TUCSON, Ariz. - Paced by scoring in five-straight innings including an 8-run fourth inning, Concordia-St. Paul (3-5) cruised to a 14-0 win over Park Gilbert University (Ariz.) (8-9) on Wednesday afternoon at Kino Sports Complex as part of the Tucson Invitational Games.
The Golden Bears conclude the non-conference portion of their run at the TIG tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. (CT) against Crown College on Field 4 of Kino Sports Complex.
Concordia was powered by a pair of long balls from
Koby McBroome and
Will Husemann. McBroome went 2-5 with a pair of runs, four RBIs, his third stolen base and second home run of the season. Husemann was 2-4 with two runs, two RBIs and his third homer.
Leo Bustos picked up the start, working 4.0 shutout innings with five strikeouts, allowing a pair of singles and a walk, holding Park Gilbert to a .154 average. He retired the first eight batters he faced and didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning when he allowed a pair of singles to start the inning, but worked out of it with a fly out and a double play.
The strong pitching carried over to the bullpen as
Ollie Yuhas pitched two scoreless, striking out one and facing one over the minimum, only allowing an HBP.
Jake McNeil worked a shutout seventh, striking out one and only allowing a single.
The Golden Bear staff combined to allow just three singles, one walk, one HBP with seven strikeouts in the combined shutout.
Concordia's scoring started with the solo homers by Husemann in the second and McBroome in the third, with Husemann adding an RBI single in the third for a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth, Concordia blew the game open, capitalizing on three Park Gilbert fielding errors in an 8-run inning.
Jack Setterlund started the scoring with an RBI sacrifice bunt, reaching on the first error. He would finish the game 2-3, scoring and driving in two runs while punching a ground-rule double. McBroome followed with a 2-run single and Juliar had an RBI grounder that he reached on an error for a 7-0 lead. A two-run single by
Trett Joles made it 9-0, and Setterlund drove in his second run of the inning on a base hit through the left side for an 11-0 lead, scoring
Eric Berg for the second time of the inning.
Jeremy McGuigan added an RBI single in the fifth, and
Koby McBroome and
Tomas Lee each had RBI groundouts in the sixth.
Juliar and
Kaden Johnson each joined Husemann, Setterlund and McBroome with multi-hit games. Juliar was 2-4 with a run and an RBI, and Johnson was 2-3 with a run.
Bennett McCollow didn't record a hit, but walked twice and scored three times in the win.
Juliar has continued to maintain his early season .500 average (16-32) through eight games, while McCollow's dipped to .423 but his on-base percentage continues to soar above the .500 crest at a team-high .543 while slugging .846. McBroome became the first Golden Bear to hit double-digits in RBIs with 11, while McBroome and McCollow each have 10 runs in eight games. Berg has started his career out with a .500 average in six games (four starts), going 8-16 with four doubles, a .529 OBP and .750 slugging.
Brohmer, McCollow and Juliar have each reached safely in all eight games, increasing their streaks to 19, 22 and 20, respectively.