BRANDON, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (11-3, 3-2 NSIC) erased an eight-run deficit before falling in heartbreaking fashion by a score of 16-15 to the University of Mary (7-7, 3-2 NSIC) on Thursday afternoon at First National Bank Field.
After trailing 8-0 heading to the fifth inning, the Golden Bears exploded for seven runs before adding three more in the sixth and five more in the seventh to build a 15-14 advantage, but the Marauders rallied for two in the ninth to claim a 16-15 walk-off win in the first game of the series.
Offense was the name of the game in game one as CSP saw seven of their 12 hits go for extra bases while they also drew a staggering 16 walks in the contest. Seven of Concordia's nine starters reached base safely three times or more with four registering multi-hit games. All nine drew at least one walk with six of nine drawing two walks.
Koby McBroome set the tone from the leadoff spot as he reached base five times, going 3-5 with a pair of walks while delivering his first homer of the season.
Justin McGuigan and
Brayden Roybal each homered and doubled in the game as McGuigan finished 2-5 with a walk, a team-best five runs driven in and three runs scored while Roybal went 2-4 with a pair of walks, runs and RBIs.
Mason Nadolney launched his team-leading seventh home run of the year to go along with two walks while
Bennett McCollow had two hits, including a double, two walks and a hit by pitch as he reached safely five times.
Jaden Werner added three runs as he went 1-2 with a pair of walks and a pair of hit by pitches on the day.
Carter Beck homered twice for the Marauders while Noah Hull had a game-high four hits, including a long ball, as UMary finished with 18 hits in the win.
Korey Dahlberg battled through 4.2 innings as he walked none and struck out three in a no-decision.
Jack Nicklaus delivered 1.1 innings of one-run ball in relief while
Eric Lundell (2-1) took the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings of action.
Concordia got to the UMary bullpen as they hung 15 runs on the board in just 5.2 innings against their relief corps.
The Marauders jumped on the Golden Bears early with three in the first before they gave themselves a comfortable lead with five more in the fourth, but the high-powered CSP offense would not go quietly.
Following a walk, a hit by pitch, an infield single and another walk to start the top of the fifth, McGuigan put a big dent in the deficit as he launched a grand slam to make it 8-5. Roybal joined in the fun with a solo homer one batter later before McBroome gave CSP back-to-back-to-back home runs to pull within a run.
The Marauders got two back in their half of the fifth before Nadolney hammered a two-run shot, CSP's fourth homer in nine batters, to trim it back to one.
Noah Juliar drew a bases-loaded walk later in the inning to tie it up at 10-10.
The back-and-forth continued as UMary regained the lead with four runs in the bottom half of the sixth before Concordia responded once again. The first three hitters reached to start the seventh on just one hit before McGuigan drove in one with a fielder's choice and Roybal drove in another with a double. McCollow closed the gap back to one with an RBI walk before a two-out UMary error allowed the tying run to score. Werner then gave CSP the lead with a bases loaded hit by pitch to make it 15-14.
Both teams matched zeroes until the bottom of the ninth when the Marauders picked up a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. Lundell stepped up in a big way with a strikeout to bring the Golden Bears within two outs of securing the victory, but a defensive miscue allowed two runs to score as UMary escaped with a one-run victory.
The two teams will be back at it tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at 1:30 p.m. before the series concludes on Saturday with a 12 p.m. first pitch.
