after losing five consecutive games, golden bear freshman pitcher stephanie schmikla (madison, wi) delivered one of her finest performances yet, shutting out upper iowa (9-21, 6-5 nsic) in a 4-0 game one victory for concordia university (18-14, 7-2 nsic) in northern sun action. The golden bears dropped a back-and-forth game two, 5-4 with schmikla taking the loss in relief.
game one: cu 4, upper iowa 0
stephanie schmikla cruised, throwing 79 pitches while scattering five upper iowa singles. She only walked one and struck out three to improve to 7-6.
concordia's offense continued to struggle as they didn't manage any runs in the first four innings of play. In the fifth, sophomore tiffani rodd (cloquet, mn) led off with a single to break up christy loan's no hit attempt for uiu.
rodd stole second base and advanced to third on sophomore anna bjorlin's (hermantown, mn) grounder to first. With one out and a runner on third, senior mallory olson (stillwater, mn) delivered a line drive over the infield into left for an rbi single. She scored when sophomore nikki scherr (stewartville, mn) delivered a base hit to left hit field and scherr scored two batters later when senior nicole tischler (st. Paul, mn) slapped a hit past the infield into left.
that was all the damage concordia's offense needed as they snapped a string of 18 consecutive scoreless innings.
in the sixth inning, sophomore abby brundidge (nekoosa, wi) delivered a line drive off the pitcher for a base hit to extend her hitting streak to 14 games, finishing 1-3.
game two: upper iowa 5, cu 4
upper iowa jumped on the scoreboard early, taking a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the first. They added another run in the second to take a 2-0 lead.
in the bottom of the third junior natalie mast (oakdale, mn) singled down the left field line, cutting the score to 2-1 as nikki scherr scored from second on the play after reaching on a double to centerfield.
scherr delivered another double in the fifth inning, this time a ground rule double over the fence in right center, setting up runners on second and third with no outs, trailing by a run.
after a strikeout and a groundout, abby brundidge picked the perfect opportunity to extend her hit streak to 15 games, smacking a ground ball base hit up the middle, scoring two to give concordia their first lead, 3-2.
the peacocks answered in the top of the sixth with a leadoff home run by jacqueline greco to knot the score at three.
in the bottom of the sixth, freshman sami mattson (esko, mn) delivered an rbi single up the middle, scoring anna bjorlin who singled and stole second to get into scoring position earlier in the inning.
leading 4-3 heading into the top of the seventh, the golden bears looked poised to complete the come from behind win, with bjorlin jumping up to snare a line drive heading to right center for the first out, and stopping a ground ball up the middle and throwing to first for the second out.
but things unraveled after that, as the peacocks would score two unearned runs off reliever stephanie schmikla, who won the first game with a shutout.
schmikla relieved jenn kaminski (columbia heights, mn), who worked 5.2 innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on 13 hits. Schmikla worked 1.1 innings in relief, allowing two unearned runs, three hits and a walk.
in the bottom of the seventh, mast led off with a solid at bat before finally sharply flying out to left field. With two outs, brundidge smoked a double down the left field line, but was stranded as tiffani rodd flew out to right.
four golden bears had two hit performances in the second game, but the peacocks out hit cu 16-9, with uiu leaving 13 runners on base to concordia's six.
nicole davis was the winning pitcher, going the distance, allowing four runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.
concordia continues northern sun play this weekend in the second nsic crossover in bismarck, n.d. Where they will play five nsic games in two days on saturday and sunday.
