ST. PAUL, Minn – Concordia St. Paul baseball (17-25, 13-15 NSIC) split Tuesday's doubleheader with the Sioux Falls Cougars (14-33, 13-20 NSIC) on Senior Day at Barnes Field.
 
The Golden Bears will return to action on Friday as they hit the road to face the Minnesota State Mavericks for the final weekend series of the 2023 regular season. Friday's doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. with game two following after. They will conclude the series with a single game on Saturday slated for a noon start time. 
 
GAME 1: CSP 17, USF 9 (Seven Innings)
Game one saw multiple momentum shifts throughout the contest as the two teams traded the lead three times. Concordia jumped out to a two-run lead in the opening inning, but Sioux Falls answered with eight runs over the next two innings to gain their biggest lead of the contest. However, with a strong hitting and a breakout performance from freshman relief pitcher Jack Nicklaus down the final stretch, the Golden Bears scored 14 unanswered runs to secure the 17-9 victory in game one.
 
Concordia swung the bats well with 10 hits led by Jaden Werner, who finished with a double and three-run homer at the plate. Nick Thimsen and Noah Juliar recorded multi-hit games, and Brayden Roybal added a double.
 
Christian Morel appeared on the bump first for the Golden Bears and recorded a pair of strikeouts. Nicklaus (1-0) shined from the bullpen with a career-best 4.1 inning and five strikeouts. The freshman pitched a shutout while allowing no runs, no hits and only two walks in his first career win in the navy and gold.
 
After spotting the Cougars the first run of the game, the Golden Bears responded with a trio of runs in the opening innings highlighted by an RBI single from Bryce Nelson. USF struggled to find the zone as there were three walks, a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch that allowed Kal Brohmer to cross from third for the CSP's first run of the afternoon.
 
Sioux Falls added the next eight runs of the contest with a seven run second inning that was highlighted by a two-RBI double and a three run homer to take a 9-3 lead heading into the bottom of the third inning.
 
In the fifth, Justin McGuigan sparked the big six-run inning with an RBI single. Roybal used a two-RBI double in the next at-bat to cut the Cougars lead to one, and eventually scored the tying run off a wild pitch minutes later. Werner kept the momentum rolling later in the inning with a two-RBI double of his own to give the Golden Bears' an 11-9 advantage.
 
The Golden Bears kept the momentum going into the sixth inning, as they added six more runs off four hits. After back-to-back RBI singles from Thimsen and Juliar, Werner collected his third home run of the season with a three-run bomb to deep right field that helped propel the Golden Bears to the 17-9 victory.
 
GAME 2: CSP 7, USF 10
Both teams traded leads again in game, while combining for 24 hits and 17 runs. The Golden Bears shot out of a cannon in game two with five runs in the opening two innings before the Cougars tied the game in fourth and took their first lead in the fifth. CSP leveled the score with a pair of runs in the seventh, but three runs in eighth would be the decider for USF's 10-7 victory.
 
Concordia notched 10 hits again in game two with Roybal leading the way with a three hit outing that included a double and a pair of RBIs. Brohmer added a multi-hit performance himself with a pair of hits that included a triple and two RBIs of his own.
 
Gavin Rusch made his seventh start of the season on the bump for the Golden Bears. The sophomore recorded a pair of strikeouts, while allowing three earned runs and only one walk in 5.1 innings. Eric Lundell (2-4) recorded a pair of strikeouts in 2.2 innings pitched in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears struck first with a run in the opening innings of play after Thimsen used an RBI single to drive home Brohmer, who had reached earlier in the inning with a triple to center field.
 
After the Cougars tied the game in the next half inning, the Golden Bears quickly regained the lead with four runs in the third. Roybal kicked off the scoring with a two-RBI single, while Juliar added an RBI single and Brohmer scored on yet another wild pitch.
 
Sioux Falls scored six straight that was jump started by four runs in the fourth innings to tie the game, and eventually took the lead with runs in the fifth and sixth to go up 7-5.

In the seventh, after McGuigan and Roybal were both hit-by-hit with Nelson on third, Brohmer used a hard hit single through the right side of the infield to drive in Nelson and McGuigan to tie the game a seven runs apiece. However, the Cougars used a two-RBI ground-rule double and an RBI single to secure the doubleheader split with a 10-7 victory.