Kissimmee, Fla., March 16, 2019 – The Washington University in St. Louis baseball team posted two wins over No. 13 Concordia-Texas in Florida during Saturday's doubleheader over spring break as the Bears snapped the Tornados 10-game win streak with a 5-4 win in game one before sending Concordia on its first two-game skid of the season with a 4-0 victory in the nightcap.
WashU improved to 9-2-1 with the pair of wins, increasing its unbeaten streak to nine-straight games. Concordia dipped to 15-3 on the year with its first back-to-back losses of the season.
Game 1: WashU 5 – Concordia 4 (7 innings)
After the Tornados seized the lead in the top of the first inning with a run off of senior starting pitcher John Howard, the Bears offense responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame.
Freshman shortstop Caleb Durbin doubled into left before sophomore left fielder Henry Singer pushed him to second on sacrifice bunt. Junior first baseman John Brinkman singled into right center to tie the game at 1-1. Junior catcher Thomas Gardner doubled two batters later scoring junior centerfielder John Ostrander who reached on a fielder's choice.
Two errors by Concordia and three hits combined for a big third inning for WashU. Gardner knocked in a run on a fielder's choice before freshman Jackson Gray doubled in a pair of runs to give WashU a 5-2 advantage.
An error by the Bears in the fourth inning allowed two unearned runs to score and close the gap to within one run, 5-4. Howard struck out six batters while blanking the Tornados in his final two innings of work before Brinkman converted his first save of the season.
Game 2: WashU 4 – Concordia 0 (7 innings)
Sophomore starting pitcher Ryan Loutos threw a complete game shutout, matching a career-high with 13 strikeouts. The Barrington, Ill.-native held Concordia to three hits and issued just one walk in his longest outing of the year.
The Bears offense did all of its damage in the top of the second inning. Sophomore third baseman Collin Kahal knocked in a run on sacrifice squeeze bunt before sophomore left fielder Sean Robinson singled in a run and scored moments later on another hit by Durbin.
Durbin stole second base and senior second baseman Evan Nagel capitalized with the runner in scoring position. He singled to right field and to knock in Durbin for the final run of the game.
The Tornados closest chance to scoring came in the seventh inning after back-to-back hits including a double put runners on second and third to start the inning. However, Loutos struck out the next three batters to end the game and pick up his first win of the season.
WashU will close out its spring break trip in Florida on Sunday, March 17 against Framingham State at 2:30 p.m. (ET). Be sure to stay up to date on all your Bears scores and awards by following @WashUBears on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.