MARSHALL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (7-9, 3-8 NSIC) exploded for 20 runs in game two to secure a Friday split at Southwest Minnesota State (6-7, 4-6 NSIC). The Mustangs grabbed game one 9-3 before the Golden Bears stormed back to take game two 20-6 in seven innings.
 
GAME ONE: Southwest Minnesota State 9, Concordia-St. Paul 3
The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead with runs in each of the first two innings before pulling away late with five in the fifth and two more in the sixth to erase a late surge from the Golden Bears.
 
The top four of CSP's lineup picked up three of the team's four hits and drove in all three runs in the contest as Nick Thimsen, Matt Pietsch and Patrick Bordewick all went 1-3 with an RBI while Thimsen and Pietsch each scored a run. Thimsen added a walk while Pietsch picked up the team's lone extra base hit with a double. Ryan Bastyr added a single as well.
 
Luke DeGrammont (1-3) took the loss for the Golden Bears as he struck out four over 4.2 innings. Matt Sherman added a scoreless frame out of the bullpen.
 
SMSU starter John Bezdicek (2-0) picked up the complete game victory as he allowed three runs on four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
 
Brodie Smith set the tone for Southwest Minnesota State in the bottom of the first as he launched a solo home run on the second pitch of the inning to put the Mustangs in front. The SMSU right fielder was right back at it in the second inning as he delivered an RBI single to double the lead.
 
Bastyr led off the third with a single for CSP before Thimsen put two on with two out with a single of his own, but Bezdicek picked up a big strikeout to bring the inning to a close.
 
The big inning for the Mustangs came in the fifth as Kip Gronholz came through with a two-out run scoring single before Keenan Wenzel broke the game open with a grand slam to make it 7-0.
 
The Golden Bears responded with a two-out rally of their own in the next half inning as Pietsch came through with an RBI double to score Thimsen before Bordewick added a run scoring single to cut it to 7-2.
 
The Mustangs took advantage of a CSP miscue in the bottom of the inning to plate two runs to regain a seven run lead before Concordia grabbed one more in the top of the seventh. Chandler Ibach drew a leadoff walk and moved up to third on a groundout and a wild pitch before Thimsen drove him in with a RBI groundout.
 
GAME TWO: Concordia-St. Paul 20, Southwest Minnesota State 6 (7 innings)
While the Golden Bear bats had been quiet over recent games, they broke out in a big way in game two against the Mustangs as CSP put up their largest offensive output since a wild 23-15 win against Wayne State back on Mar. 5, 2019 and their largest output in play since a 23-9 win at Bemidji State all the way back on April 19, 2014.
 
The Golden Bears fell one home run short of the DII-era program record set back on April 8, 2004 at UMD as they slugged five as a team in the game while their 39 total bases ranked seventh.
 
A staggering eight CSP hitters registered multi-hit games while seven scored at least twice and five drove in two or more in the game in a balanced attack.
 
The top run producer in the game was third baseman Jarod Wandersee as the junior launched a grand slam and a two-run homer to set career bests with two home runs, six RBIs and three runs scored. Patrick Bordewick reached safely all five times up as he went 4-4 with a homer, a walk, four runs scored and a pair of RBIs, giving him three career four-hit games.
 
Ryan Christopher and Nick Thimsen joined in the long ball fun as Christopher drove in three and scored three while going 3-5 with a homer and Thimen went 2-4 with a homer, a walk and a pair of runs.
 
Jaden Werner added the first two hits of his young career as he 2-5 with three RBIs while Matt Pietsch went 2-5 with a double and three runs scored. Jack Young added a 2-4 performance with two runs and two RBIs while Justin McGuigan also chipped in a pair of hits.
 
Griffin Lapp (2-0) bounced back from a tough first inning to fire four scoreless frames and pick up the win. Lapp struck out four and walked one while allowing two earned runs on five hits in his 5.0 innings of work.
 
While it was the Mustangs that opened the scoring quickly with a homer in game one, the Golden Bears returned the favor twofold in game two. With two outs and a runner on first in the opening frame, Bordewick blasted a two-run homer to left to give CSP an early lead. Two batters later, Wandersee doubled the lead with a two-run shot of his own to make it 4-0 after one half inning of play.
 
That lead was quickly diminished as SMSU responded with three in their half of the inning. Matt Bezdicek got the Mustangs on the board before a second run scored on a fielder's choice and a third run scored on a Kip Gronholz single.
 
The Golden Bears wasted little time regaining a bit of a cushion as Thimsen and Christopher went back-to-back in the second. Concordia continued to pile on in the third as Young drove in a run with a single and Werner drove in two more with a single of his own to extend the lead to 9-3.
 
Concordia blew the game wide open with a massive seven-run fourth as the team hammered out seven hits, including three doubles, and sent 13 to the plate in the inning. Young, Werner, McGuigan, Christopher and Pietsch all produced run-scoring hits in the frame.
 
The final blow came in the sixth as Wandersee unloaded the bases with a grand slam on the first pitch he saw to bring the Golden Bears to an even 20 runs.
 
Southwest Minnesota State added some consolation runs in the seventh as Chase McDaniel and Jake Hendricks went back-to-back to bring the final score to 20-6.
 
The Golden Bears and the Mustangs will wrap up the series tomorrow with a single nine-inning contest set to begin at noon.