ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul head baseball coach has announced a pair of schedule changes for this week as their non-conference doubleheader against Minnesota Duluth has been moved to Thursday in Mauston, Wis. while their NSIC-opening weekend series with Bemidji State has been moved to Veterans Field at Minnetonka High School.
 
SCHEDULE INFORMATION
With snow still on the ground in the Twin Cities area, Concordia and Minnesota Duluth will head south to Woodside Sports Complex in Mauston, Wis. The doubleheader, originally scheduled for Wednesday at Veterans Field, has also been pushed back a day to Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in game one. Live stats will be available for the doubleheader.
 
While Barnes Field is not expected to be ready for the weekend's conference opening series with Bemidji State, warm weather and sunshine this week is expected to allow the turf surface at Veterans Field to be playable by Saturday and Sunday. Game times will remain 1:30 p.m. for Saturday's doubleheader and noon for Sunday's single nine-inning game. Live video and live stats will be available for the three-game series.
 
WATCH ONLINE - NSIC NETWORK
Powered by the NSIC Network, all Northern Sun home and away baseball games will be broadcast online, free of charge, weather permitting. Visit www.nsicnetwork.com/cspbears to watch the Golden Bears. Away games will feature production by the host institution, while home games are broadcast using BlueFrame Technology with the play-by-play call of Dan Flanagan, voice of the Golden Bears for over a decade. Flanagan is a St. Paul native who professionally trained in broadcasting at Fordham University in New York where he was the voice of the basketball and football teams, among other sports. NSIC Network Announcement & FAQ
 
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FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Not able to watch or keep an eye on live stats? Check in on social media by following our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds. Each platform will have different levels of engagement. Twitter will offer scoring updates, Instagram will feature live look-ins and engaging content and Facebook is a great place to get links to previews, recaps and more. Simply search for CSP Bears on any of the platforms and remember to #BeGolden!
 
LAST TIME OUT
In the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational last week, the Golden Bears alternated wins and losses as they finished the week with a 3-3 record.
 
CSP opened the week with a dramatic 7-5 comeback win before falling to Lewis 4-1 in their second contest. The Golden Bears got back in the win column as they held off Malone for an 8-7 victory followed by a 6-0 loss to #16 Rollins. Concordia finished with a pair of high scoring contests with a 12-2 win over West Virginia Wesleyan and an 11-7 loss to Ashland.
 
Nick Thimsen paced the offense with a .348/.400/.435 slash line with a pair of doubles and four RBIs in 23 at-bats. Jaden Werner and Chandler Ibach each slugged a pair of homers while Werner finished with a .400 on-base percentage and an .800 slugging percentage to go along with a team-best six runs batted in. Jack Young added a solid performance of his own with six hits in 14 at-bats to hit .429 with a .529 on-base percentage while stealing a team-best three bags.
 
On the mound, Wyatt Rudolf and Luke DeGrammont each delivered a pair of quality outings. Rudolf worked 7.2 innings, allowing just one run, one walk and six hits while striking out four to finish with a win and a 1.17 ERA. DeGrammont delivered a 3.24 ERA in 8.1 innings, limiting opponents to three runs on seven hits to go along with seven strikeouts. Korey Dahlberg picked up a win in his first career start as he allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work.
 
UMD SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and the Bulldogs have combined for a fairly even series history with CSP holding a record of 27-29 against UMD heading into the week. Concordia's best stretch came from 2006-09 as they claimed 11 wins in 13 meetings during that span. Minnesota Duluth started to turn the momentum in their favor with nine wins in 11 meetings from 2015-17, but the Golden Bears rattled off seven wins in eight since then. Concordia has picked up 10 wins in 17 neutral site meetings.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE BULLDOGS
In last year's four game series played at Veterans Field on Mar. 20-21, 2021, the Golden Bears took three of four from the Bulldogs in the NSIC-opening weekend.
 
On the first day of the series, CSP shut out UMD for 16 innings on Saturday as they picked up a pair of sweeps at Veterans Field. The Golden Bears took game one 1-0 and game two 7-0.
 
Concordia's quartet of pitchers, Griffin Lapp, Luke DeGrammont, Connor Hurley and Eric Lundell, held the Bulldogs to a .151 batting average with eight hits in 53 at-bats while registering an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio on the day. The Golden Bears lowered their season ERA to 2.30 and their opponent average to .202 on the season.
 
Offensively, Matt Pietsch and Shea Pekarek both reached base at a .714 clip as Pietsch finished 5-7 with a double and a pair of runs while Pekarek went 4-6 with a double and a walk in the two games.
 
On day two, CSP bounced back from a 4-1 10-inning loss in game three to claim a 5-4 comeback win in the series finale.
 
Trailing 4-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth in the last game of the series, JT Hoffmann delivered his first career hit in style as he tied the game with a grand slam to completely change the tone of the game. The Golden Bears added a run in the fifth to claim the series win.
 
Hoffmann picked up one of the team's five hits as Ryan Christopher, Patrick Bordewick, Jarod Wandersee and Chandler Ibach each added one as well. Christopher and Wandersee each also drew a walk and scored while Ryan Bastyr delivered the team's fifth run of the game.
 
BSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia enters the conference-opening series with a 43-25 record against Bemidji State. While the Beavers dominated the series early on with wins in each of the first seven meetings, the Golden Bears have turned the series heavily in their favor in recent years with 13 wins in the last 14 meetings since 2015. In 18 meetings at neutral sites, CSP has gone 11-7.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE BEAVERS
Back on Apr. 15, 2021, Concordia took advantage of the site reversal to their home field as they cruised to a doubleheader sweep of Bemidji State 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.
 
Trailing 3-1 heading to the fifth inning of game one, 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.
 
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.