MINNETONKA, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (13-15, 9-9 NSIC) and Southwest Minnesota State (17-8, 12-6 NSIC) played to a doubleheader split on Saturday afternoon and evening at Veterans Field on the campus of Minnetonka High School, with SMSU outlasting Concordia 2-0 in 10 innings in a snappy game one before CSP won 8-2 in a sluggish game two.

The two teams will duel again tomorrow with a doubleheader at noon to complete the NSIC 4-game weekend series, once again at Veterans Field. 

The Golden Bears halted SMSU's 5-game winning streak in game two as the Mustangs had improved to 9-1 in their previous 10 games with the game one win. With a 9-9 record through 18 league games, today's doubleheader split was coincidentally CSP's first doubleheader split of the 2025 season, while SMSU's split was their third of the season despite a 12-6 league record. 

SMSU holds onto its tie for second in the conference standings with Augustana, who split at UMary today, while Wayne State (12-7) pulled to within a half game of the second-place tie with a 2-1 edge in the series with Minnesota Duluth with one game remaining on Sunday. Concordia's .500 record has the squad in a 4-team tie for sixth along with UMary, St. Cloud State and Minnesota Crookston, a half game ahead of Minnesota Duluth (9-10) and a game up on Sioux Falls (8-10).

The Golden Bears received a pair of strong starts on the mound led by senior fourth-year starting pitcher Korey Dahlberg, who started his CSP career record 39th game and turned in arguably his best career performance. Dahlberg blanked the Mustangs for 8.0 innings, allowing five hits (all singles) and two walks while striking out five in a no decision. Dahlberg was matched by SMSU starter Ryan Chmielewski, who also went 8.0 shutout, scattering five singles and one walk with seven strikeouts.

In the second game, CSP senior starter Gavin Rusch worked 5.2 innings, allowing two unearned runs on two hits and three walks while striking out six to improve to 2-2 on the year.

Concordia's lineup was led by Will Huseman with a 3-hit day, going 3-8 with a run and an RBI, while Charlie Harms and Kaden Johnson each drew three walks from the 7-8 spots in the lineup. Freshman Eric Berg was 2-6, going 1-3 in each game, scoring twice in game two, and Noah Juliar hit his ninth double of the season and also had a hit in each game, going 2-7.

GAME 1: SMSU 2, CSP 0 (10)
Concordia and SMSU traded zeroes on the scoreboard at a rapid pace in a 10-inning game that clocked in at 2 hours, 17 minutes. 

Dahlberg was superb after working out of a first inning jam, allowing SMSU to load the bases with one out, he picked up a strikeout swinging and induced an inning line-out to start a string of retiring six straight Mustangs to get him into the third inning. 

After the first inning, Dahlberg wouldn't let a Mustang into scoring position again until the sixth, as he struck out a pair in the second and one more in the third for four strikeouts in the first three innings.

He induced a 5-4-3 double play in the fourth, and worked around a 2-out single in the fifth.

In the sixth, he hit the leadoff batter, something that he's done more than any Golden Bear to toe the rubber, his 39th career HBP, but picked up back-to-back 1-3 putouts, the first on a sacrifice bunt attempt with the batter ruled out due to interference before SMSU successfully sacrificed on the next at-bat, once again back to Dahlberg. He got a third-straight groundout to end the inning and SMSU's first threat since the first inning.

In hte seventh, SMSU looked ready to pounce, getting the first batter aboard on CSP's second dropped pop-up of the game, followed by another sacrifice to Dahlberg and his second HBP of the game to put runners on first and second with one out. But Dahlberg once again executed, inducing a groundout to third and a flyout to left to retire the side.

CSP's lineup had the same fate, leaving a runner on second base in the second inning and then going dark until the seventh, not putting a runner in scoring position until the home half of the final inning of regulation. 

In the seventh, Noah Juliar led off with a single, with Trett Joles taking his spot when SMSU threw out Juliar on a sacrifice attempt. Eric Berg laced a single to left to give CSP runners on first and second with one out with the duo moving up to second and third on Will Husemann's grounder to first. CSP wasn't able to bring in the walk-off run as pinch hitter Jack Setterlund's liner to second couldn't escape the infield. 

SMSU retired eight in a row from the seventh through ninth innings while CSP high leverage reliever Jack Greenlun mowed down the Mustangs three times in the ninth.

In the 10th, SMSU picked up a 1-out single before Evan Behn delivered the eventual game-winner, a 2-run homer to left to break the scoreless tie.

After a walk to the next hitter, Greenlun settled in and struck out the final two Mustangs as he struck out 55.6% of the nine Mustangs he'd face in two relief innings. He would take the loss, however, falling to 1-5 on the season despite coming off of a 2-save day last Friday against Minnesota Crookston.

Cameron Jensen picked up the win in relief for SMSU, working a 1-2-3 ninth inning before allowing the game-tying run to the plate with no outs when Berg was hit by pitch to start the 10th. He was able to get CSP on a strikeout, foul pop and fielder's choice to end the game to improve to 1-0.

Following his eight shutout innings, Dahlberg has now pitched 195.0 innings, ninth-most in team history, while facing the third-most batters (936). He made his third quality start of the season (6 IP, 3 ER or less), picked up at least four strikeouts for the fifth time in seven starts and has pitched at least 4.0 innings in six of his seven starts and five-straight.

GAME 2: CSP 8, SMSU 2
In the second game, Concordia appeared to have the momentum early as CSP starter Gavin Rusch retired the first six batters including three strikeouts while Concordia opened the game with a walk but a caught stealing erased the first inning threat.

In the second inning, a 1-out HBP to Eric Berg got things going, with Charlie Harms and Kaden Johnson drawing back-to-back 2-out walks to load the bases, with CSP unable to push any runs across.

It was the first of three times that Harms and Johnson would draw back-to-back walks on the day. 

In the third, the Mustangs finally got to Rusch, doing so without the benefit of a hit as a leadoff walk, passed ball, sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly scored the game's first run in the third inning. Rusch then surrendered his first hit of the day on a bunt single between the plate and mound, with a passed ball and stolen base putting a runner on third with two outs. A 2-out walk gave the Mustangs runners on the corner, with Rusch getting the runner on first in a delayed pickoff caught stealing attempt with SMSU scoring the second run just moments before the runner was tagged out between first and second base.

Armed with its second 2-0 lead of the day in the middle innings of a shortened second game, the Mustangs couldn't contain CSP's next rally.

In the third, Kal Brohmer led off with his second walk of the day with Noah Juliar hitting his ninth double of the year with one out to give Concordia runners on second and third. 

The Mustangs then turned to the bullpen for the first time in the contest. After a passed ball allowed the first CSP run to score, Trett Joles welcomed SMSU's first reliever to the game with a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Berg, Will Husemann and Harms followed with three-straight 2-out singles, with Harms driving in Berg for a 3-2 lead.

After issuing the two unearned runs in the top of the third, Rusch settled back into a groove, getting the Mustangs in order in the fourth and fifth innings, getting the last two batters of the fifth inning looking during a streak of eight-straight outs. 

Rusch's rhythm would be disrupted in the bottom of the fifth as CSP blew the game open. After Juliar opened the inning with solid contact on a line out to third, the next two batters reached on soft grounders to the left side of the infield that SMSU couldn't handle.

After the second error of the inning, the Mustangs called the bullpen for their third pitcher of the game, who would only face two batters, issuing an RBI hit stung by Husemann on a short hop to second base followed by a walk to Harms, his second of three. SMSU's fourth pitcher of the game and third of the inning would also face two hitters, back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Johnson (his second of three as well) and Koby McBroome. 

The Mustangs went back to the bullpen, again, the fourth time of the inning for the fifth pitcher of the game, this time for just one batter in a lefty-lefty matchup with CSP leadoff man Kal Brohmer winning the matchup by delivering a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Harms for CSP's fourth run of the frame.

The Mustangs made one final pitching change in the inning, but Concordia wasn't done, getting two more walks to push one more run on Juliar's bases loaded 2-out walk.

CSP sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning to face five different Mustang pitchers. The middle three SMSU relievers combined to face five hitters while recording just one out.

The 5-run fifth inning allowed Concordia to expand its lead to 8-2 heading into the late innings with Rusch on cruise control into the top of the sixth.

The long inning that featured four mid-inning pitching changes forced Rusch to play catch in the bullpen while he waited.

After retiring the leadoff pinch hitter for the Mustangs, he allowed a 1-out walk before getting his sixth strikeout. A 2-out ground-rule double to left center gap ended his day, with lefty reliever Liam Bystol retiring the only Mustang he'd face, getting a flyout to right on three pitches. 

In the seventh, CSP turned to Cooper Mollet, who retired all three batters he'd face on a pair of groundouts and a flyout in a 9-pitch inning.

Rusch earned the win, working 5.2 innings, allowing a pair of unearned runs. He allowed just two hits and held a 6-3 SO-BB ratio, striking out 29 percent of hitters on the day. He improves his record to 2-2, has pitched at least 4.0 innings in all seven appearances and allowed two earned runs or less in four of his seven appearances. He has struck out at least four batters in all six starts and holds a 39-14 SO-BB ratio in a team-high 35.2 innings on the season. 

While Dahlberg headlined with his record-breaking start, Rusch has now appeared in 35 games with 27 starts during his four years at CSP, improving his career record to 8-6 with 106 strikeouts in 143.2 innings.

Concordia scored its eight runs in game two on just five hits, drawing 11 walks against eight Mustang pitchers.