ST. PAUL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (17-13, 11-5 NSIC) made it a perfect weekend with a pair of late inning victories over St. Cloud State (17-9, 6-6 NSIC) on Sunday afternoon at Carlander Field. Concordia won game one 6-4 before a 5-4 second game victory.
The sweep followed a pair of big wins against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.
Concordia continues its challenging eight game home set with a home doubleheader against Winona State at Carlander Field, set for a 2 p.m. first pitch on campus.
In game one, it was sophomore
Grace Beseman with the game-winning hit, an RBI double off the fence in left center to score
Clara Heislen from first base on a head first dive into the plate to break a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning. Beseman scored on the play, advancing to third on the throw home as the catcher misfired at third base.
In game two, senior
Kris McIntyre hit a walk-off home run to break a 4-4 tie in the seventh inning for the sweep.
McIntyre had a big day at the plate, going 5-for-8 with a homer, a stolen base and three runs scored.
GAME 1: CSP 6, SCSU 4
Concordia mounted a 4-0 lead in the early innings, only to see SCSU rally back to tie the game in the middle frames with two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth inning,
Grace Beseman drilled an RBI double off the wall in left center, and came around to score on a throwing error by the catcher following
Clara Heislen's head first dive for the go-ahead run at the plate.
In building the lead early, it was
Aryka Knoche with a run scoring single in the first and an RBI double in the second while Hanna Mortensen added a 2-run single in the 3-run first inning.
Knoche went 3-for-4 in the game, as did second hitter
Kris McIntyre who also scored twice and added a stolen base.
Kali Kaestner earned the win for Concordia, improving to 8-4 on the year in the complete game. She allowed just two earned runs, striking out six and walking one.
She pitched around back-to-back singles to start the seventh inning by inducing a double play for the first two outs, and after a hit by pitch, forced the SCSU clean-up hitter to fly out to right to end the game.
Lauren Kirchberg took the loss for SCSU, also going the distance (6 IP), allowing six runs (five earned) as CSP tallied 11 hits.
GAME 2: CSP 5, SCSU 4
St. Cloud State struck first this time, scoring twice in the first inning, employing an aggressive baserunning strategy to attempt to keep up with the hot-hitting Golden Bears.
SCSU was successful on three double steals in the game, and stole seven bases overall in game two while also advancing numerous bases on passed balls or wild pitches to keep CSP's battery guessing.
While the Huskies worked the bases, CSP went with imitation in the bottom of the second inning, as
Amanda Parsons, who led off the inning with a double, scored on a squeeze bunt by
Taylor Griffin, moving Hanna Mortensen to second base.
Senior outfielder
Meagan Bliese followed Griffin, and despite the small ball strategy for the first run of the game, Bliese blew the game open with a two-run homer to center to give Concordia the lead back, 3-2.
St. Cloud State went back on top in the fourth with a leadoff double and a two-out double, adding in a stolen base and a passed ball in between to plate a pair of unearned runs, forcing starting pitcher
Bryanna Olson from the game after 3.2 innings.
Olson allowed four runs, but only one was earned and she struck out five Huskies in a no decision.
After a big day in the batter's box in game one,
Aryka Knoche came on in relief and looked strong in the circle in game two, blanking SCSU across 3.1 innings with three strikeouts and no walks, scattering four hits to improve to 4-2 on the year.
She pitched out of the fourth inning jam, retiring the Huskies with runners on second and third with two outs following another double steal.
Still trailing by a run entering the sixth inning, senior
Cam Veenbaas, who entered as a defensive replacement at second base in the top of the fifth inning, led off with a game tying home run to left field. She's homered twice in four games on this homestand after entering Thursday's action with one home run in the first 123 games of her career.
In the seventh inning with one out, McIntyre homered on a 1-0 pitch to give the Golden Bears a 4-0 weekend.
While SCSU stole seven bases in the game, the Golden Bears scored four of their five runs on three home runs, including the game-tying and game-winning solos.
