TUCSON, Ariz. - The Concordia-St. Paul baseball (3-8) dropped their final game of the Tucson Invitational, 7-0, to the Southwest Minnesota Mustangs (5-2) on Friday afternoon at the Kino Sports Complex.
 
As a team, the Golden Bears collected four hits that were highlighted by a ground-rule double from Nick Thimsen in the opening inning. Michael Sturek, Mason Nadolney and Lamine Diaby-Gassama each found the hit column with singles of their own.
 
The Mustangs used a strong pitching performance along with seven runs off 10 hits to secure the victory. Their starting pitcher, Ansen Dulas (2-0) provided a scoreless 7.0 IP outing with seven strikeouts and only one hit. 
 
For the Golden Bears, Jonah Lewis (0-1) made his second start of the invitational and led all pitchers in the game with eight strikeouts, one shy of his career-high that was set against Bemidji last season. The junior also allowed only two earned runs and walked one batter. Leo Bustos, Carter Schulte, Nadolney and Isaac Johnson all appeared in relief and combined for a pair of strikeouts. 
 
After both teams were unable to find the scoreboard in the opening inning, SMSU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with a trio of runs off an RBI double and two-RBI single in the second inning. The Mustangs added a run in the third, a pair of runs in the sixth and their final run in the eighth to secure the 7-0 victory. 
 
The Golden Bears will return to action next Wednesday for the non-conference doubleheader finale against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs at U.S. Bank Stadium. The first pitch for game one is slated for 6:30 p.m. and game two will follow shortly afterward.