By: by Josh Deer

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - For the first time since 2008, the fifth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul baseball team (28-13) has won a postseason game, defeating fourth seed Minnesota State (33-15) 8-4 in the first round of the 2016 NSIC Tournament played at Dick Putz Field.

The Golden Bears will play NSIC regular season champion and top seed #29 Minnesota Duluth (37-12) on Friday at 10 a.m. at Joe Faber Field. The Bulldogs swept Concordia in a four game series April 16-17 in Duluth earlier this season. Concordia is 18-26 all-time against UMD but has dropped seven in a row over the last two seasons to the Bulldogs. The last time the teams played in the NSIC Tournament was in 2003, an 8-6 win for CSP in Duluth to capture the NSIC Championship.

Concordia snaps a six game NSIC Tournament losing streak and an eight game playoff losing streak including the two 2008 NCAA Central Region Tournament loss. Among those eight playoff losses in a row, two were at the hands of MSU.

The Golden Bears' last tournament win was the 2008 NSIC Tournament Championship, a 10-6 win over Wayne State at Pete Chapman Complex in Wayne, Nebraska.

Earlier this year, Minnesota State won the first three of a four game regular season series before sophomore Connor Olson hit a pair of home runs including the walk-off winner in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the series finale.

That win snapped a 10 game losing streak to Minnesota State, the first win over the Mavericks since 2012 which predates any of the players on the 2016 roster who carried an 0-10 record into the series finale.

In today's game, the Mavericks started with the upper hand with a leadoff double by Kyle Toth and a two out RBI double by Luke Waldek to start the scoring. But Concordia cut Waldek out at third base to end the threat.

The Golden Bears rallied with two outs in the second as sophomore Adam Hildebrandt drew a walk before freshman Jake Steckler was hit by pitch, setting up sophomore Andrew Shotwell for an RBI single down the right field line to tie the game.

From there, senior left handed starting pitcher Kody Knaus took over, working out of a leadoff single in the second inning by inducing an inning ending 4-6-3 double play. He struck out the first two in a 1-2-3 third inning and worked around a leadoff walk and sacrifice bunt to strand a runner on second in the fourth. He stranded a runner on second again in the fifth, as well.

Meanwhile, the Concordia offense provided him with the lead in the top of the third inning as senior Eric Fasnacht drew a leadoff walk and alertly advanced to second on a pitch in the dirt later in the inning. He scored on a two out throwing error at third base to take a 2-1 lead. Fasnacht was 1-3 with a pair of walks and scored a pair of runs.

In the fifth, still leading 2-1 the Golden Bears once again got started right away as Olson punched a line drive to left to start the inning before Fasnacht went the other way for a single to right. Sophomore Tanner Holmquist dropped down a sacrifice bunt with MSU attempting to get Olson at third to load the bases.

Olson went 2-5 from the top of the lineup while Holmquist scored a pair of runs from the cleanup spot.

Freshman Ben Suits delivered with a two run double to the left field corner and senior Ryan Poppitz followed with a sacrifice fly for a three run inning and a 5-1 lead. It was Suits' eighth double of the season.

The big inning chased MSU starter Brody Rodning from the game without recording an out in the inning. He would take the loss, falling to 5-2 after Concordia scored five (four earned) in his 4-plus innings.

MSU got two runs back in the sixth with a pair of doubles, but Knaus punched out the final batter to strand a runner in scoring position to preserve the 5-3 lead.

In the seventh, Schmidt delivered the big hit, driving a two run homer to left center with two outs to extend the lead to 7-3. It was his fourth home run of the season and his third against the Mavericks. Today, he went 3-5 against MSU.

The Mavericks picked up a run in the bottom of the seventh, but scored it on a double play as Knaus was able to limit the damage while turning a three run lead over to the bullpen.

Senior right handed reliever Tyler Schmitz entered in the eighth with a three run lead, inducing a comebacker, getting a strikeout and a ground out to short for a 1-2-3 inning against MSU's 3-4-5 hitters. The heart of MSU's order had produced all three of the team's RBI in the contest.

With an insurance run provided by Hildebrandt's RBI single in the top of the ninth, Schmitz was able to work a scoreless ninth inning, working around a one out single for his fourth save.

Knaus picked up the win, improving to 6-1 as he allowed four runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and a walk in 7.0 innings.

The Maverick offense produced nine hits but Concordia countered with 11 while MSU made three errors to Concordia's error-free game. Concordia only issued one free pass to MSU, while the Mavericks issued three to the Golden Bears.

Kyle Toth (12), Eric Peterson (11), Luke Waldek (11) and Taylor Branstad (6) all had a double for MSU from the leadoff, third, fourth and fifth spots in the lineup.