MANDAN, N.D. - Concordia-St. Paul baseball (27-21) dropped their first game of the 2024 NSIC Baseball Tournament, 19-3, to No. 9 Augustana (42-8) on Wednesday afternoon from BNC Field.
 
Jaden Werner led the Golden Bears offensively. The senior scored the first run of the game in the second inning following an RBI single from Bryce Nelson before collecting his seventh homer of the season with a two-run bomb that sailed over the left field wall in the sixth.
 
Korey Dahlberg (5-4) made his 11th start of the season (12th appearance) in the Navy and Gold. The Farmington, Minnesota native battled for 2.2 innings and tallied a pair of strikeouts in the loss. From the bullpen, senior Logan Shaffer matched Dahlberg's team-leading two strikeouts.
 
Augie collected 19 runs on 16 hits in the victory. The top-seeded team in the tournament displayed power from behind the plate with five home runs and a double. Their starting pitcher, Caleb Saari (8-1), also played a pivotal role on the mound with eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings of work. They will meet Wayne State in the next round of the tournament tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.
 
HISTORY AGAINST THE HUSKIES
The Golden Bears and Huskies have met 61 times since March 8, 2014, with the Huskies holding an all-time advantage of 42-18-1. CSP claimed the first game between the two schools with a 6-3 victory in Florida, and their largest margin of victory came in 2005 with a 21-2 victory in St. Cloud. Earlier this season, the two teams split their midweek doubleheader at Bob Barnes Field. The Golden Bears overcame a seven-run deficit with an eight-run sixth inning to secure a wild 12-11 comeback victory in game one. St. Cloud responded with a 15-5 run-rule win in eight innings to secure the split in game two.
 
UP NEXT
CSP will return to action tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. against the SCSU Huskies at BNC Field in Mandan, North Dakota. The winner will play tomorrow evening against the loser of game seven that is to be determined.