aberdeen, s.d. - concordia junior anna bjorlin had a 6-for-7 day at the plate as the golden bears smothered northern state 8-1 and 5-1. The wins put concordia at 29-15 overall and improve their league record to 11-3 on the season. Northern state falls to 3-28 overall and remains winless in the nsic at 0-16. The golden bears play sunday at noon at the university of mary.
in addition to bjorlin's tremendous day at the dish, juniors tiff rodd and abby brundidge also stood out as leading sluggers on the chilly saturday afternoon. Rodd got into scoring position four times in the first game, tripling twice before sending a double into left center field. She was 3-for-3 in the game with a walk. Brundidge reached base on three singles and scored three runs for cu in the opening game.
the golden bears had no trouble proving their dominance in the 8-1 first game. Both anna bjorlin and tiff rodd went 3-for-3 in the game, with rodd knocking out three extra base hits with four rbi and bjorlin nailing a triple, stealing two bases and scoring twice in the win. The scoring started with a first inning run by the junior and continued in the third inning with a leadoff triple. Four runs crossed in the third following four hits, including two triples, and two walks, giving concordia a 5-0 advantage. More earned runs were to follow before the game wrapped up. The golden bears knocked around 12 hits.
stephanie schmikla completely shut down the wolves offense, facing no more than four batters per inning throughout the game. The only run that northern state managed came in the sixth inning after a leadoff double was followed by an rbi single. It was the only baserunner that schmikla allowed to reach scoring position. She struck out a set of batters and improved to 15-8 on the year.
rodd's four rbi led the team in the game. She was joined by bjorlin and abby brundidge with three hits in the meeting.
the second game of the doubleheader had a bit of a different feel to it, with concordia's batters knocking the ball around less and the wolves defense falling apart and leading to every one of cu's runs being unearned. sami mattson led off the second inning with a doubleto left field and later came around to score following multiple nsu errors. Despite putting a strikeout in the books, tiff rodd followed mattson on base on a dropped third strike and made her way to second following a catcher's throwing error.
more unearned runs came in concordia's sixth inning on continued northern state errors, giving the golden bears their 5-1 advantage. Northern pitcher brianna milnes did her best to temper concordia's offense by striking out 14 batters, a season high strikeout figure for cu.
although the team was held to only eight hits in the second game, five of them were two-baggers, including two each from anna bjorlin and calli brennan.
cassye mcmahon pitched a complete game win and limited northern state to only six hits. Northern state avoided the shutout with a second inning unearned run, scoring as a result of an infield error. The win for the sophomore was her 12th of the season, setting her record at 12-6. She has pitched back-to-back complete games without allowing an earned run.
bjorlin led the team with another three-hit game and, with another stolen base, took over as the team's leading base stealer with 17 on the season.
