Concordia university's (14-6, 8-2 nsic) pitching dominated, while the golden bears scored all seven of its runs on the day during the seventh inning in a pair of wins over mary (5-17, 4-4 nsic). Concordia won game one 4-1 and took game two 3-0. Junior
jake schmidt continued his stellar season striking out a career-high 13 batters, while sophomore
blake devries tossed his first career-shutout allowing just four hits. They combined to strikeout 20 batters while allowing just seven marauder hits - six of them singles.
game 1 - concordia 4, mary 1
trailing 1-0 in game one, u-mary was one out from being shutout as the golden bears stranded ten runners through the first six innings on just five hits.
with one out in the top of the seventh, senior joe abellera (minnetonka, mn) singled. After getting the second out of the inning on a soft liner to short, brenden furrow (johnston, ia) doubled off the wall to left field to put runners on second and third with two outs.
after a semi-intentional walk to chris herbert (so., white bear lake, mn), zane froehlich (jr., sioux falls, sd) followed with a two-out single to score both runners and put csp up 2-1.
after a mary pitching change, senior john maciej (elk river, mn) hit a two run double to give the golden bears a 4-1 lead.
concordia’s jake schmidt then struck out the side in the bottom of the inning to preserve the golden bear’s comeback win. Schmidt dominated as the two-time northern sun pitcher of the week struck out a career-high 13 marauders and limited mary to three hits and one walk.
mary had taken a 1-0 lead in the first game on a casey gray single, his first of two hits in the game. Tyler liffrig reached first after striking out on a wild pitch, beating the throw from the catcher. He advanced to third on a single by brennan quintus. Mary couldn’t push any more runs across as the next two batters popped out.
furrow, herbert, and maciej each recorded two hits in the game for the golden bears. Furrow extended his hitting streak to 21 games.
game 2 - concordia 3, mary 0
solid pitching performances were turned in by both starting pitchers in game two as blake devries pitched his first career shutout allowing just four hits over seven innings and striking out seven.
mary starting pitcher nate watson was equally impressive through the first six innings. During that span, watson faced only three more hitters than the minimum. Devries, meanwhile, used two double play grounders to keep mary in check.
in taking the loss, watson allowed just three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out seven.
the marauders looked to take the lead in the sixth. Michael feldman, who led mary with two hits in the game, doubled to lead off the inning. After the next batter was retired, brennan quintus hit a ball back to devries, who threw the ball over john maciej's head at first. Feldman tried to scored from second but was thrown out at home by maciej, who recovered the ball and threw a strike to chris herbert on a close play at the plate.
in the top of the seventh, herbert started the inning with a walk and moved to third on a one-out single by maciej. jake schmidt, the designated hitter in game two, then put down a perfect squeeze bunt to score herbert for the first run of the game. ted farni (jr., minnetonka, mn) then doubled to right two score two more runs.
mary was unable to gain any baserunners in the bottom of the seventh, with the final two batters going down on strikes.
the golden bears improve to 14-6 and a nsic-leading 8-2, while the marauders fall to 5-17 overall and 4-4 in the nsic.
the two teams will continue their four-game series with a doubleheader on sunday, april 6. First pitch is set for 12 noon at municipal ballpark, weather-permitting.
note - brenden furrow's hitting streak ended at 21 as he went 0-3 in the second game. He is leading the team with a .456 avg. Through the first 20 games (68 at bats).
