st. Paul, minn. - the golden bear softball team took both games of an afternoon non-conference doubleheader at dunning field, sending st. Cloud state down 4-0 and 3-2. Concordia put together two big fifth innings, using husky mistakes to gain the wins. The teams face off again tomorrow, this time in nsic play at selke field in st. Cloud.

the golden bears and huskies battled through four scoreless innings in the first game at dunning field. The golden bears worked their way to several scoring opportunities early on, putting two runners on base in every frame with at least one hit through three innings. stephanie schmikla allowed only a few huskies to get into scoring position while her offense warmed up.

concordia struck the first and only blow in the fifth frame, putting up four runs with the help of an extra out. anna bjorlin got the inning going with a single to the outfield and was moved up a spot following a natalie mast sacrifice bunt. A calli brennan single put runners at the corners and gave cu another chance to make a move.

bjorlin hesitated down the third base line on an abby brundidge ground ball and took off as the second baseman retired brundidge. St. Cloud state's first baseman had bjorlin out by three steps at home plate, but threw the ball well into the dirt to give the golden bears their first run. Three more runs came from hits off of sami mattson and nikki scherr's bats, putting the home team up by four.

the huskies got their leadoff batter into scoring position in the sixth inning, but schmikla shut st. Cloud state down with the help of a double play from her defense. She sent the huskies down in order to end the game in the seventh.

bjorlin had the big bat in game one, reaching with three hits in her four at-bats. Brundidge had a multi-hit game as well, with two hits in three tries. Scherr led the team in rbi with two. Schmikla struck out three batters in her 17th complete game of the year. She improved to 12-8 on the season.

it was another big inning built off of st. Cloud state mistakes that gave the golden bears the go-ahead lead in the second game, as well. The huskies started the game out with runs in the first and fourth innings and played strong defense to keep the golden bears off the board. Concordia began to count down their outs as the game progressed, and moved into a must-score position when their lucky fifth inning came around.

katie anderson singled and stole a base to get into scoring position just before pitcher cassye mcmahon stepped to the plate. In just her second at-bat of the season, mcmahon dumped a single into left field to score anderson and put concordia on the board, still down 2-1.

back-to-back walks put a full load of ducks on the pond with two outs, just as the huskies were about to make their fatal miscue. calli brennan tapped a ball softly to the pitcher, who only had to toss the ball to first base to get out of the inning. Instead, she threw the ball high to allow brennan the bag and mcmahon to score the tying run from third. Scsu's first baseman then chucked the ball home to try to put out anna bjorlin, who alertly rounded third on the error at first. The ball did not arrive safely and bjorlin scored the go-ahead and game-winning run.

the huskies got a gift from a concordia error to lead off the sixth inning, but mcmahon drew the next three outs, including a fan of two looking batters. She threw six innings in the win and had six strikeouts in the effort. Stephanie schmikla came in to retire the final three batters and gain her third save of the year.

the golden bears out-hit st. Cloud state six to four, with six different cu batters gaining the knocks. No husky player had more than one hit and there was not an extra base hit in the contest.