TUCSON, Ariz. - Concordia-St. Paul baseball's (9-2) bounced back with a convincing 9-2 win over the Malone (Ohio) Pioneers (3-8) on Monday afternoon at the Kino Sports Complex.
 
The Golden Bears will get a day off on Tuesday to regroup and enjoy the Arizona weather before returning to action on Wednesday morning for a rematch with Malone. The first pitch is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CT at Kino Sports Field #6.
 
Concordia added to their historic start to the season with a dominant 9-2 victory over Malone to improve their season record to 9-2. Since 2000, this has been one of the Golden Bears' best starts since starting 9-0 in 2006 and 8-1 in 2009. In addition, they now hold a 7-3 all-time record against the Pioneers, with today being the largest margin of victory for CSP.
 
Freshman Ian Segna (3-0) played a pivotal role for the Golden Bears this afternoon. The Lakeville, Minnesota native recorded his longest stint on the bump for the Navy and Gold with 7.0 innings pitched. He added a career-low zero walked batters and 1.29 game earned run average. He also tallied four strikeouts. Matt Sherman closed the show with 2.0 innings of work and three strikeouts.
 
Concordia collected 11 hits as a team, led by junior Bennett McCollow, who collected his third three-hit game of the season. The Bloomington, Minnesota native added an RBI and scored one run of his own. Brayden Roybal led the teams with three runs on a 2-4 outing at the plate, while Jaden Werner also shined with a pair of hits, runs and RBIs of his own.
 
Both starting pitchers from the opposing dugouts delivered early, as neither team could cross home plate in the opening two innings. That was until the third inning when Werner hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Roybal for the game's opening run.
 
After Malone tied things up in the fourth inning, CSP answered right back in the fifth with four runs on four hits. The scoring barrage began after Noah Juliar blasted a 2-RBI triple to right center field. Later in the inning, Kal Brohmer added a sacrifice fly to drive home Juliar before Koby McBroome added an RBI single that drove in Nick Thimsen, who used his speed to beat the tag at home plate to make the score 6-1.
 
Werner took advantage of a fielding error by the Pioneer shortstop to add the sixth run in the six, and CSP added three more insurance runs in the eighth inning that was highlighted by an RBI double from McCollow en route to the 9-2 final score.