st. Paul, minn. - in 33 games this season, concordia's wins and losses are still boiled down to whether or not they score four runs. In game one, the golden bears took a 4-3 win in extra innings before falling 2-1 in game two to st. Cloud state. Concordia is now 23-0 when scoring four runs and 0-10 when scoring three or less. While they are 23-10 overall, the split puts them at 4-7 in league play while st. Cloud state is 28-8 and 7-3. Sophomore sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) had a walk-off bases loaded bunt single in the first game while senior chris kimpton (canberra, aus.) took a no-hitter into the sixth and threw a complete game two hitter in a losing effort in game two. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: cu 4, st. Cloud state 3 (8 inn)
sophomore sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.), pinch hitting in the bottom of the eighth, dropped down a squeeze bunt with the bases loaded to score senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) and the golden bears pulled out their second walk-off win of the season.
concordia survived the game as they had stranded 17 runners on base including 11 in scoring position with two more runners cut down at the plate.
senior jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) struck out 10 batters over six innings. He allowed three runs, but all three were unearned. Scsu got five hits and four walks off him and he did not factor into the decision. His 10 strikeouts put him within three of the career record of 244 held by dave johnson (1995-98).
the huskies scored first with a pair of runs in the fourth with schmidt stranding a runner on third.
concordia answered off of scsu's top strikeout pitcher, david deminsky, in the bottom of the fourth. Deminsky entered the game fourth in division ii in strikeouts per nine innings but struggled with his control against concordia. After walking the bases loaded in the first, he allowed a hit and a walk in the second. In the third, he walked his fourth batter. But in the fourth, freshman troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) led off with a double down the left field line.
he moved to third on junior steven king's (johnston, iowa) infield single and senior zach strouts (st. Louis park, minn.) added a bunt single. Schmidt delivered a run scoring single as well. The inning was aided by a throwing error by deminsky, who left in the middle of the inning. The inning could've been even bigger but an inning ending double play on a flyout to right with strouts being thrown out at home on a close play at the plate.
deminsky struck out six over 3.1 innings while allowing five hits and four walks.
concordia fell behind again in the sixth when scsu stole third base and scored on a throwing error on the play.
in the bottom of the inning, the golden bears loaded the bases for the second time and scored when senior chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game.
but they again left the bases jammed, as they would once again in the seventh.
but when they loaded them a fourth time in the eighth, fagely executed a clutch play in his biggest at bat to deliver the victory.
king pitched a scoreless seventh with sophomore nick anderson (plymouth, minn.) pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Anderson earned the victory improving to 3-1.
game 2: st. Cloud state 2, cu 1
in the second game, senior chris kimpton (canberra, aus.) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. With one out in the sixth, scsu's kent koch, their leadoff hitter in the game, delivered a line drive single over second into right. With two outs in the sixth, kimpton lost the shutout and the lead when sam radbill sent a 3-1 pitch over the right centerfield fence. That was all scsu would get off kimpton, but it was all they needed.
kimpton took the hard luck loss, falling to 3-3 on the year while lowering his team leading era to 2.79. He didn't issue any walks and struck out three huskies. He needed only 88 pitches to complete the game.
he was out-dueled by logan birr, who improved to 6-0 hurling seven innings allowing only an unearned run. He gave up four hits and walked two while striking out eight. Birr's era dropped to 2.18.
the home run for radbill was his sixth of the season.
concordia didn't have the same issue with stranding runners that they did in the first game, leaving just three in game two. The big play was an attempted delayed double steal with senior zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) getting cut down at home in a close play after freshman logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) was able to become just enough of a distraction to put froehlich in position to score.
the two teams complete their four game series tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at noon.
doubleheader notes:
senior jake schmidt is three strikeouts shy of the career record with 241 (dave johnson, 244, 1995-98). Schmidt was 1-1 with an rbi and three walks in the first game
senior brenden furrow extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a hit in each game
junior steven king went 4-4 in game one with a run
freshman logan bouts was 2-4 in game one
