Concordia (26-21) earned a 4-2 win over the university of mary (28-29) in the opening round of the nsic tournament saturday afternoon in marshall, mn. But the host school, #8 southwest minnesota state (37-8) sent the golden bears into the playback bracket with a 5-0 win in the second game of the day. Cu will play msu moorhead sunday at 10:00 in the elimination bracket.

game 1 - concordia 4, mary 2
sophomore tiffany rodd had three of concordia's six team hits as she went 3-4 with a double and a run scored to lead the golden bears to the 4-2 win.

trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, concordia evened the score when anna bjorlin earned a one-out walk. She would advance to second when abby brundidge reached on an error and would score on a wild pitch and a throwing error by the marauders.

the golden bears added three runs in the top of the sixth inning on back-to-back doubles to start the inning by rodd and nikki scherr. Scherr would score on a throwing error on a josey olson hit. Olson would later score on a natalie mast bunt single.

mary would score one in the bottom of the seventh and leave a runner on base. stephanie schmikla improved to 12-9 on the year, allowing two runs, one earned in seven innings with three strikeouts.

concordia scored four runs on six hits with four marauder errors.

game 2 - sw minnesota state 5, cu 0
nsic regular-season champion and the eighth-ranked mustangs scored five runs on six hits, three walks and four golden bear errors to send concordia to the elimination half of the tournament bracket.

the golden bears also had six hits (all singles) in the game, led by senior mallory olson, who was 2-3. Concordia stranded seven runners in the game and only had two players reach second base on the nsic pitcher of the year amanda johson. Johnson finished with 11 strikeouts in the game.

stephanie schmikla allowed three walks and struck out two as she falls to 12-10 on the season.

the golden bears will face msu moorhead at 10:00 on sunday in the elimination game. Concordia will now have to win five games to win the nsic tournament.

tournament bracket - http://www.northernsun.org/sports/softball/releases/08_05_04_sb_tournament_bracket.pdf
 

day two schedule
10 am concordia st. Paul vs. Msu moorhead
10 am wayne state vs. Mary
12 pm winona state vs. Southwest minnesota state
12 pm winner csp/msum vs. Wsc/mary
2 pm winner game 12 vs. Loser wsu/smsu
4 pm winner game 11 vs. Winner game 13
6 pm loser game 14 (if first loss) vs. Winner game 14