The University of Minnesota Duluth fell a late-inning comeback short of a four-game sweep of Concordia University, St. Paul, taking three-of-four against its Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rival in Minnetonka, Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday.

UMD (10-6, 5-3 NSIC) earned its first series victory of the conference season, handing the Golden Bears (7-9, 5-3 NSIC) their first three NSIC defeats of 2015. The Bulldogs dropped game one on Saturday by a 2-1 final on a seventh inning walk-off for Concordia, but then won the next three, splitting day one with a 10-5 game two win before taking both games Sunday by finals of 11-3 and 8-3.

COVERING THE BASES
• UMD launched four long balls, slugging .425 as a team against Concordia-St. Paul with 10 batters hitting multiple hits and eight driving in multiple runs. Sophomore catcher Marco Lucarelli led the way with six RBIs, including a grand slam in Sunday's game one against the Golden Bears. Junior third baseman Kyle Comer hit .428 with seven hits, three RBIs, and four runs scored. Junior first baseman Alex Wojciechowski had two doubles, a triple, three RBIs, and crossed the plate three times. Senior centerfielder John Meyer and sophomore outfielder Grant Farley each crossed the plate four times, with Meyer lifting his team-leading fourth long ball of the year.
• Junior lefty ace Bo Hellquist took the tough-luck loss in game one, tossing 6.0+ innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out five. Junior right-hander Austin Vaske tossed six innings to pick up his first victory of the 2015, striking out five. Freshman righty Nick Dorfman went the longest in his start, tossing 8.0 innings, allowing just a pair of runs.

The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead to the bottom of the seventh inning in game one, but an RBI triple tied the game and a walk-off single off senior right-hander Wes Mleziva in relief of Hellquist drove home the winning run for Concordia-St. Paul. UMD would win the next three, beginning with a 10-5 shelling of the Golden Bears in game two Saturday. The Bulldogs scored multiple runs in the first, fifth, and eight innings, including a five-run fifth that broke the game open after CU tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. The Golden Bears plated a run in the eighth inning, and two more in the ninth against the Bulldogs' pen, but did not leave themselves enough time as UMD held on for the victory.

Sunday's games began after a one-hour, 45-minute rain delay. The Bulldogs opened, once again, with a two-run first, scoring multiple runs in four innings, once again exploding in the fifth on Lucarelli's grand slam, putting UMD up 8-3, with a single by sophomore shortstop Kyle Hoffman and Meyer's fourth home run of the year extending the Bulldog lead to 11-3 before the bullpen closed out the final inning, handing sophomore lefty Kevin Stocke his second victory of the season. Concordia-St. Paul took the first lead of the series finale, but home runs by junior outfielder Josh Denisen and senior catcher Beau Goff in a six-run sixth inning once again put UMD up. The teams would trade runs over the final three innings, but the Bulldogs held on ffor the 8-3 victory.

UP NEXT
UMD closes out the month of March on Tuesday with the first of its two scheduled series against Upper Iowa, this one non-conference. Opening pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Fayette.