SAINT PETER, Minn. - After a slow first game offensively, Gustavus baseball found eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in the second of the twin bill to earn a split with Concordia to open the MIAC regular season. 

Junior preseason All-American Brayden Kohls led offensively, going 3-for-6 and touching home twice while the Gustie relief staff shut the Cobbers down in the back half of game two to allow the Gustavus offense to go to work.

Gustavus 1, Concordia 4

Both teams struggled to get going in game one, with neither team scoring a run until the fourth inning. Besides two hits in the bottom of the seventh with the game on the line, the Gustie offense especially faltered, not able to capitalize and string hits together until the fifth inning when Gustavus scored their sole run. 

Gustavus junior Benny McDonald (Blaine, Minn.) started on the bump for the Gusties, going four innings and throwing 92 pitches. McDonald allowed six hits and three earned runs in the outing to drop down to a 1-2 record. Sophomore Logan Grinnell (Victoria, Minn.) relieved the Blaine starter, going three innings, allowing one hit and one run, facing 11 batters. 

The Cobbers got on the board first, using two singles and a hit by pitch to take a three run lead. Concordia put pressure on, loading the bases with one out in the top half of the inning, singling to second base on a non-routine play for sophomore Jackson Golberg (Savage, Minn.) to mark their first run. The hit by pitch would prove to be the winner, followed by another single, this time to left field with the bases also loaded to push the lead to three. McDonald would work out of the inning, striking out a batter with a full count before forcing a foul out to junior catcher Andrew Glovich (Sioux Falls, S.D.). 

Glovich would find his way into the box score in the bottom of the fifth inning, driving Golberg in on a play where Glovich singled and Golberg advanced to second, but a failed dive attempt by the left fielder brought home the runner. That two-run deficit would be short lived, with the Cobbers responding right back in the next half-inning, doubling down the right field line to push the lead back to three. 

The lead would hold and send teams into the game break of the doubleheader with the Cobbers leading the all-time series 49-47 and holding head coach Andrew Woitas without a win in his first MIAC game in charge. The bottom half of the lineup generated offense all game for the Gusties, with junior Isaiah Hasz (Pine City, Minn.), Golberg, and Glovich, batting sixth through eighth generating two, one, and two hits respectively. 

Gustavus 10, Concordia 4

Concordia would once again score four runs in the game, but this time, the Gusties used an eight-run seventh inning to push past the Cobbers and earn a MIAC split to start the conference slate. Heading into the seventh, Gustavus had one run on three hits, but the bats came alive after the seventh inning stretch and found nine runs in the next two innings. 

After giving up three runs in the first two innings, Woitas elected to pull senior pitcher Jacob Weckop (Randolph, Minn.) and look to the bullpen for defensive stability for the rest of the game. Relief pitching was where the Gusties faltered last weekend in a four-game series against No. 12 WashU, but learned from their mistakes in St. Louis and only allowed four hits and one run in the following seven innings.

More of the lineup got involved in the second game, with seven different batters finding hits and forcing another eight walks to help put themselves in better positions offensively than the first time out. 

The Cobbers used two home runs in the first two innings to take the life out of the Gustie Baseball Field briefly, but sophomore Charles Gearen (Minneapolis, Minn.) got the team going in the third, chipping away at the lead with a single to center field to score junior Brayden Kohls (Norwood, Minn.).

It took three innings for either team to find home plate again, with Concordia pushing back to a three-run lead with an RBI ground out with one out, but the lead would only hold for an inning. With one out in the seventh, senior Joe Burns (Eden Prairie, Minn.) ignited the Gustie offense for good, singling down the left field line to score senior Ross Hebel (Prior Lake, Minn.) and forcing a pitching change. After Gearen got on base to juice them, pinch hitter Dylan Kopesky (Mankato, Minn.) was hit by a pitch to bring home Kohls for his second run of the day. Junior Simon James (Minnetrista, Minn.) singled to right field on the next at bat, continuing to cycle through the bases and scoring the one who got it all started, Burns. Hasz was walked on the ensuing at bat and the pitching woes continued for the Cobbers, throwing a wild pitch to score pinch runner Daniel Dahl (St. Paul, Minn.) and then after a single to center field which pushed the score to 7-4 in favor of the Gusties, the Cobber pitcher was sat down without recording a single out. The change did not slow down the Gusties, though, who used a two-run single from Hebel to bring in runs seven and eight and end the seventh inning leading 9-4. 

After a clean top half of the eight with three flyouts to the outfield, the coaches got creative for their tenth run, using James as a decoy to get in a run down and allowing Dahl to steal home to put a seal on the game. 

James stole two bases in the second game and the team went 4-for-6 on steal attempts, using well-rounded offense to take game two. Both Dahl and Kohls scored two runs, while Hebel brought two home. No one had more than two hits, but seven different players used their bats to get on base overall. Gustavus overcame two errors early in the game and ended with a .846 team OPS by hitting two doubles within their 10 total hits. 

The Gusties are set to continue the MIAC schedule on Wednesday, traveling to St. Olaf for a twin-bill against the Oles. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and time and date are subject to change. 
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