Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

MINOT, N.D. - Armed with a fresh bullpen entering Sunday's series finale, Concordia-St. Paul (15-22, 10-15 NSIC) leveraged that strength but ultimately fell short 6-2 at Minot State (14-21, 9-16 NSIC) on Sunday afternoon at Corbett Field.

The Golden Bears return to midweek play this Wednesday with a 1:30 p.m. home doubleheader against St. Cloud State (18-16, 14-7 NSIC) at Barnes Field.

With a pair of complete games on Saturday, Concordia entered Sunday with a fresh bullpen with junior right handers Cole Newell and Justin Benjamin combining for 4.2 shutout innings.

The Golden Bears struck first, looking for a road sweep as freshman left fielder Gus Berger jacked a two-out solo home run in the first inning, his eighth of the year.

Concordia added another run in the second inning with three-straight one-out singles from the 7-8-9 lineup pocket of Chase McQuade, Hawken Hedlund and Jack Setterlund, turning it over to the top of the lineup with Kaden Johnson drawing a bases loaded walk to give Concordia a 2-0 lead. 

The rally would fizzle after that, as CSP wasn't able to push a crooked number up in the early innings.

Freshman starter Ryley Wuebkers was strong in the first time through the order, working around a leadoff single with three straight 5-3 grounders in the first before retiring Minot State in order in the second. 

But the second time through, Minot State was able to get to Wuebkers, getting a 2-run double in the third inning after striking out the leadoff batter. He worked out of the inning with a double play on a fly out with CSP catching the runner on second attempting to tag. 

Wuebkers once again retired the leadoff batter in the fourth, but left with one out and the bases loaded with one more run in. 

Newell entered with the bases loaded and was able to get out of the inning, but the Beavers scored four times as all three inherited runners scored including two via wild pitch for a 6-2 Minot State lead.

While Newell was strong the rest of his outing with retiring 10-straight including 1-2-3 innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh, the Minot State staff was equally strong as Concordia wasn't able to put a runner in scoring position the rest of the way. 

Newell worked 3.2 innings and didn't allow a run or a hit, striking out four of his 13 batters faced with two walks. 

Benjamin pitched a scoreless eighth, working around a hit and a walk with a strikeout. 

Junior first baseman Charlie Harms had his streak of reaching base safely with a hit, walk or hit by pitch come to a close. Harms had reached in the first 36 games of the season. 

Noah Madas led Minot State from the leadoff spot by going 2-3 with a walk, run, RBI and two stolen bases and Vinnie Gates was 1-2 with a double and two RBIs. 

Colton Bagshaw (3-4) worked the first 6.0 innings for Minot State, striking out 12 while allowing two runs on four hits and two walks. The Minot State bullpen was perfect in 3.0 innings with Thomas Mitchell working 2.0 and Ayden Suerbrei pitching the ninth.

During Concordia's 5-game week including the UMD doubleheader on Thursday, the pitching staff didn't need to use anyone more than once in a balanced week for the staff to recharge for the NSIC home stretch.

Eric Berg had a big weekend for CSP, hitting .444/.583/.556 with a run, a double, three RBIs and three HBP. The Golden Bears only committed two errors in the field all weekend, posting a .980 team fielding percentage.