minnetonka, minn. - for the first time in 2009, the golden bears have gone cold. Entering the weekend, the #18 concordia university (16-6, 1-3 nsic) baseball team had never dropped consecutive games. But after a pair of 2-1 losses to augustana college (11-6, 3-1 nsic), the second going eight innings, cu has dropped three straight games after the four game weekend series at veterans field was taken three games to one by the visiting vikings. Cu had strong starting pitching from seniors chris kimpton (canberra, aus.) and aaron pfalzgraff (garland, texas) and didn't use the bullpen in either game but the offense produced just two runs on seven hits over 15 innings in the losses. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: augie 2, cu 1
kimpton was out-dueled by augie left handed starter kenny lidke in the one run loss. Kimpton hurled seven full frames using just 97 pitches. He allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks and falls to 2-2 while lowering his season era to 3.12. Lidke pitched into the seventh, allowing a run on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk in 6.1 innings. Bret severtson saved it for augie for his first save of the year in eight appearances.
cu couldn't get a sniff off lidke throughout as they didn't put a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, stranding the bases loaded.
in the seventh, freshman left fielder logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) drilled a lined shot to right for his first career home run to cut the lead in half, giving cu life in the seventh. But a game-ending double play ended things two batters later after sophomore sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) reached on a one out single.
game 2: auge 2, cu 1 (8 innings)
in the second game, pfalzgraff was the sharper of the two starting pitchers, using efficiency with his pitch count to get batters early in the count early and often. He need only 91 pitches through eight innings while tossing 66 for strikes. He faced per nestigen, who was the opposite showing control problems early but was able to get outs in key situations to keep a scoreless tie through four.
cu stranded a runner on third in the first, runners on first and second in the second and hit into a double play in the third. They drew four walks in the first three innings but were hitless through four for the second time in the last three games.
meanwhile, pfalzgraff was outstanding early with four strikeouts in the first two innings and five through four shutout.
augustana rallied in the top of the fifth as mitch anderson reached with a leadoff single to right and was moved up by andy ahrendt's sacrifice bunt. The ninth batter, drew heithoff, lined a one out double to right center to score m.anderson to give augie the lead. Pfalzgraff recorded the final two outs, stranding heithoff on third to end the inning.
in the bottom of the fifth, cu's ninth batter started a two-out rally as senior second baseman zach strouts (st. Louis park, minn.) led off with a single and stole second. Seniors jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) and chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) followed with walks to load the bases for fellow senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa).
furrow, who started the weekend hot with four rbi in the first game of the series, hit a lazy bouncing ball down the third base line and beat out ahrendt's throw to first to give the golden bears their first run in dramatic fashion, tying the score. They stranded the bases loaded in a key situation again, however and were unable to take the lead.
pfalzgraff settled back in on the hill with the game tied at one, retiring nine in a row taking the tie game into extra innings. With one out in the top of the eighth, pfalzgraff surrendered a solo home run to center to tom hill putting the vikings back in front by a run.
concordia was unable to get anything in the bottom of the eighth in the loss.
pfalzgraff scattered six hits over eight innings, striking out six without issuing any walks. He falls to 2-1 on the year while lowering his era to 3.77.
nestigen went five for augie, allowing a run on two hits while walking six with just one strikeout. He was relieved by jeff green, who used three no-hit innings with two strikeouts to earn his second win of the year in as many decisions.
concordia does not have a northern sun contest until april 4-5 when they travel to wayne, neb. To take on wayne state. In the meantime, cu is scheduled to open at barnes field on wednesday, march 25 in a non-conference doubleheader against minnesota duluth at 2:00 p.m. Followed by a metrodome doubleheader against division iii uw-superior on march 30 at noon. Two more non-conference games at umd are scheduled on april 1 at 2:00 p.m. Before the series in wayne.
