minnetonka, minn. - in the 2009 northern sun season opener for each team, concordia university (16-4, 1-1 nsic) split with augustana college (9-6, 1-1 nsic) as cu took the first game 8-5 before falling to augie 13-1 in game two at veterans field on the campus of minnetonka high school. Senior jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) improved to 4-1 by earning his 20th career win and eclipsing 200 career innings in the first game, which was saved by senior lefty kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.), who earned his 11th save in his 59th career appearance - both records he already owns. Freshman ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) took his first career loss in the second game, falling to 2-1 on the year. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: cu 8, augie 5
senior catcher chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) belted his fifth home run of the season and went 3-3, scoring three times while also delivering a double to help power the golden bears. Batting behind herbert in the three spot, senior right fielder brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) was 2-4 and drilled a season best four rbi, including two in the first inning to put cu ahead 2-1 after one frame.
freshman shortstop bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa) also went 3-3 while senior third baseman zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) was 2-4 out of the clean up spot. The 1-5 hitters in the order combined to go 11-16 at the plate with three walks, scoring seven and driving in six of the eight cu runs.
schmidt was solid, pitching into the seventh inning in his sixth start of the season. He left leading 8-4 with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh with ingram coming in and walking in one run before retiring the vikings.
schmidt struck out 11 for the third time this year and produced his fourth double-digit strikeout performance in six starts. He walked four and surrendered six hits while hurling 112 pitches. Ingram's 0.1 inning lowered his era out of the bullpen to 1.65 in 11 appearances.
jacolby anderson took the loss for augustana, falling to 2-2 working just 1.2 innings while allowing six runs on as many hits with three walks and one strikeout.
game 2: augie 13, cu 1
the vikings jumped on lemke early, as nate baumann drilled a three run home run, his fifth of the season and second of the day (homered in game one). After a 1-2-3 second inning, augustana got to lemke again in the third, posting six runs including their second three-run bomb of the game, this time by j.anderson who hit his first of the season. Lemke struck out a pair and walked one in his three inning stint.
freshman right hander chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.) came out of the pen and allowed the next three runs in the fourth inning to put cu in a 12-0 hole.
meanwhile the offense wasn't much help for the pitching staff as cu was no-hit through the first four innings.
things turned around about in the final three innings to coincide with the insertion of junior steven king (johnston, iowa) into the game. King made his mound debut on saturday and was solid, striking out five in three innings without issuing a walk. King only needed 44 pitches, throwing 31 across for strikes. He allowed three augie hits and one run.
after king mowed down augustana in the fifth, freshman outfielder logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) turned things around when he broke up tyler pierson's no-hitter with a leadoff double to the left centerfield gap. Although he was stranded, it was a good sign that concordia was prepared to continue fighting in the middle of the four game nsic series.
in the sixth, schmidt led off with a bouncing single to short that was mishandled by jose martinez on a tough play for the shortstop that was just plugged into the game. On the next play, however, martinez booted a routine grounder that allowed herbert to reach and give cu runners on first and second with no outs in their first real threat of the game.
they were able to manufacture the run when freshman troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) produced a sacrifice fly to drive in cu's only run.
pierson earned the win, pitching six strong innings allowing an unearned run on two hits while striking out nine to improve to 2-3 on the year.
in the two games, baumann went 4-7 with two home runs, eight rbi and four runs scored to lead augustana. J.anderson was 3-4 with four rbi in the second game.
the two teams take the diamond tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. At veterans field for another doubleheader to close out the four game season series.
