sioux falls, s.d. - it was a troubling day of nsic softball for the golden bears on sunday as they battled augustana college (27-21, 18-5 nsic), who has now moved in to the #2 spot in the nsic standings. Concordia (33-19, 15-7 nsic) was drilled 9-1 in a five inning first game and went down 8-4 in the second game to fall to sixth on the league scoreboard. natalie mast recorded her 100th career stolen base against the vikings on sunday afternoon.

after working hard to stay high in the nsic standings by splitting doubleheaders with wayne state and ranked minnesota state this week, the golden bears now have their work cut out for them in the final week leading up to the nsic tournament (next weekend). They host southwest minnesota state (27-18, 19-4 nsic) in the regular season finale this wednesday afternoon. With the first through sixth spots in the standings sitting so close, the golden bears could move several positions before the tournament, depending on their play against the mustangs and other team's results this week. Each of the top six teams is scheduled to play at least two games before the weekend.

it was a frustrating first game for the golden bears against the vikings, who put up two big innings to end the game early, 9-1. Concordia had a number of scoring opportunities but only got the single run against augustana's tough defense and pitching. calli brennan gave her team three singles from the third spot in the lineup, but never got further than second base.

jamie lindboe drove in natalie mast, who walked twice in the game, to break the 0-0 tie in the third inning. Mast hit a career milestone just before scoring cu's single run, stealing her 100th career base to get into scoring position. Mast already leads concordia's career stolen base record and now leads the team with 20 steals on the year.

despite the obvious scoring discrepancy, the viking offense was held largely at bay by cu pitcher stephanie schmikla. Augie's first three runs came unearned in the third inning after two defensive errors allowed a long inning. Augustana had only two hits in the inning before taking the 3-1 lead. The golden bears were not allowed to bat in their sixth inning, which has been their best producing inning all season, after they allowed six runs to end the game in the fifth inning. On two outs, augustana ripped off four hits, including three home runs. Two walks were mixed in the stretch of six un-retired batters, with a two-run homer ending the game 9-1.

this was one of concordia's biggest losses of the season and just the second time in their 51 games that they lost in early innings.

the golden bears rebounded and put four runs on the board in the second game, but once again scored late and put themselves deep in the hole after early augustana runs.

the vikings had three lengthy innings and used four free passes on their way to the second game win. They were up 5-0 by the end of the third inning, knocking out a three-run home run before forcing pitcher cassye mcmahon from the game. jenn kaminski came in with a number of strong innings, not allowing a hit through 2.2 innings of work.

while kaminski fended off augie's offense, the golden bears went to work and brough the score to 5-3 with a three-run fifth inning. An augie error helped the golden bears in the frame, but rbi singles came from calli brennan and tiff rodd, while jamie lindboe hit a sacrifice fly to drive in another run.

augustana did not allow the game to get any closer and had another round of strong batting in the sixth inning, putting up three runs from four hits to lead 8-3. Lindboe tripled and scored on an abby brundidge single in the seventh, but the final three concordia batters were retired in order with two swinging strikeouts in the mix.

brundidge took advantage of all of her at-bats in the game, going 4-for-4 with three singles and a double. Brundidge's strong game put her as the team's leading batter (.385) over the four-game weekend. No other golden bear had more than one hit, with the team matching augustana with eight total hits and two fielding errors in the game.