ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (19-15, 4-8 NSIC) continues NSIC play this week with six road games. The Bears will first travel to Upper Iowa, and are currently scheduled to travel to Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston over the weekend.
Update as of 4/10 at 2:30 p.m.: Game times for Wednesday's doubleheader have been changed to 1 and 3 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
In the last week's NSIC games, the Bears finished with a 2-4 record, falling twice to Southwest Minnesota State, but splitting with Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State.
To open the week SMSU outhit the Bears 9-7 and took advantage of two CSP errors to come away with an 8-2 victory in game one. In game two, the Mustangs capitalized on nine walks and withheld a late CSP comeback to secure a 6-5 win. Junior
Carlie Hart led the Bears offensively, going 4-8 at the plate, and
Justine Schattner drove in a team-best two runs.
Against Minnesota Duluth, sophomore pitcher
Aryka Knoche held the Bulldogs to three hits and struck out a season-high 11 batters while the offense took care of the rest, as the Bears defeated UMD 9-1 in a five-inning game one win. Seven different players had at least one hit in the win and
Hannah Carlson and Knoche each had two RBIs. UMD had the hot offense in game two, compiling 13 hits to earn an 11-5 win.
To finish off the week, the Bears had two close games against St. Cloud State, winning the first 3-2, but dropping the second 3-1. Knoche allowed only four hits in the first game of the series and
Carlie Hart went 3-4 with two of the team's three runs to lead the Bears to victory. CSP struggled offensively in game two, tallying only two hits through the first six innings. In the seventh, Concordia mounted a comeback, loading the bases and getting one run across all with two outs, but the Huskies recorded the last out to secure the win.
Hart and
Nicole Thompson led the Bears on the week, combining for 19 of the team's 43 hits. Thompson hit for a team-high .529 batting average and stole five bases. Hart compiled ten hits over the week, scoring seven runs, stealing three bases, and driving in five runs.
On the mound, Knoche garnered both of CSP's wins, going 2-1 while striking out 23 batters and holding opponents to a .203 batting average. Knoche also drove in five runs, hitting a double, triple, and home run.
UPPER IOWA SERIES HISTORY
Since starting to play Upper Iowa in 2004, the Bears own a 22-11 all-time record against the Peacocks. In their first 22 games, CSP posted an impressive 18-4 record, but in the past three years it has been Upper Iowa who has had more success, as they have won five of the last six matchups. When playing in Fayette, as they do this week, the Bears are 13-9, last defeating the Peacocks on the road in April of 2014.
LAST MEETING WITH UIU
In last year's doubleheader, the Peacocks took both games, winning 5-2 and 4-1. In game one, Upper Iowa held a 9-5 advantage in hits, driving in all of their runs on extra-base hits, hitting a two-run homer in the second and doubling in runs in the third and seventh innings. The Bears also compiled three extra-base hits as
Liz Jarosz and
Sarah Kivisto hit back-to-back doubles in the fourth and Schattner homered in the sixth to get the game within one. Upper Iowa held on for the win, though, adding two runs and retiring the Bears 1-2-3 in the final inning.
In game two, Concordia got on the board first when
Lily Langevin scored on a sac fly from Jarosz, but the Peacocks tied it up in the third. It would remain tied until the seventh when UIU rallied for three runs to go on to win 4-1. Schattner led the Bears in the contest reaching base three times, with two hits and a walk.
