By: by Josh Deer

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Fifth seed Concordia-St. Paul (30-14) outlasted top seed #29 Minnesota Duluth (39-14) 11-8 on Saturday night at Joe Faber Field to advance to the NSIC Tournament Championship game. The Golden Bears will play third seed and host #15 St. Cloud State (41-8) at noon on Sunday.

In the double elimination tournament, Concordia must knock off SCSU twice to capture the NSIC Championship and secure the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. The Golden Bears defeated UMD twice in the NSIC Tournament, topping UMD 10-1 on Friday before today's 11-8 win.

Concordia has previously captured two NSIC Tournament Championships, winning in 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota and in 2008 in Wayne, Nebraska. The 2008 NSIC Tournament champion Golden Bears received the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid, which was also the first male athletics team to qualify for an NCAA Tournament. That was also the last team to win a postseason game until the 2016 Golden Bears, who are 3-1 in the conference tournament having defeated Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth twice and lost to St. Cloud State in a tough path to the title game(s).

Sophomore second baseman Adam Hildebrandt executed the play of the night, laying down a squeeze bunt with senior Ryan Poppitz on third base. The bunt was perfectly placed, with UMD's only play at first. Hildebrandt reached on a throwing error to keep the inning alive. His squeeze bunt broke a 5-5 tie with one out in the top of the ninth inning. The rally was just getting started as freshman Roch Whittaker followed with an RBI single. A walk to sophomore Andrew Shotwell loaded the bases for sophomore Connor Olson.

Olson came through in the clutch, blowing the game open when he launched a double into the gap, clearing the bases with sophomore Tanner Holmquist hitting a sacrifice fly two batters later for the 11-5 lead with three outs to play. Olson had a big day, going 2-4 with three runs, three RBI and a pair of doubles to give him 19 on the year. In the tournament, Olson is hitting .471 (8-17) with six runs, four doubles, a homer and seven RBI.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Bulldogs threatened with one of the nation's top offenses including the top slugger in the country, Alex Wojciechowski. But the UMD slugger was due up eighth in the inning, meaning he'd represent a game tying or go-ahead situation.

The Bulldogs were able to put together enough base runners to get into that exact situation. Facing junior left handed pitcher Kevin Woebke with three runs in and two runners on base, A.Wojciechowski represented the game's tying run.

Woebke executed, getting Wojciechowski to fly out to left field with Holmquist securing the game winning out.

Concordia was excellent in pitching to A.Wojciechowski in the game. Having just hit the 100 RBI mark earlier in the day with a grand slam and six RBI against Augustana, Concordia held him to 0-6 hitting with his only RBI coming on a ground out in which CSP nearly doubled off the runner in a play at the plate. That RBI ground out was crucial in that it tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but also limited the damage he could do in the game.

The Golden Bear pitchers, all four who faced him in the game, executed their game plan to stop UMD's third hitter. He flew out with two runners on in the first, struck out to lead off the third, flew out to lead off the fifth, flew out to end the sixth with two runners on, had the RBI ground out in the eighth and flew out to left with two runners on in the ninth.

In the two tournament games, Concordia held A.Wojciechowski to 1-9 hitting with a walk, an infield single, no runs and one RBI.

Not only did Concordia stifle A.Wojciechowski, but the entire senior 3-4-5 middle of UMD's lineup would go 0-15 with one RBI and one walk and no runs scored.

And over the course of the two tournament wins over UMD, Concordia's staff held UMD's 3-4-5 hitters to 2-25 hitting with two RBI, one walk, no runs and no extra base hits.

Concordia used its staff to its advantage today, with senior Zach Rengel starting and working the first two innings, allowing two runs. Senior Tyler Schmitz worked the third, fourth and fifth innings allowing two runs on just one hit.

Sophomore Keanu Mendez turned in an excellent relief apperance in 3.2 innings despite the four runs (three earned) against him, he delivered clutch pitches throughout his stint on the hill. He allowed just two hits to limit the damage. Mendez would get the win in relief, improving to 6-1 on the year. Woebke allowed a hit and a walk in relief of Mendez in the ninth, but got the game's final out.

The loss was charged to Nick Dorfman for UMD, falling to 0-2 as he allowed just one run in 2.2 innings, but the run he allowed was the go-ahead run in the ninth.

Senior Eric Fasnacht had a big hitting day, going 4-5 behind Olson, driving in a pair of runs. He's hitting .500 (8-16) in the tournament with three runs, three RBI and three walks.

Freshman Carter Schmidt went 3-5 and is hitting .533 (8-15) in the tournament with four runs, two RBI, two doubles and a home run. He hit his ninth double tonight. Freshman Roch Whittaker got his first start of the playoffs, going 2-4 with three runs, an RBI and his first career double. Whittaker is 3-5 (.600) in the tournament with three runs, two RBI and a walk.

It was a closely played contest throughout, with Concordia getting the first lead 1-0 in the first and adding two more in the top of the second before UMD made it 3-2 in the bottom of the inning. CSP pulled ahead 4-2 in the fourth but the Bulldogs tied it in the bottom of the inning.

Concordia went back on top in the sixth with a run and held the lead until A.Wojciechowski's RBI ground out for the second out of the eighth inning.

UMD never led in the contest, but tied the game at four in the fourth and at five in the eighth.