ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Augustana baseball team won their eighth and ninth games in a row on Friday afternoon, sweeping Concordia-St. Paul 8-1 and 12-6 at Barnes Field. 

The Vikings move to 28-11 overall and 22-7 in the NSIC while the Golden Bears go to 16-23, 12-17. 

Game 1: Augustana 8, Concordia-St. Paul 1
Eight of the nine Viking starters recorded nine hits, led by two hits and two RBI from Troy Berg. Joshua Koskie had a grand slam while Jack Hines and Jason Axelberg each scored a pair of runs. 

Ashton Michek moved to 6-2 on the season with five shutout innings, striking out seven while allowing four hits. Joel Van De Stroet struck out a pair and allowed a run on one hit and three walks in 1 2/3 and Cal Schmelzle forced a ground out against the only batter he faced in his collegiate pitching debut. 

The Vikings saw two strikeouts to open the game before Hines began a two-out rally with a single on the first pitch. Siegel added a first pitch single and Axelberg was drilled to load the bases. 

Berg drew a walk in a full-count to open the scoring, bringing in Hines and keeping the bases loaded.  Koskie sent a grand slam to right field to quickly give AU a 5-0 lead. 

Michek followed the crooked number with a 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning. CSP proposed a threat in the second with two on and one out but he fired back with a strikeout and pop out to keep the Golden Bears scoreless. 

In the top of the third, Hines walked on four pitches and Axelberg moved him to third with a one-out single. Berg was able to single home Hines five pitches later and Clementi added an RBI single with two outs to boost the lead to 7-0. 

CSP got runners on the corners in the third and fifth while loading the bases in the fourth but Michek was able to shut down any further threats and keep the Golden Bears off the board. 

Eikmeier singled and stole second to open the sixth inning before a throwing error on a back-pick attempt got him to third on a Winterstein walk. The error would prove costly when Carter Heinsch lifted a sac fly to center, scoring Eikmeier and making it 8-0. 

Van De Stroet entered in the sixth inning, allowing a two-out double before a strikeout closed the frame. With two outs in the seventh, the Golden Bears scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded to end the shutout before a groundout closed the victory.

Game 2: Augustana 12, Concordia-St. Paul 6
The Vikings found fuel in the middle innings to boost them to a doubleheader sweep. Jack Hines had four hits and scored three runs while Troy Berg added three hits. Jason Axelberg drove in three runs and Ragan Pinnow had a two-run home run. 

J.D. Hennen struck out six and allowed six runs, four earned, on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings to start the game. Harry Blum was dominant to finish the game, throwing 4 2/3 with six strikeouts and allowing five hits while moving to 2-2 on the year. 

The Golden Bears scored a pair in the bottom of the first inning for an early lead. With an out in the bottom of the second, Jason Axelberg watched a high fly ball carry over the right field fence near the foul pole to cut the deficit in half. CSP added a solo home run of its own in the third to make it 3-1 CSP. 

The offense seemed to arise in the fifth inning as the Vikings surged in front. Winterstein earned a hustle double with one out and Heinsch rewarded the hustle with an RBI single down the right field line, bringing AU within one. 

After Heinsch moved to second on a wild pitch, Hines drove a single to center to bring him in and tie the game. A balk got Hines into second and he was able to move to third on a ground out for the second out of the inning. 

In a 1-2 count, Axelberg bounced a single up the middle to bring in Hines and give the Vikings its first lead of the day. He went on to steal second and Berg extended the lead with a double to the left center gap on the 11th pitch of his at bat. 

The avalanche wrapped up after a pitching change when Pinnow hit a two-run blast when he entered as a pinch hitter to put AU in front 7-3. The Golden Bears countered in the bottom of the fifth inning with three runs to pull within 7-6. 

A sloppy seventh inning allowed the Vikings to tack on three more runs to grow their lead back to four runs. Hines and Siegel led the inning off with singles. On a double steal, the catcher tried to throw out the back runner but threw it into center, allowing Hines to score. 

Siegel would move to third on a groundout and score on a wild pitch. Berg reset the inning with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. On a dropped third strike, Berg showed aggression by advancing to third on the throw to first. The first baseman tried to throw him out at third but the ball kicked away, allowing Berg to score and make it 10-6 AU. 

The Vikings were able to add two runs in the eighth inning to round out the scoring. Kolbeck led off with a single and Hines hit a two-out double, moving Kolbeck to third before getting caught between third and home. 

CSP would throw the ball to third base, allowing Kolbeck time to scoot home and add a run. During the final out of the inning, Siegel was tagged out but took the time to avoid a tag, letting Hine cross the plate to bring the game to its final score. 

The teams will play one more game in the series, meeting at noon on Saturday afternoon on Barnes Field.