Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (23-27, 18-20 NSIC) secured its second-straight home weekend series sweep with an 11-8 win over Bemidji State (9-38, 6-29 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at Barnes Field.

The Golden Bears finish the 2026 season with a 10-2 home record at Barnes Field, producing their most home wins since a 14-5 home record in the 2016 season a decade ago. Concordia closed out the season with an 8-game home winning streak at Barnes Field, sweeping a doubleheader with St. Cloud State on April 15 before winning weekend series' against Northern State (April 19-20) and Bemidji State (May 1-2). 

CSP made an overall 2-win improvement over the 2025 campaign (21-29) and a 2.0 win improvement in NSIC-play (17-23) with one more win and three fewer losses. It's the second-most overall and conference wins in a season for head coach Neil Lerner, as well.

Sophomore catcher Eli Nelson went 3-4 with his third home run and drove in three. His home run was crucial, as it put the exclamation point on a three-run seventh inning to break an 8-8 tie. Earlier in the inning, fellow sophomore backstop Chase McQuade led off the frame to put CSP in front 9-8 with his fourth homer while serving as the DH in the season finale. 

Nelson and McQuade combined for 10 doubles, a triple and seven home runs on the season with 39 RBIs as a tandem, making 57 starts including time at DH. McQuade hit .625/.667/1.250 (5-8) in the final series, scoring four runs with a triple, homer and six RBIs while Nelson hit .556/.556/.889 (5-9) with two runs, a homer and three RBIs. 

Playing with the lead, junior right handed relief pitcher Justin Benjamin slammed the door on Bemidji State in the late innings. 

He entered in an 8-8 tie with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth inning, recorded a pair of swinging strikeouts to strand BSU's go-ahead run on third and the potential for more. 

From there, he worked around a leadoff hit by pitch by getting a pop-out bunt and a double-play grounder in the seventh, then worked around a one-out single in the eighth with a strikeout-caught stealing double play in the eighth. He retired BSU in order in the ninth to secure the win, improving to 2-2. 

Benjamin struck out four of the 11 batters he faced in 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks. He lowered his final season ERA to 4.42 with 23 strikeouts in 18.1 innings with a .209 opponent average. 

In a game that saw BSU score at least a run in five of the first six innings and Concordia score at least a run in five of the first seven innings, CSP didn't take its first lead until the fifth.

The Golden Bears made it a bullpen game on the season finale with senior Cooper Mollet getting his first career start and working the first two innings. Although BSU scored three times, only one was earned on Mollet as he allowed two hits and had a strikeout. In four outings, Mollet registered a 2.70 ERA with seven strikeouts in 6.2 innings while opponents hit just .174 against him.

Caden Carsen hopped on the mound next, allowing an unearned run on one hit in 2.0 innings with one strikeout and no walks. He led the team with 16 appearances on the year, striking out 27 in 35.2 innings.

While the duo allowed four runs in four innings, only one was earned.

The offense got on the scoreboard with Will Husemann's leadoff homer in the second inning, cutting into a 3-0 lead by BSU to start the game. 

Husemann went 2-5 with two runs and two RBIs in the game and had a big final weekend, hitting .455/.538/.818 (5-11) with five runs, a double, a homer and three RBIs with four stolen bases including one more today. 

In the third, the Golden Bears pieced together four singles including three in a row by the top of the lineup with Eric Berg driving in Kaden Johnson with Gus Berger scoring on a throwing error as BSU tried to cut-down Berg heading to second on the throw to the plate. 

Johnson's speed killed the Beavers, going first-to-third on Berger's single up the middle in the third and scoring from first on Berger's single up the middle in the fifth. He went 1-3 with two walks and two runs from the leadoff spot in the game and finished the final series by slugging 1.100 with a 1.671 OPS (4-10) with seven runs, a double, two home runs, four RBIs and four walks. 

The two teams traded runs in the fourth as BSU momentarily held a 4-3 lead before Nelson's two-out RBI single in the fourth brought home Blake Eckmann who reached on a hit by pitch. 

In the fifth, BSU was able to score one off of Sam Cooper who was making his senior day relief appearance. He retired a pair on flyouts before Cole Newell entered with the bases loaded, getting a strikeout to end the BSU threat and keep it to a 5-4 BSU lead. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Johnson led off with a walk and was running on the pitch when Berger drove the single up the middle to score Johnson from first to tie the game. The RBI single forced BSU into its bullpen with no outs and a tie game. Eric Berg drew a walk and Husemann delivered an RBI single to give Concordia its first lead of the game. McQuade followed with a sacrifice fly and Nick Carlson executed a sacrifice bunt with runners on first and third for a 4-run fifth inning to take an 8-5 lead. 

The Beavers were able to tie the game with three runs in the sixth, with the score remaining tied 8-8 until the bottom of the seventh when the CSP catcher combo came through with the deciding home runs. 

Berger concluded his freshman campaign by going 2-4 with two runs and an RBI and Berg went 2-4 with a run, RBI, walk and his 17th double. Berg had a strong final series, hitting .500/.538/1.083 (6-12) with five runs, a double, two homers, four RBIs and three steals. 

Johnson, Berger and Berg become the 15th, 16th, and 17th players to play 50 games in a season for the Golden Bears with Johnson's 63 runs coming just one shy of the single-season school record set two years ago by Bennett McCollow in 2024. Berg's 17 doubles were ninth-most in a season and Berger's 53 RBIs reached eighth-most. Nelson threw out his 11th attempted base stealer, tying for the seventh-most in a season. 

Newell held opposing hitters to a .171 average on the year, the eighth-best mark in a season with a minimum of 20.0 innings. He worked 31.0 innings, striking out 36 with a 2.90 ERA, a 3-0 record with two saves in 15 appearances. Carsen made his 16th appearance, ranking 10th-most in a season, one more than Liam Bystol and Christian Lindow last year and Newell this year. Yesterday, Ollie Yuhas made his 11th start, tied for the fifth-most in a season

Charlie Harms, who was honored before the game during senior day, wasn't able to participate in the finale and his 38 walks on the year rank second-most in school history, just four behind Jon Stockton's 2009 record. Defensively, he set the record for most chances (394) and putouts (361) and was involved in the fifth-most double plays (28) in a busy defensive season at first base.