ST. PAUL, Minn. – This week, Concordia-St. Paul (15-20, 11-14 NSIC) will host its 2025 home opener at Barnes Field on campus on Tuesday with a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader against Winona State (16-19, 12-13 NSIC).  

The home opener will be Concordia's second week of mid-week competition in the NSIC schedule, opens a 5-game homestand which comes on the heels of CSP's longest scheduled roadstand of the year, five games between trips to St. Cloud State (2) and Wayne State (3).

Concordia will look to snap a 5-game losing streak with four of the five games being within three runs or less in the final two innings of play with a pair of 1-run losses and a 3-run loss mixed in.
 
This week's doubleheader presents another opportunity for CSP baseball in the NSIC race as CSP's 11-14 league record has them tied for 10^th with Minnesota Duluth, and just a game out of eighth place UMary and Winona State, and only two behind Minnesota Crookston in seventh.
 
The games will be streamed on the NSIC Network with the play-by-play voice of Dan Flanagan on the broadcast, and feature live in-game statistics to follow along online.
 
SERIES HISTORY: WSU 47, CSP 40
The Golden Bears and Warriors have a long history of competition, competing against each other 87 times entering this week's doubleheader. The series of recorded competitions begins in 1999, the year before CSP joined the NSIC & NCAA Division II level. Winona State opened the series with 10-straight wins from 1999 to 2002, but the Golden Bears scored their first win against the Warriors on May 5, 2002 and have been leading the series 40-37 ever since.
 
The series includes 75 NSIC matchups, with WSU holding a slight 38-37 edge in league play.
 
The Warriors' 10-0 start in the series is the longest streak by either club, while the Golden Bears had a 6-game winning streak against WSU from 2016 to 2017, the second-longest streak by either program.
 
All but 11 games have been played at one of the two campus sites, but Barnes Field has been host to just 31 games compared to Winona State hosting 45 of the contests. At either location, CSP is three games under .500 against WSU, with a 14-17 record at Barnes Field against the Warriors.
 
CSP welcomed WSU to Barnes Field three-straight years, hosting the Warriors in 2021, 2022 and 2023 with WSU holding a 4-3 edge in the seven games. CSP won the first two and most recent home game, with WSU picking up four-straight wins in between. The games in 2023 at Barnes Field had a combined run total of 58 in a doubleheader, with each team scoring 29 times in two games, a 17-13 win for Winona State in game one and a 16-12 CSP win in game two.
 
Most recently, the teams met in Winona last season, with the teams splitting as CSP won 5-3 before WSU picked up a game two 4-3 win with the doubleheader decided by just one run in favor of CSP (8-7).
 
Since Neil Lerner has been head coach in the 2020 season, the teams have met nine times with Winona State holding a 5-4 edge with six of the nine games decided by four runs or less and four decided by two runs or less.
 
ABOUT THE WARRIORS
Winona State enters this week's doubleheader on the heels of a 4-game sweep (3 NSIC games, 1 non-conference) at the hands of Augustana, dropping the series by a 21-run margin, 42-21 to the Vikings. They've dropped six of their last seven games, with the lone win coming against NSIC-leading Minnesota State last Wednesday, one of just two NSIC losses handed to MSU.
 
The Warrior pitching staff boasts the league's second-best walk rate (3.9/9) but the league's ninth-ranked WHIP (1.83) and 10^th-ranked ERA (7.70), but the lineup is fourth in the league in runs (7.4), fifth in hitting (.305), third in OBP (.424) and seventh in slugging (.441).  
 
Last year, the Warriors went 18-21 in league play, missing the NSIC Tournament field by 1.5 games and finishing 21-28 overall.
 
POTENTIAL PITCHING MATCHUPS
With each team completing their first full cycle of a midweek and weekend series, pitching usage has shifted significantly. The Golden Bears have used  nine different starting pitchers in the first 35 games and outside of the weekend starters, only Fritz Meyer has started more than two games. After the four starters with 6-plus starts each, CSP has a pair who have started two games each: Reece Piontek and Leo Bustos, and neither of those two arms started last midweek at SCSU.

The Warriors have also started a plethora of arms with 12 players starting on the bump in 35 total games with eight pitchers starting two or more games apiece.
 
Teams do not announce or communicate their probable starting pitchers to the public, these listings are based on past usage and workload trends.
 
WSU:

1. Andrew Regner (4 app, 3 GS, 1-1, 6.57 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 12.1 IP, 12-3 SO-BB, .273 oav)
2. Logan LeTourneau (6 app, 2 GS, 0-0, 9.00 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, 11.0 IP, 16-2 SO-BB, .367 oav)

 
CSP:

1. Fritz Meyer (8 app, 6 GS, 1-3, 5.79 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 28.0 IP, 30-12 SO-BB, .286 oav)
2. Reece Piontek (8 app, 2 GS, 1-0, 6.35 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 22.2 IP, 27-11 SO-BB, .272 oav)