MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (10-11, 5-4 NSIC) dropped a 4-2 game three of the three-game series with Southwest Minnesota State (13-7, 3-6 NSIC) on Saturday morning at US Bank Stadium.

Concordia is scheduled to play a three-game road series with a doubleheader next Saturday, March 21 at Wayne State followed by a single game series finale on Sunday, March 22 in northeastern Nebraska.

On Saturday morning, the Golden Bears scored first and last, and in a low scoring game with six total runs, that would typically be a recipe for a victory.

In the fourth inning, Charlie Harms produced a two-out double and scored on Eric Berg's RBI single through the left side. 

The Golden Bears tacked on another run with Eli Nelson's two-out solo home run in the eighth inning as both of CSP's runs came with two outs.

But while Concordia scored first and last in the contest, those two runs would be their only two.

The Mustangs were able to rally for a crooked number in the fifth inning, putting four runs across as the inning opened with three-straight hits, with a one-out two-run double and an RBI fielder's choice producing the second out of the inning but also the fourth run.

Jack Thompson started for CSP, working four shutout innings, scattering two hits and four walks with four strikeouts. He was relieved by Caden Carsen, who took the loss to fall to 1-1 on the season.

Christian Lindow worked 1.2 shutout innings and Tyus Smith pitched a scoreless, hitless seventh and eighth innings.

Harms went 1-4 with his ninth double to tie Gus Berger for the team lead, and also scored a run, and Eric Berg was 1-4 with an RBI. Berger went 1-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch to reach safely in three of his four plate appearances. 

Ryan Bell earned the win for SMSU, working 8.0 innings and allowing two runs on four hits and a walk to improve to 3-2. Austin Dent pitched a shutout ninth for his first save. 

Henry Hammrich went 1-3 with his sixth double of the year and a pair of RBIs while Jared Cortez was 2-5 with a run. Levi Lampert, who was 0-8 with four strikeouts on Friday morning to snap his 64-game reached base streak, got going at the plate with a 2-4 performance. 

SERIES NOTES

• CSP is now 47-32 against SMSU as the Mustangs snapped CSP's five-game winning streak in the series
• All three games were decided by two runs or less with CSP outscoring SMSU 10-9 in the three games
• Nearly half of CSP's 21 games have been decided by two runs or less with CSP holding a 5-5 record (3-2 in 1-run games, 2-3 in 2-run games)
• Concordia is 9-3 when holding opponents to five runs or less
• Concordia's pitchers limited SMSU to a .193 average and .277 slugging percentage
• The Golden Bears countered by hitting .245 and slugging .426
• CSP had nine extra-base hits and 23 total hits to SMSU's 16 hits and five extra-base hits
• Kaden Johnson, Will Husemann and Eli Nelson each hit a home run in the series
• Gus Berger led CSP by slashing .444/.583/.667 (4-9) with two doubles, two walks, an HBP and a stolen base
• Charlie Harms slashed .417/.462/.583 (5-12) with a pair of doubles
• Kaden Johnson slashed .385/.385/.615 (5-13) with a homer
• CSP's pitching staff carried a 3.38 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in the series with 21 strikeouts
• CSP's hitters struck out just 14 times in 25 innings
• CSP committed just one error on the weekend for a .989 fielding percentage and caught one runner stealing in three attempts