ATHERTON, Calif. – The Concordia baseball team wrapped up their series on the road against Menlo and ended splitting the series at 2-2. The Golden Eagles had an impressive 40 hits during this four game stanza and have moved to 11-13 overall and 9-7 in the PacWest conference.
 
Game 1: CUI 9, Menlo 10
 
Menlo came out swinging building a 6–0 lead through three innings and later extending it to 7–1 in the fifth. The Golden Eagles stayed composed continuing to compete in every at-bat and began working their way back into the game.
 
The breakthrough started in the fourth inning when Makamae Du Pont delivered an RBI single to left-center to put Concordia on the board. Trailing 8–1 in the sixth CUI's offense came alive. Nicolas Erickson ignited the rally with an RBI single and Nolan Caira followed with a sacrifice fly. Cooper Marinelli came in to pinch hit and added another RBI knock to left field. In a matter of minutes the Green and Gold had cut the deficit to 7–4 and seized back momentum. The Oaks answered with two runs in the bottom half to make it 10–4.
 
The defining moment came in the seventh for CUI with the bases loaded Erickson showed patience at the plate drawing an RBI walk to bring the Eagles within striking distance. That set the stage for Caira. On a pivotal swing the redshirt freshman Caira launched a towering drive to right field for a grand slam. The blast erased the deficit instantly and tied the game at 9-piece to bring them within one. Menlo was able to close out the game with a one run difference in the first game.
 
Freshman Caden Miller got the start and worked 3.0 innings allowing eight hits and seven earned runs while striking out two. Despite taking the loss Alessandro Martinez provided a strong response out of the bullpen tossing 3.1 innings and surrendering just one earned run on five hits with two strikeouts. Shane Timmons closed things out effectively delivering 1.2 scoreless innings without allowing a hit, striking out one.
 
Game 2: CUI 8, Menlo 1
 
Josh Pugh opened the game with one inning of work and from there Evan Langer took control and delivered a dominant performance across four scoreless innings scattering seven hits without issuing a walk and striking out eight to earn his first win of the season. Matthew Kaiser closed the door over the final two frames surrendering just one hit while striking out five.
 
CUI set the tone from the very first inning and never looked back to power past Menlo 8–1. With runners in scoring position at the top of the first Du Pont reached on a throwing error by the pitcher driving in two runs as Isaiah Walz and Sawyer Voortman crossed the plate. Moments later Erickson lifted a sacrifice fly to left plating another run to give CUI a quick 2–0 advantage.
Menlo answered in the bottom half with an RBI single to trim the lead to 2–1 but that would be the Oaks only breakthrough of the afternoon. Concordia created separation in the fourth inning when Walz launched a two-run homer to right-center field extending the lead to 4–1.
 
The Golden Eagles continued to build their advantage in the fifth with aggressive productive at-bats. Erickson delivered again with a single and advancing to second on the throw while driving in Jordan Bolden. Later in the inning Landry Spitler executed a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt bringing home another run to stretch the margin to 7–1.
 
In the sixth Concordia once again showcased its ability to manufacture runs. David Baruch III laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Walz pushing the lead to 8–1 and effectively sealing the outcome.
 

The Golden Eagles will be back in action with a two day home series against Biola starting Friday Mar. 13 with 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. start times.

 
To see the full CUI baseball schedule click HERE.