ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Augustana baseball team dropped the series finale against Concordia St. Paul, 6-4, on Saturday afternoon at Barnes Field.
The Vikings fall to 28-12 overall and 22-8 in the NSIC while the Golden Bears jump to 17-23, 13-17.
Jack Hines and
Kobe Eikmeier each had two hits and an RBI while Hines scored a run.
Troy Berg scored twice and
Sam Siegel had the other AU RBI.
Ethan Cole threw 5 1/3 innings and allowed five runs, three earned, on seven hits while striking out seven.
Kai Taylor threw 2 1/3 innings and gave up three hits and a run with a strikeout while
Jack Sutton was summoned for the final out on two pitches.
In the top of the first, Berg gave the Vikings their first hit of the game with a one out triple off the wall in right center. Hines followed it up with a hard ground ball up the middle, deflecting off the pitcher and allowing him to reach with a single and Berg to cross home to give AU a 1-0 lead.
That held up for scoring until the bottom of the fourth when a dropped fly ball with two outs allowed the Golden Bears to score two unearned runs and give them a lead. A fifth inning run would help CSP grow its lead to 3-1.
In the top of the sixth, Berg walked and Hines singled to get runners on the corners. Siegel got an RBI groundout to cut the deficit in half.
Jason Axelberg was able to reach on a single to the shortstop and
Carter Heinsch, who entered as a pinch hitter, walked to load the bases with two outs.
Clementi put the ball in play with an 0-2 count, grounding one to the third baseman. He booted the ball and allowed each runner to advance a base, keeping the bases loaded and tying the game. Eikmeier followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line to give the Vikings a 4-3 lead.
The Golden Bears went on to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth and another run in the bottom of the eighth to bring the game to its final score.
Augustana returns to action on Wednesday afternoon, travelling to Marshall, Minnesota for a doubleheader against Southwest Minnesota State.
