Concordia University (24-10, 12-6 NSIC) extended its winning streak to six games as they swept Northern State (10-36, 6-20 NSIC) 11-7 and 8-1 to take the four game series played in Aberdeen, S.D.
In the first game, the Bears and Wolves played to a scoreless tie through the first three innings. The Wolves pitched out of two Bear rallies in the second and third innings with CU getting runners on first and second with no outs before leaving the bases loaded in the third. The Wolves stranded a runner on second base in the first and third innings as well.
In the fourth, the Golden Bear offense finally awoke, scoring a pair of runs. The Wolves countered with one in the bottom of the inning, ending starter
Derek Mason's afternoon on the mound.
Mason was pulled after pitching four innings of three hit ball. He allowed one run, walked three and struck out four. He did not factor into the decision.
The Bears added another in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take a 5-1 lead.
Then the Wolves finally responded to the high-powered Concordia offense, scoring four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth to tie the score.
The Bears responded with six more runs in the top of the seventh as they sent 11 batters to the plate to take a 11-5 lead to put the Wolves away.
Aaron Pfalzgraff pitched out of
Kirk Ingram's jam in the sixth and worked the seventh, allowing two runs in 1.1 innings of relief to earn the win to improve to 2-0.
Matt Borman went 4-4 with two doubles while
Jake Waldman was 3-5 with three runs and three rbi.
Greg Winegarden also added a three-hit performance, going 3-4 at the plate with two runs and two rbi.
Concordia had 19 hits and four doubles in the contest.
In the second game,
Jake Schmidt was in command, throwing a complete game, striking out seven with no walks while scattering eight hits. He improves to 4-3 on the season.
The Bears wasted no time jumping ahead to provide Schmidt with the run support he needed, scoring two in the first on M
ason Reinhart's two run double to the opposite field right center gap.
They added four more in the third inning behind
Brenden Furrow's three run home run, giving them a 6-0 lead.
The Wolves trimmed the deficit to five with a run in the bottom of the inning but were unable to get anything else off of Schmidt.
Schmidt retired the last seven batters of the game while posting three of his strikeouts during that span.
After the six straight wins, the Bears remain in fifth in the NSIC standings as they look to jump into the top four to make the NSIC tournament.
Concordia will take on Minnesota Duluth in non-conference action on Wednesday, May 2 in Duluth. Before closing out their NSIC schedule with four pivotal games at fourth-place Upper Iowa in Fayette on May 5-6.
cu 11, northern state 7
cu 8, northern state 1
