SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A five-run inning in the fourth proved to be enough for the No. 3 seed Augustana baseball team in a 5-3 opening-round win against No. 6 seed Concordia-St. Paul on Wednesday. The Vikings' record improved 35-15 on the year, while the Golden Bears slipped below .500 to 21-22 with the loss.

The victory set Augustana up with a matchup against No. 2 seed Minnesota State (41-5), who used a late rally to take down Winona State at Sioux Falls Stadium, on Thursday at Karras Park Home of Ronken Field.

The Vikings upped their season-best winning streak to 13 games.

Alex Fink continued his recent tear at the plate, hitting his seventh home run in the last five games as part of a 1-for-3 performance on the day. The junior's two-run bomb upped his season total to 13.

Jack Goihl had a team-high two hits in the win.

Colton Fast (6-1) picked up his team-leading sixth victory of the year. Fast went six innings, giving up two runs, one earned, on six hits. The Elkhorn, Neb. native also had a career-high six strikeouts.

Fast started off strong, giving up just one hit on the mound in the top of the first. The recently named All-NSIC second-team selection closed out the inning with the first of his six strikeouts of the day.

Both teams were held scoreless through the first three innings.

The Golden Bears broke open the scoreless game with a RBI single by David Henke with two outs to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning.

The Augustana bats woke during their turn at the plate in the fourth. Goihl got things rolling with a stand-up leadoff double. Patrick Fiala immediately brought in Goihl with single to left center. Fink then kept his home-run streak going, smashing a two-run bomb to right field to give the Vikings a 3-1 edge. Augustana added two runs with RBI hits from Justin Warne and Jacob James to push their lead to four to close out the big inning.

CU got one run back in the top of the sixth inning with a leadoff home run from Eric Fasnacht – his eighth of the season -- to make it a 5-2 game in favor of the Vikings.

Augustana couldn't muster up much more at the plate the rest of the day.

Concordia-St. Paul didn't go away quietly, putting runners on first and second base with one out, forcing the Vikings to bring in Reeg in relief Collin Lovell, who ended his day going just 0.1 innings.

Reeg immediately walked the first batter he faced to juice the bases for the Golden Bears. He then used a nine-pitch battle to get a groundout to Fiala at third for the second out, allowing the runner to score from third to make it 5-3. The hard-throwing freshman then brought this one to a close by striking out Connor Olson for the final out of the game.

Augustan returns to the diamond on Thursday for a meeting with the Mavericks. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at Karras Park Home of Ronken Field.