pair.
 
In the bottom of the second, the Beavers put runners on the corners with nobody out as they threatened to put up a crooked number against Atkinson, but the CSP hurler coaxed a double play to limit the damage as BSU took a 1-0 lead.
 
The Golden Bears responded in a big way just a half an inning later in the top of the third as they hung six runs on the board. Pietsch delivered the big blow with a one-out grand slam to put Concordia in front. Bordewick and Wandersee came around to score on consecutive wild pitches later in the inning to extend the lead to 6-1.
 
Maier blasted the first pitch of the fourth on top of the Gangelhoff Center to spark another big inning. Pietsch continued to pad his RBI tally with a run-scoring ground-rule double before Bordewick added a sacrifice fly and Wandersee singled home one run to push CSP into double digits at 10-1.
 
The Beavers got one back in the bottom of the fourth, but Christopher doubled home another CSP run in the top of the fifth get it right back. After the Beavers grabbed their third run of the game in the bottom of the fifth, Concordia extended their lead to 10 with a Wandersee solo home run and a Maier RBI single in the sixth.
 
Bemidji State tried to make things interesting with two in the sixth and four more in the seventh, capped off by a John Perkins three-run home run, but the push came too late as the Golden Bears grabbed the sweep with a 13-9 win.
 
The Golden Bears heard back out on the road this weekend as they travel to Augustana for two games on Saturday and one game on Sunday.