SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (11-17, 7-15 NSIC) dropped the final game of the series to Augustana (21-6, 17-6 NSIC) by a score of 9-0 on Sunday afternoon.
For the third game in a row, the Vikings put a crooked number on the board in the opening frame before coming out on top. They scored four in the first, three in the third and two in the second while a quartet of pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts in the shutout win.
Max Steffens tallied the victory for Augustana as he working 5.0 scoreless frames, allowing four hits and no walks while striking out five. Parker Hanson added five strikeouts in 2.0 innings, Tony Lanier struck out all three batters he faced, and Caleb Saari struck out a pair in the ninth to round it out.
Matt Pietsch led the team with a pair of hits in the loss while
Jarod Wandersee,
Nick Thimsen,
Shea Pekarek and
Jack Becker all added singles as well.
The bullpen provided a bright spot for the Golden Bears as
Eric Lundell,
Wyatt Rudolf and
Ray Wellner combined to blank the Vikings for the 4.1 innings. Lundell allowed just one hit in 1.1 innings of work, Rudolf struck out a pair in a scoreless inning, and Wellner added 2.0 scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
Michael Voss (0-2) took the loss as he worked 3.2 innings in the start.
The Vikings offense came out swinging with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a Jordan Barth RBI double and a Christian Kuzemka solo home run.
Carter Howell delivered the big blow in the third inning as he launched a three-run shot over the wall in left center field to push the lead out to 7-0 after three. Drey Dirksen rounded out the scoring with a two-run double in the fourth.
The Golden Bears' best threats came in the second and the third as they picked up a pair of hits in each frame, but Steffens managed to work out of both jams en route to closing out the series sweep.
Concordia will look to get back into the win column on Wednesday as they travel to Upper Iowa for a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
