WICHITA, Kan. -The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (2-0) grabbed their season-opening series against the Newman Jets (1-10) after claiming back-to-back wins with a high-scoring 25-17 victory at McCarthy Park on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Golden Bears will return to action tomorrow at noon for the series' final game with the Jets at McCarthy Field.
 
With this afternoon's win, Concordia evened the all-time series against Newman at three games apiece. Despite scoring the most points in the series, today's game was the smallest margin of victory for the Golden Bears over the Jets. CSP now averages 13.5 runs a game with 81 total in the six games combined.
 
After trailing for the first time in the series, the Golden Bears picked up momentum with back-to-back three-run innings to take an earlier 6-1 advantage. Midway through the game, Newman rallied with eight combined runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Golden Bears kept the bats hot, scoring 18 runs in the final four innings to steal the victory.
 
CSP collected 15 hits as a team. Nick Thimsen had a great day at the plate after going 4-5 with six RBIs and three runs scored. Bennett McCollow added an impressive 3-5 outing with four runs scored and four runners driven in.
 
Gavin Rusch made his first start of the season on the bump this season. The Green Bay, Wisconsin native recorded 4.1 innings with a trio of strikeouts. Eric Lundell (1-0) collected the win out of the bullpen with a game-high five strikeouts in 2.2 innings pitched.
 
Noah Juliar and Mason Nadolney showed power from the batter's box with a home run each in the third and fourth innings. Juliar blasted a 2-run shot to left field in the second inning to give CSP their first lead of the game, while Nadolney's second home run of the season drove home Thimsen, who sparked the scoring in the fourth with an RBI double to right field.
 
Newman would not go away easily though, as they regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with five runs on six hits.
 
Back-to-back five-run innings right before the seventh inning stretch helped the shift momentum back into Concordia's favor. This 10-run offensive explosion was highlighted by a 3-RBI double from Thimsen in the sixth inning and a 2-RBI double by Jaden Werner in the seventh helped propel CSP to a 16-10 lead.
 
Concordia's best inning of the game was not until the eighth when the Bears tallied six runs on a pair of hits to go up by 12 runs, which was highlighted by McCollow's 3-RBI double. Later on, Nadolney drove in a run with an RBI single to center field, Thimsen scored on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly from Werner added the final run.
 
With the game in jeopardy of ending early, the Jets responded with a strong 5-Run eighth inning to cut the Golden Bears lead to seven. However, in the final inning, CSP recorded their third three-run inning, highlighted by an RBI double by Thimsen in route to a 25-17 victory.