st. Paul, minn. - concordia university (30-13, 11-10 nsic) was handed a pair of tough losses this afternoon at barnes field, falling 5-4 and 9-4 in a pair of eight inning games against minnesota state university, mankato (25-11, 18-2 nsic) in northern sun action. Concordia led 4-3 after six innings in game one and held the same 4-3 lead after five in game two. Msu was able to rally late to force extras in each game before scoring the winning runs in the eighth innings. The losses snap a season long seven game winning streak for the golden bears. game 1 box - game 2 box
senior left handed relief pitcher kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.) made two relief appearances in the doubleheader, working 6.2 strong innings combined. He has now appeared in a single season cu record 20 games in 2009, breaking his own record of 19 set during his freshman year in 2006.
game 1: minnesota state 5, cu 4 (8 innings)
the mavericks scored a run in each of the first three innings off freshman right hander ben lemke (rosemount, minn.). The first run came on a fluke inside the park home run in the first inning in an awkward play with the ball being trapped in the left field fence. Freshman left fielder logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) attempted to signal for a ground rule double to the umpires to no avail. By the time he wrenched the ball free in left, jay bresnahan was on his way around third racing towards home.
a solo homer by travis taran in the second gave msu a two run lead after two. In the third, lemke walked the leadoff batter, retired the next hitter on a sacrifice bunt before getting a ground out. With two outs, cu allowed a runner to reach on an error, scoring a run. Lemke walked the next two batters, ending his day.
ingram came on in the third and pitched out of the bases loaded jam with a strikeout. He dominted the mavericks for the next three innings and concordia rallied from behind.
in the fourth, senior right fielder brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) crushed a two run homer to right center, the deepest part of barnes field, into the gangelhoff center parking lot, his third home run of the season, all within the last week. Later in the inning, bouts would deliver a run scoring single to tie the score.
in the sixth, cu used the long ball again as senior chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) delivered a solo homer to center. It was the eighth home run of the season for the cu rbi leader. The go-ahead home run gave concordia the momentum with just three outs from securing the win.
in the seventh, ingram allowed back-to-back singles up the middle as he gave way to senior right hander jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) out of the bullpen.
schmidt allowed a third straight maverick single to ben kincaid, scoring kasuke hattori. Schmidt struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam with a tie score.
the mavericks were able to manufacture a run in the eighth off senior chris kimpton (canberra, aus.) who took the loss, falling to 4-4.
the cu offense put a runner on second in the bottom of the seventh and eighth, but they were unable to produce the big hit.
sophomore jon stockton (oakdale, minn.) went 2-4 and score a run in the game, giving him 47 runs on the season. Furrow would also go 2-4 with the home run and two rbi.
ingram worked 3.2 innings out out of the bullpen, allowing one earned run on five hits while striking out three. Nathan kafka picked up the win in relief for msu by pitching two scoreless innings.
bresnahan went 3-5 and hattori was 2-3 as the top two hitters in the msu lineup produced five of their nine hits.
game 2: minnesota state 9, cu 4 (8 innings)
concordia jumped out to the early lead in game two when senior zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) hit a two run single to center field with two outs.
junior right hander steven king (johnston, iowa) started for concordia and held the mavericks to one run through the first three innings as concordia clamped on to a one run lead in the early part of the game.
in the fourth, geno glynn ripped a double down the left field line and danny miller followed with a two run go-ahead home run for minnesota state.
king struck out two and walked a batter before getting the third out to end the inning, and his first start of the season.
king went four innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He struck out three and walked a pair. He would not factor into the decision.
the msu lead was temporary, as cu pulled back in front in the bottom of the fifth, taking king off the hook for the loss as herbert hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the second run of the inning, putting cu ahead 4-3. Herbert's two rbi in the doubleheader give him 53 on the season.
with ingram on the mound, the left handed hitting miller, who went deep in his prior at bat in the fourth, took an ingram pitch to the opposite field for a solo game-tying home run in the top of the sixth.
ingram was especially sharp in his outing, allowing just two hits in the three innings he pitched. Unfortunately, both were solo home runs as bresnahan homered to right center to start the eighth. Ingram would end up taking the loss, falling to 3-2.
later in the inning, taran would hit a grand slam to left center ending cu's hopes with a five run lead.
brett fratzke went seven innings for msu, allowing four runs (two earned) on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Kafka pitched the final inning, going three scoreless in the two games.
in the second game, furrow extended his hitting streak to eight games. Furrow went hitless in two straight games on sunday after coming off a 12 game hitting streak. With the current eight game streak, furrow has now hit safely in 20 of his last 22 games. He now has 168 career hits, 10 shy of the career record (dave johnson, 1995-98, 178 hits).
the golden bears will look to bounce back this weekend when they travel north to face bemidji state in a four game weekend nsic series. Cu has won the last five meetings against the beavers and 14 of the last 15 dating back to the 2005 season. Cu is 18-12 all-time against bsu.
