st. Paul, minn. - concordia university (24-11, 5-8 nsic) salvaged a series split with st. Cloud state (29-9, 8-4 nsic) on saturday afternoon, falling 7-4 in game one before riding senior aaron pfalzgraff (garland, texas) to a 4-3 win in game two at barnes field with senior adam bertrand (la salle, ill.) hitting a three run homer and driving in all four runs. Three of the four games in the series were one run games with the other being a three run deficit in a hard fought series between two solid northern sun teams. game 1 box - game 2 box
concordia has now had nine of their 13 northern sun games decided by three runs or less with seven of those being one run games. Concordia improved their season record in one run games to 3-5 by taking two of the three one run games in this weekend series.
game 1: st. Cloud state 7, cu 4
st. Cloud state hit three two run home runs off of sophomore right hander nick anderson (plymouth, minn.), who pitched 5.2 innings and was otherwise lights out on the mound. Anderson was efficient, striking out five huskies but took the loss falling to 3-2.
with two outs in the third, former golden bear backstop nate hammes broke a scoreless tie with a two run home run to right center.
as they had been doing all series long, concordia was forced to respond in the home half of the inning as sophomore jon stockton (oakdale, minn.) scored on senior chris herbert's (white bear lake, minn.) rbi single down the left field line with two outs. Herbert moved to second on a passed ball but was cut down at home on senior zane froehlich's (sioux falls, s.d.) single up the middle. Scsu shortstop joe kroc fielded the grounder just off the infield dirt in shallow center, turned and fired home to get a sliding herbert at the plate.
in the fourth, joey benke hit the first of his two two-run shots pulling one over the right centerfield fence again with two outs in the inning. Anderson allowed a single and a steal to the next batter but worked out of the jam.
concordia once again answered, but only answered with one on a sacrifice fly by senior zach strouts (st. Louis park, minn.) that scored freshman troy dubay (urbandale, iowa).
benke hit his second two run homer off anderson in the sixth to give the huskies a 6-2 lead. Anderson got the next batter to ground out to third but allowed a bunt single, a walk and an error to load the bases, ending his afternoon.
freshman ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) pitched out of the jam giving concordia two more innings to cut into the four run lead.
in the bottom of the sixth, senior jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) delivered a two run home run to left, his fifth home run of the week and seventh of the season, to cut the lead in half.
but the huskies added a run in the seventh and scsu's tim radmacher closed the door on cu in the seventh to secure his fifth save of the season. The save was radmacher's ninth career save setting the scsu career record.
tim scott improved to 8-1 on the year tying the school mark for single season wins, pitching 4.0 innings allowing two runs on six hits with four walks.
for concordia, stockton, froehlich and dubay all had two hit performances while senior brenden furrow's (johnston, iowa) 12 game hitting streak came to a close.
game 2: cu 4, scsu 3
pfalzgraff allowed a run to st. Cloud state in the first inning on an off the wall double to left by benke and it looked like scsu would take early command once again as cu was forced to respond.
although the offense was dormant in the first, pfalzgraff's quick second inning set up a big home half of the inning.
in the bottom of the second, the bounces finally started going the home team's way as froehlich hit a sharper grounder right at kroc at short but the last hop hit the lip of the infield grass and hopped over the 5-7 kroc who couldn't reach it.
later in the inning, with runners on first and second with one out, senior adam bertrand (la salle, ill.) connected on a pitch low in the zone and parked it off the scoreboard just right of dead centerfield. The three run shot was bertrand's second home run of the season and gave cu a two run lead, their largest of the series.
scsu added a run in the fourth to make it a one run game once again.
in the bottom of the sixth, concordia added an insurance run when bertrand connected on a solid grounder up the middle off of radmacher, who was the third husky pitcher used in the game. Bertrand beat out the single as herbert crossed home to give concordia a 4-2 lead.
in the seventh, the huskies reached on an error and singled. Pinch hitter kyle gold bunted the runners to 2nd and 3rd with one out and kroc delivered an rbi groundout to second.
that's when the call to the bullpen came and senior kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.) closed the door, striking out nate johnson for his fourth save of the year.
pfalzgraff picked up his second win this week, pitching 6.2 innings allowing three runs (two earned) while scattering five hits and a walk. He struck out three and lowered his season era to 3.92 while improving to 4-1.
pat delahunt took the loss for scsu falling to 5-1. He worked 3.2 innings allowing three runs on three hits walking and striking out two.
bertrand shares player of the game honors with pfalzgraff, going 2-3 with a home run and four rbi in the game.
concordia went 4-2 in their six game scheduled home stand, all nsic games. Next week they are scheduled for two road games at northern state before a four game weekend series at minnesota, crookston. With the poor weather in the dakota's and northern minnesota this spring, continue to check www.cugoldenbears.com for any scheduling updates!
