DAVENPORT, Fla. – The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (5-7, 2-2 NSIC) played the first of a four-game series against Jamestown (3-12, 0-4 NSIC) on a sunny Friday afternoon in Florida, outlasting the Jimmies for a 6-4 Northern Sun win at Northeast Regional Park.
The Golden Bear bats showed up early, putting up a pair of runs in both the first and second innings to take a 4-0 lead before adding another two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth after the Jimmies pulled within a single run earlier in the inning.
Junior
Charlie Harms plated the first run for CSP in the top of the first, singling through the right side to bring
Kaden Johnson, who began the inning with a leadoff double, around to score. Harms and Johnson both had productive days at the plate, with Harms finishing 2-for-4 and Johnson going 2-for-5.
Later in the first, the Golden Bear lead grew to 2-0 when Harms stole home safely on a double steal.
Johnson further added onto the lead in the second when he used an infield single to score
Nick Carlson. Later in the inning, CSP third baseman
Will Husemann scored on a passed ball to to make it 4-0 in favor of the Golden Bears.
The Jimmies put up a fight in the middle innings, using a pair of sacrifice flies and an RBI single in the fifth and sixth innings to make it a one-run game at 4-3. The Bears wasted no time responding, as catcher
Eli Nelson scored
Blake Eckmann with an RBI single and
Nick Carlson scored on a Jamestown error to make it 6-3.
An RBI single to left field by the Jimmies in the top of the ninth cut the deficit to a pair of runs, but junior transfer
Justin Benjamin slammed the door with a three-pitch strikeout and a ground ball force out to earn the save.
Sam Kennedy made the start and secured the win for Concordia, allowing six hits and three runs with three walks and four strikeouts in five innings of work. Junior
Cole Newell also pitched 3.1 effective innings of relief for the Golden Bears, fanning four batters while allowing just two hits and a single run.
The CSP offense tallied 10 hits in the game, including two extra-base hits, while Jamestown countered with eight hits and one extra-base hit. The Golden Bears better capitalized with traffic on the bases, stranding seven runners on base, while the Jimmies left 13 aboard. Concordia also swiped six bags in the game and limited the Jimmies to three.
Concordia will continue its series with Jamestown on Saturday, playing a conference doubleheader before wrapping up the series with a single nonconference game on Sunday.
