Box Score

JOPLIN, Mo. – Concordia-St. Paul used strong pitching, recording 10 strikeouts, while the Golden Bears offense collected 13 hits in earning a 7-1 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in college baseball on Saturday at Joe Becker Stadium.
 
CSP won two of three in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opening series for both teams. The squads split a pair of one-run games on Friday. The series was scheduled to be played in St. Paul, Minn., but was moved due to poor weather and field conditions in Minnesota.
 
CSP, which improves to 10-4 overall, 2-1 NSIC, received a strong starting pitcher performance from Keanu Mendez, who pitched into the eighth inning and allowed just one run on six hits with nine strikeouts.
 
SMSU, which falls to 2-6 overall, 1-2 NSIC, finished the game with eight hits with Nathan Kuhn, Jake Hendricks and Matt Bezdicek all finishing with two hits apiece.
 
Cole Petersen (0-2) suffered the loss on the mound for the Mustangs as he tossed the first 6 1/3 innings, allowed four runs (three earned) on 10 hits with one strikeout. Spencer Rudnik fired the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on three hits.
 
The Golden Bears scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings to build a 3-0 lead. CSP came through with two-out RBI hits in both the second and fourth frame. It remained 3-0 until the seventh when the Golden Bears hit a pair of solo home runs to push the margin to 5-0.
 
SMSU broke through in the eighth inning as Andy Andresen hit a leadoff single and scored one batter later as Kuhn ripped an RBI double.
 
CSP added insurance runs in the eighth taking advantage of an SMSU error with a two-out, two-run double to make the score 7-1.
 
Southwest Minnesota State continues NSIC play with versus Minnesota State on Wednesday. The location and time will be determined in the next few days.