junior centerfielder jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) delivered a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 7-7 tie as concordia university (22-12, 14-8 nsic) pulled off a split with winona state university (20-19, 15-15 nsic) after a 3-1 loss in the first game on wednesday afternoon at barnes field in st. Paul, minn.
game 1: winona state 3, concordia 1
winona state scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning and ross hellenbrand shut down the concordia bats, retiring 14 in a row to start open the game before jake schmidt broke up the perfect game with a lazy infield single in between third and short.
he was stranded in the fifth, but sophomore designated hitter blake devries (eden prairie, minn.) delivered a one out double off the right centerfield fence in the sixth inning and scored on senior joe abellera's (minnetonka, minn.) line drive single to left field.
abellera advanced to second on a fielding error by the left fielder and moved up to third on senior jake waldman's (minnetonka, minn.) fly out to centerfield, but he was stranded 90 feet away.
in the seventh, junior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) led off the inning with a long foul ball down the left field line, just sailing to the left of the foul pole, landing well past the fence. After his near-home run, furrow placed a single through the right side.
hellenbrand struck out the next three batters to close the door on cu's comeback attempt. He finished with eight strikeouts in the four hit complete game win, improving to 4-4.
junior chris kimpton (canberra, australia) fell to 0-4, pitching five innings with six strikeouts. He allowed eight hits and all three of the runs while walking two.
freshman nick anderson (plymouth, minn.) pitched the final two innings of no-hit ball, walking one and striking out one.
game 2: concordia 8, winona state 7
in a back and forth game two, it was the golden bears who executed in the clutch, manufacturing the tying run in the sixth before jake schmidt provided the muscle with the game-winning home run in the seventh.
the warriors scored quick in game two with leadoff hitter mike brabender scoring on ross hellenbrand's rbi single up the middle in the first inning.
but the golden bears were quick to respond in game, taking their first lead of the day when jake waldman drove in joe abellera with a single up the middle after abellera singled and advanced on a wild pitch.
waldman advanced to second on the play when wsu attempted to throw him out at home. Waldman scored from third when senior john maciej (elk river, minn.) delivered an infield single to third base.
winona state scored two more in the second, but the golden bears came back once again as abellera delivered an rbi double to left center and junior chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) smashed a two run single to left.
their 5-3 lead held through a quick and scoreless third inning, but the warriors outscored the golden bears 2-1 in the fourth, with blake devries hitting his second home run of the season to left centerfield to reclaim a 6-5 lead after five.
the warriors added two more in the fifth to take a 7-6 lead, stealing the lead back from cu as concordia was unable to push a run across in the bottom of the inning. Maciej was thrown out at home on schmidt's double to centerfield and schmidt was stranded on third after advancing on a wild pitch.
starting pitcher derek mason (minnetonka, minn.) did not make it through four full innings, working 3.2 and allowing five runs on nine hits.
nick anderson came in for the second straight game, and the warriors were finally able to hit the freshman, scoring twice on four hits in his 1.1 innings.
junior left handed relief specialist kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.) would come out of the bullpen next, and the warriors would only manage to scatter a hit and a walk against him while striking out twice.
meanwhile, warriors' starter bryan ruff worked five innings while allowing six runs on nine golden bear hits. He struck out nine and did not factor into the decision.
for the sixth inning, the warriors trotted out kyle hanken from the bullpen. The first batter he would face was junior pinch hitter josh rohrich (sioux falls, s.d.). Rohrich led off with a walk, and was pinch run for by freshman ryan bailey (plymouth, minn.).
bailey stole second on the strike three call to devries for the first out. Bailey moved up to third on the play when the warriors dropped the ball at second base.
after a walk to abellera, waldman popped a high fly out to right, scoring bailey from third to tie the score. Cu stranded runners on first and second to end the inning, however.
in the seventh, ingram worked a 1-2-3 inning to give the offense a chance to win the game.
after maciej led off with a ground out to first, schmidt stepped up and delivered his second home run of the season, a lined shot over the left field fence.
ingram was the winning pitcher, improving to 2-1 while hanken took the loss in his first decision of the season.
five of the first six hitters for concordia had two hits each with schmidt delivering a pair of extra base hits in a 2-4 performance. Waldman and herbert each drove in a pair while abellera hit his 13th double of the year.
with the dramatic game two win, the golden bears avoided losing their first season series this year. They split four games with winona state, as the two teams split a doubleheader earlier in the season at wsu.
the golden bears hold a two game lead in third place in the nsic over bemidji state and they trail upper iowa by a significant margin for second place in the standings.
cu continues their season-ending home stand this weekend when they host northern state on saturday and sunday at noon each day. Sunday is senior day for the golden bears.
