MINNETONKA, Minn. - On a sunny, windy spring afternoon at Veterans Field on the campus of Minnetonka High School, Concordia-St. Paul (10-16, 5-9 NSIC) dropped a doubleheader to #26 Minnesota State (17-6, 10-1 NSIC) 8-2 and 6-1.

The teams will complete the three-game series on Sunday with a noon first pitch from Veterans Field.

Sophomore right fielder Eric Berg went 3-6 with a run, his 10th double of the year and two RBIs in the doubleheader. He leads the team with seven multi-RBI games.

Freshman left fielder Gus Berger delivered his 11th double of the season in the first game. Junior first baseman Charlie Harms had a hit in each game, going 2-7 with a run in the doubleheader, extending his reached-base streak to 26 games. 

GAME 1: MSU 8, CSP 2
In game one, the Mavericks pounced on the Golden Bears with a four-run first inning, scoring three with two outs and stealing four bases in the inning. MSU secured a two-out, two-run double and a two-out RBI triple to do the damage.

From there, left handed pitchers Jack Thompson and Lou Walker calmed the Maverick bats to just one run over the next four innings.

Concordia wasn't able to produce the big hit to get things going, though, leaving runners on second and third in the first inning, grounding into an inning-ending double play in the fourth and unable to execute after a leadoff single in the fifth.

Despite a stiff 20-plus mile per hour southwest winning blowing in from right field, MSU third hitter Louis Magers was able to hit a two-run homer straight into the teeth of the wind in the sixth to give MSU a pair of insurance runs and a 7-0 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Concordia broke through against MSU lefty Sam George, who took a shutout into the late innings of the 7-inning first game. Concordia pieced together three-straight hits with one out, with Charlie Harms finding the hole at short, Gus Berger hitting a sharp bouncer between first and second with Eric Berg beating the Mavericks to the left field corner to score Harms and Berger. .

A pair of two-out walks to Jack Setterlund and Will Husemann loaded the bases against George, but he was able to induce a fly out to end the threat with the tying run on deck.

MSU added an insurance run in the seventh against Cooper Mollet, who made his season debut with Bennett Brathol getting the final out.

George picked up the win for the Mavericks, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks in 6.0 innings with four strikeouts. He entered the day with a 0.95 ERA with CSP pushing it above one to 1.29 as he improved to 5-0.

Thompson (0-3) was charged with the loss, working 3.0 innings and only giving up the four runs in the first before scoreless second and third innings. Walker also pitched three innings for CSP, allowing three runs with a pair of strikeouts. 

Berg went 2-2 with a double, two RBIs and a walk while Berger was 2-3 with a run and a double that was potentially a wind-robbed homer. Harms was 1-4 with a run and Setterlund was 1-2 with a walk.

Magers led the Maverick production by going 2-3 with his fifth home run and four RBIs and Brandon Vlcko was 2-4 with two runs, two RBIs and a pair of doubles. 

GAME 2: MSU 6, CSP 1
After falling into a 4-0 hole in the first game, CSP had a repeat in game two as MSU scored two runs without a hit in the first and three more runs in the second for a 5-0 lead.

Just like game one, CSP left a pair of runners aboard in the first inning as Kaden Johnson and Charlie Harms opened the game with base hits but were left in their spots on first and second.

Concordia would leave nine runners on base in game two, compared to just five for MSU - the five-runner margin between the difference in the final score.

After the three-run second inning, Concordia starting pitcher Ollie Yuhas took command, retiring 13-straight Mavericks with 1-2-3 fourth, fifth and sixth innings and 16-of-17 from the second through seventh innings as he worked around a one-out infield single in the third and a two-out single to right in the seventh.

Yuhas would take the loss, falling to 2-3 on the season, but worked 6.2 innings on the day with 67 of 101 pitches for strikes. He allowed five runs (four earned) on five hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

He was relieved by Cole Newell, who finished the game, getting out of the seventh unscathed and allowing just one run of his own in the eighth inning on a two-out solo homer by Brandon Vlcko, his seventh of the year. Newell struck out four and only allowed one hit and one walk in 2.1 innings.

Yuhas and Newell were out-dueled by Mack Crowley (5-0) and Daniel Zang (2nd save) who combined for 18 strikeouts. Crowley scattered seven hits and a pair of walks while striking out 10, allowing one run in 6.0 innings. Zang struck out eight of the 10 batters he faced, allowing one hit in three scoreless innings.

CSP repeated the first inning with Johnson and Harms reaching base, Johnson on his second hit and Harms via walk, and Max Kaplan singled to load the bases with two outs with CSP leaving the bases loaded against Crowley, who stranded eight CSP runners in six innings.

In the sixth, Berg led off with a single roped to the right center gap and Kaplan walked to put the first two runners on against Crowley for the third time. Chase McQuade followed with an infield single up the middle and Will Husemann grounded out up the middle with MSU shortstop Jake Berkland saving multiple runs by throwing Husemann out at first. CSP would strand runners on second and third with one out, getting just the one run in on Husemann's ground out. 

McQuade went 2-4 in game two, while Johnson was 2-5 and Husemann was 1-4 with an RBI. Harms and Kaplan each went 1-3 with a walk.

Berkland led MSU's offense in game by going 2-4 with two runs, a walk and an RBI. From the top of the lineup, he went 3-6 with three walks, four runs and two RBIs in the doubleheader.