Senior second baseman kelly schwietz went 6-7 and junior third baseman amanda yurek went 3-6 with two walks and a home run but it was not enough of an offensive attack to propel the golden bears past the mustangs on wednesday evening at dunning field in st. Paul, minn. Concordia university (35-15, 10-4 nsic) has now dropped four straight as they lost the first game 4-2 before dropping the second 10-5 to nsic regular season champion southwest minnesota state (36-7, 14-0 nsic).

the win in the first game for the mustangs clinched the regular season title as the bears shore up the third seed in the nsic tournament that will be played in crookston, minn. On may 5-6.

the mustangs jumped on the board early in game one with a pair of two out runs (one earned). They extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning but concordia answered back in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of runs to cut the score to 3-2.

the mustangs went to the bullpen and reliever nicole fringer, who shared the nsic co-pitcher of the week honors with kristen schmidt this week, closed the door as she retired all five batters she faced in 1.2 perfect innings. Fringer earned the save while amanda johnson won her 20th game.

schmidt pitched for the bears and went the distance with seven strikeouts. She allowed four runs (three earned) on ten hits with three walks. With the loss she falls to 17-10 on the season.

schwietz went 3-3 with a run while first baseman mallory olson went 1-3 with a run and an rbi. Shortstop tracie enzler had the only other rbi for the bears.

in game two, the mustangs pounced on the bears again with two first inning runs and built up a 9-1 lead after three and a half innings.

concordia rallied for a three run bottom of the fourth sparked by timely baserunning as cu capitalized on an smsu throwing error. But concordia left 11 runners on base in the game as they couldn't complete the comeback.

yurek went 3-4 with her seventh home run and schwietz went 3-4 with a run. Shortstop natalie mast went 2-3 with a run and an rbi. Leftfielder vanessa dufresne and schmidt each had one rbi apiece for cu.

junior mandy turba took the loss, falling to 16-5 after hurling a complete game with four strikeouts, allowing six earned runs.

concordia returns to the diamond tomorrow evening when they play host to minnesota state at 6:00 p.m. At dunning field as the concordia softball program will honor its six seniors on senior night.