ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (17-25, 11-19 NSIC) dropped their home-opening doubleheader to Upper Iowa (11-29, 9-20 NSIC) as the Peacocks took game one 7-4 and game two 3-1 at Barnes Field on Tuesday afternoon.
GAME ONE: Upper Iowa 7, Concordia-St. Paul 4
Both teams came out firing early in the first game of the day as the Peacocks and Golden Bears traded three spots in the first before CSP took a 4-3 lead in the second. That proved to be all the offense in the contest for Concordia as UIU used runs in three of the final five innings to secure a 7-4 victory in game one.
The trio of
Bryce Nelson,
Jack Young and
Matt Pietsch combined for six of the team's 10 hits in the game as all three collected two hits in the loss. Nelson launched his fourth homer of the season while going 2-2 with a walk while Young finished 2-4 with a stolen base and a run scored. Pietsch collected an RBI and chipped in a pair of singles in the game.
Jaden Werner added the team's other extra-base hit as he finished 1-3 with a double, a walk and two driven in.
Ryan Christopher,
Brayden Roybal and
Kal Brohmer all chipped in singles as well.
Korey Dahlberg (4-4) got the start and took the loss as he went 4.2 innings, allowing four earned while walking one and striking out two.
Alec Holcomb struck out three in 1.1 hitless innings while
Michael Voss allowed a pair of unearned runs in his lone frame.
Colin Lacey (4-3) got the win with 4.0 innings of four-run ball before Sam Marhefke slammed the door with 3.0 scoreless innings with six strikeouts to collect the save for UIU.
After three straight one-out RBI singles gave Upper Iowa an early lead, Werner and Pietsch answered with a two-run double and a run-scoring single, respectively, in the bottom of the frame to tie it up.
Bryce Nelson put the Golden Bears in front with a solo home run into the wind over the high left wall one inning later.
The Peacocks plugged away with RBI singles in the third and fourth before taking advantage of a pair of CSP miscues in the seventh to tack on a pair of insurance runs.
GAME TWO: Upper Iowa 3, Concordia-St. Paul 1
UIU starter Keaton Parker (2-7) made life extremely difficult for the Golden Bear offense in the second game of the doubleheader as he spun 7.0 hitless innings, walking five and striking out a dozen before handing it off to the bullpen.
After a two-out error kept the inning alive in the home half of the eighth,
Ryan Christopher broke up the no-hit bid with a double in his first start of the season before
Matt Pietsch singled one batter later to bring an end to the shutout bid. With the go-ahead run at the plate, a deep fly ball to left fell just short of the wall as the Peacocks limited the damage before Austin Shingledecker struck out the side in the ninth to secure his first save of the season.
Ryan Fering provided an impressive outing of his own for the Golden Bears as he delivered 5.0 shutout frames in relief to keep the Golden Bears in it.
Eric Lundell followed with a scoreless inning in the ninth on just eight pitches.
Mason Nadolney (0-3) got off to a great start as he cruised through 3.0 scoreless innings, but a triple, a hit by pitch, a double and a single to start the fourth brought an end to his day. The right-hander finished with three runs allowed on five hits while striking out one in the loss.
Jack Young and
Brayden Roybal each reached safely twice as Young was hit by pitch in his first two plate appearances while Roybal added a pair of walks. Christopher also chipped in a walk to go along with his double.
Concordia closes out the regular season this weekend as they host Winona State on Friday and Saturday for a three-game series at Barnes Field.
