The golden bears were just two outs away from upsetting the fifth-ranked team in the nation on their home field on thursday evening. But host and top seed emporia state's (49-8) caleb williamson delivered a bases loaded two run single in the bottom of the ninth as the hornets defeated concordia university (27-15) 3-2 at glennen field in emporia, kansas. box score

concordia held a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing a run in the bottom of the eighth before the two runs in the ninth.



sophomore blake devries (eden prairie, minn.) was in control, pitching seven shutout innings while allowing only three soft hits to arguably the best offensive team in the nation. He struck out eight with only one walk in the 102 pitch gem.

emporia state head coach bob fornelli mentioned during his radio interview with esu radio that concordia's pitching performance was the best he's seen all season.

the game between two of the best hitting teams in the central region struggling, with the pitchers dictating the game.

both teams were three-up, three-down in each of the first three innings and no one scored until the golden bears manufactured a run in the sixth.



senior derek mason (minnetonka, minn.) led off the inning by laying down a bunt and reaching on esu pitcher tyler applehans' throwing error. He moved to second when junior ted farni (minnetonka, minn.) layed down a sacrifice bunt.

mason scored on senior jake waldman's (minnetonka, minn.) base hit up the middle.



waldman drove in mason again in the top of the eighth inning. Mason drilled a first pitch one out single to left, and farni followed with another first pitch hit, a line drive past the diving esu shortstop into left field.

with runners on first and second, senior joe abellera (minnetonka, minn.) reached on a fielder's choice, with farni sliding in safely to beat andy anderson's throw to second base. Anderson was charged with a fielding error as he didn't come up with the grounder cleanly.

with the bases loaded and one out, applehans hit waldman with a pitch, scoring mason.



mason and waldman accounted for both runs, mason scoring both with waldman credited with two rbi.

the golden bears went to the bullpen for the eighth inning, turning to junior jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.). Schmidt retired his first batter before surrendering a home run to conner crumbliss. For crumbliss, it was his 12th home run of the season.

for the golden bears, it was a wake-up call. Schmidt responded, striking out the next two batters, brian majors and eric shortell, two dominant hitters. Schmidt was impressive in the strikeouts, overpowering the hitters and using breaking balls to keep them off balance.

concordia was unable to produce any more runs against esu reliever aaron burris.

schmidt started the ninth inning by striking out daktronics central region player of the year keith hernandez, a .475 hitter entering play. It was schmidt's third straight strikeout. He used to fastballs to overpower hernandez before stunning him with a called third strike with a breaking ball on the inside corner.

the next hitter, anthony dreiling, was fooled on a high and inside fastball, and couldn't get his check swing back in time, sending a slow bouncing grounder back to schmidt, who came off the mound awkwardly.

schmidt was unable to field the ball and was charged with concordia's first error of the game.

the next batter sent a sacrifice bunt attempt down the third base line that third baseman chris kimpton (jr., canberra, australia) fielded cleanly but his throw took first baseman john maciej (sr., elk river, minn.) off the base and the ball sailed past.

the runner took off to third and with no one covering second, the batter sprinted to the open base.

the batter, kevin wempe, was given credit for a base hit, while kimpton's throw allowed each runner to advance a base, kimpton picking up the second cu error of the inning on the throw.

with runners on second and third and one out, the golden bears walked nick wolfe brining up williamson, who delivered the line drive back up the middle into centerfield.

abellera charged hard from centerfield and made a strong throw to the plate, but it was too late as wempe crossed home to complete the hornet comeback.

schmidt was charged with his first loss of the season, a hard loss considering the runs in the ninth inning were both unearned and the runners reached on soft hits. Schmidt officially went 1.1 innings, allowing three hits, three runs (one earned) while striking out three, giving him 93 on the season. He falls to 7-1.

applehans did not factor into the decision, pitching 7.1 innings of four hit ball, allowing two runs (one earned) with six strikeouts. Burris is credited with the win, improving to 3-0. He worked 1.2 innings with two strikeouts and only surrended one hit.

esu used execution and strategy in the ninth, which proved enough to overcome concordia's excellent pitching against a high powered hornet offense.

concordia is still alive in the ncaa central regional tournament and will face minnesota state university, mankato tomorrow at noon at glennen field. The game will be webcast and will have live stats once again.