Southwest Minnesota State's Keenan Wenzel (2) runs to celebrate with teammate Jake Tauer (7) after Tauer drove in Wenzel for the game-winning run in a 6-5 walk-off win over Concordia-St. Paul in Marshall on Saturday. The Mustangs also defeated the Golden Bears 3-2 in extra innings in the day's first game to sweep the doubleheader and claim three of four games in their first home series of the season.

MARSHALL — The Southwest Minnesota State baseball team gutted out a pair of walk-off wins over Concordia-St. Paul in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup at Legion Field on Saturday afternoon. The Mustangs came up with a walk-off walk from Haase to secure a 3-2 win in extra innings for the first game of the day and Jake Tauer hit a walk-off single in the final frame of regulation for a 6-5 win in game 2.

“We just kept competing and just played really good, fundamental baseball,” SMSU head coach Jeremy Ische said. “Bullpen threw a lot of strikes and we made routine plays defensively.”

With Saturday’s sweep, the Mustangs claim three out of four games against the Golden Bears after splitting Friday’s doubleheader.

After five scoreless innings, the two teams’ stalemate finally ended in the ninth inning. Bennett Knapper relieved Ryan Chmielewski to start the inning and retired each of the three batters he faced to enter the bottom of the frame with the game still knotted at two runs apiece.

In the bottom of the ninth, Keenan Wenzel got on base with a one-out single and an Owen Latendresse double put both runners in scoring position. The Golden Bears elected to intentionally walk Max Kalenberg to load the bases and bring about the possibility of a double play.

In the next at-bat, Peyton Nash put good contact on the first pitch he saw but the ground ball turned into a force-out at the plate, bringing Jaxson Haase to the plate.

Haase fouled off the first pitch he saw but showed discipline from there. He took each of the next four pitches for a five-pitch walk-off base-on-balls, giving the Mustangs a 3-2 victory.

While Knapper recorded the win, Chmielewski put together eight quality innings. He limited Concordia to five hits and three walks while striking out five batters. Each of the two runs he allowed was unearned.

“He’s got the heart of a lion. He’s an ultra competitive kid,” Ische said, adding that he felt that Chmielewski’s breaking balls were particularly effective on the day. “[Throwing] 118 pitches on eight innings of work against the team that leads the league in batting average is really impressive… Really proud of him and I root for him every day because he works hard and he’s an awesome kid.”

Concordia-St. Paul jumped out to an early lead in the second inning when Jaden Werner reached on a throwing error by Kalenberg. Bryce Nelson then doubled up the middle to put runners on second and third with two outs.

Kal Brohmer capitalized on the scoring opportunity by hitting a double to left-center field to score both runners for a 2-0 Golden Bears lead. The hit gave the Bears their only runs of the day.

SMSU responded in the bottom of the third when Chase McDaniel hit a leadoff single. Isaac Nett replaced him on first with a fielder’s choice, stole second, and advanced to third on a Wenzel ground out.

After Latendresse walked and stole second, Kalenberg reached on an error to score Nett.

The Golden Bears got out of the third inning with their lead still intact but the Mustangs kept coming in the fourth. With two outs and nobody on, Jake Tauer hit a double to left center to get in scoring position and advanced to third on a wild pitch. In the next at-bat, McDaniel struck out but managed to steal first on a wild third strike. Tauer also scored on the play to tie the game at 2-2.

Reece Piontek and Eric Lundell each pitched four innings and allowed four hits for the Golden Bears. Piontek also allowed three walks with five strikeouts while Lundell allowed one walk with four strikeouts during his scoreless outing.

Matt Sherman recorded the loss for Concordia-St. Paul, falling to 3-2 on the season.

Game 2

SMSU 6, CSP 5

Jake Tauer came up to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning. With the game tied at 5-5, he didn’t hesitate to end the game. He swung at the first pitch he saw and cracked it to right-center field. Wenzel sprinted home for the winning run as the bench cleared to meet him at the plate. After Wenzel touched the dish to secure the win, the Mustangs sprinted out to swarm Tauer at first, dousing him in water bottles to celebrate his walk-off hit.

“I saw they brought an extra infielder in there so I knew they were expecting me to try it on the ground ball,” Tauer said. “I was trying to get something in the air, a sac fly most likely. Luckily I got a pitch that I could handle and I drove it to the outfield.”

Tauer said it that the game-winning single was hit first walk-off at any level of competitive baseball.

“I’ve done the run but I’ve never done the hit, so it was pretty great,” Tauer said.

Kalenberg started the ending with a walk and was replaced at first when Wenzel grounded into a fielder’s choice. After Peyton Nash singled to center field and a wild pitch put the two runners on second and third, the Golden Bears intentionally walked Gardow before making a pitching change to Andrew Boeser for Tauer’s at-bat.

The Mustangs trailed 5-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning of the game with only seven innings slated before overtime. After the Golden Bears got Gardow and Tauer out to start the inning, Chase McDaniel reached base on a fielding error by Mason Adolny at third base to keep the Mustangs alive.

In the next at-bat, Nett battled down 1-2 in the count to foul off consecutive pitches. When he was given a pitch to hit, he crushed it into center field; the deep single turned into a double courtesy of an error by Nick Thimsen in right field and McDaniel rounded third to score the tying run.

Concordia-St. Paul built up an early 4-1 lead when the Mustangs started to rally in the fourth inning. Kalenberg got on base with a one-out walk and Wenzel capitalized with a two-run homer down the left-field line.

After a Nash groundout put two away, Gardow blasted a solo homer to left field to tie the game at 4-4.

“We just talked about getting the baseball up,” Ische said. “Keenan Wenzel saw a baseball up in a plus count and blasted it over the wall. Same thing with Caleb Gardow, he got a fastball up and he did what you’re supposed to do with it: he hit it really hard, got it in the air. Today in Marshall, it’s a really good day to get the air with the wind kind of going and pulling the ball.”

Singles from McDaniel and Tauer gave the Mustangs an opportunity to score the go-ahead run but a strikeout ended the inning with the game still tied.

The Golden Bears reclaimed a slim lead in the first at-bat of the fifth inning with a Bennett McCollow solo homer but the Mustangs got out of the inning without any further damage, still trailing 5-4.

Kobe Lovell relieved starting pitcher Ansen Dulas in the fourth inning. Dulas had just allowed a single and a pair of walks to load the bases with one out. Lovell came up clutch, inducing a grounder that led to an inning-ending double-play to keep the Mustangs’ deficit to 4-1.

Noah Cekalla recorded his first win of the season after striking out the lone batter he faced in the seventh inning. He was the third pitcher of the inning for SMSU after Knapper relieved Shay Endres after Endres allowed a leadoff walk.

Knapper got two outs after coming into the game, but a single and a fielder’s choice put runners on the corners when he was taken out for Cekalla.

Thimsen put the Golden Bears on the board first with a sacrifice fly to right field to score McBroome and Werner doubled to left field to give the Golden Bears a 2-0 lead after the first.

Latendresse came back in the bottom of the frame and drove in McDaniel on a fielder’s choice to get the Mustangs on the board, but the Golden Bears re-extended their lead in the third inning when McBroome scored on a wild pitch and McCollow scored on a Thimsen single.

Dulas allowed two earned runs and another two unearned over 3 1/3 innings in his start. He surrendered five hits and three walks on the day.

Ian Segna pitched the first 5 2/3 innings for Concordia, allowing four earned runs and one unearned on 11 pitches and a walk. He was relieved by Jack Nicklaus, who allowed one earned run on one hit and two walks before being relieved after throwing 2/3 innings.

SMSU moves up to seventh place in the NSIC at 11-8 (17-11 overall) while Concordia-St. Paul now sits in ninth place in the conference at 8-12 (16-13 overall).

The Mustangs will head south to take on first-place Wayne State (20-8, 15-3 NSIC) for a doubleheader in Wayne, Neb. on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.