kissimmee, fla. - the golden bears (9-9) have wrapped up four days of play at the rebel spring games in kissimmee, florida. They have put hits in the book, but have not been able to put up enough runs to walk away with wins. The team has dropped four straight as they head into their day off on wednesday, hoping to finish the trip off with a winning streak. sami mattson currently leads the team with a .391 hitting average with hits in eight of the last nine games.
the bat of
abby brundidge came alive in concordia's morning meeting with saginaw valley state today. Brundidge led off the second inning with a solo homerun to give her team a 1-0 lead. She later knocked a double into right center field in the sixth inning, driving in
natalie mast before scoring from a
calli brennan single. The hits put the golden bears over saginaw valley's total number of hits 8-7, but svsu had the scoring edge, 5-4. They scored two runs from a throwing error in the third inning to take a 3-1 lead. What amounted to the game-winning run came in the fifth inning, as a runner crossed the plate after a passed ball.
the golden bears did a better job getting runners on the bases against saginaw valley, putting at least one runner on in five innings. Brundidge led the team with her two extra base hits (2-3), two rbi and two runs scored. cassye mcmahon pitched a complete game, allowing two earned runs with just one walked batter and four strikeouts. In four of her six innings pitched, mcmahon faced no more than four batters
concordia matched southern indiana (4-14) in hits with six during their meeting, but cu was unable to string any of these hits together. The hits came one at a time in each of the first six innings of the game and were all singles. anna bjorlin did her part to help put the team on the board, reaching with singles in each of her first three at-bats.
stephanie schmikla spent all seven innings in the circle for the golden bears. She gave up only two earned runs and struck out two batters. The only real damage that was done in the game came from one player, the cleanup hitter. In her first at-bat, deweese put a solo homer over the fence. Her next time around, she knocked a double into the outfield that drove in two runs. Schmikla pitched five innings of scoreless work, with southern indiana only scoring in the second and third innings.
northern kentucky (6-5) jumped ahead of the golden bears early in the game on monday morning, putting up four hits in the first two innings against jenn kaminski. They spotted three runs in the second inning with the help of a concordia error, but a timely hit from their first baseman drove in two runs.
it took the golden bears several innings to warm up at the plate. katie anderson bunted for the team's first hit with two outs in the third inning, but it wasn't until the fifth inning that cu put a runner in scoring position. sami mattson led the inning off with a walk, advanced with a tiff rodd single to the outfield, and then scored from a nikki scherr double. Just when concordia thought they had the pitcher reigned in, however, they went down in order in the sixth.
stephanie schmikla, who came into the game in relief in the third inning, only allowed one hit to the northern kentucky batting crew. She brought the team into their last at-bats with a 5-1 deficit. Mattson once again led off the frame by gaining base, this time with a single. A walk and a sacrifice bunt advanced her to third, but a routine grounder completed the game and gave nku the 5-1 win.
after seeing the season's first shutout the day before in concordia's 8-0 win over lemoyne, the golden bears were disappointed to be on the losing end of a 4-0 decision against palm beach atlantic (18-10) in their second game on monday. The team produced only three hits in the game, spread out over the seven innings. sami mattson singled to right center in the team's second at-bat of the contest, while more singles came from natalie mast in the fourth and jamie lindboe in the seventh. Mast was the only concordia player to reach scoring position in game, advancing to second from an abby brundidge sacrifice bunt. The golden bears were shut down by pba's laird, who tallied 11 strikeouts in the game.
two palm beach atlantic earned runs were sandwiched between unearned runs. The golden bears did a good job keeping pba away from a big inning, allowing only one run in four separate frames. The sailfish came up with nine hits against cassye mcmahon, however, giving them enough opportunities to drive in runs. And with a shutout thrown in their circle, all it took was the first inning unearned run to seal the win.
sunday's action at the rebel spring games
the golden bears went 1-1 with a slim 4-5 loss to chadron state and a 8-0 blowout against lemoyne on sunday. Their win over lemoyne was the first shutout of the season for the golden bears and put them in the win column after two losses. Chadron state was finally able to match concordia's offense in the third meeting between the teams of the season. The golden bears responded to three first inning csc runs with two of their own, but were then silenced for three innings. They tied the game up at 4-4 in the fifth, but a chadron solo homer won the game 5-4.
concordia stepped away from the disappointing loss with a huge win over lemoyne, putting up three runs in the first inning and four in the sixth and final inning en route to the 8-0 win. The team didn't knock around huge hits, but instead went to nine singles for their scoring. abby brundidge, calli brennan and katie anderson each had two hits. cassye mcmahon gained the win to improve to 5-1 on the season.
