bemidji, minn. - concordia university escaped a frigid bsu baseball field with a series sweep, taking one of three games today against host bemidji state. Cu fell in the first two games of the day, 5-2 and 10-2 before prevailing in the series finale with a 7-6 win. Freshman troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) had a big day at the plate, going 6-10 in the three games while senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) hit safely in all three games to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, matching his season-high. Concordia is now 32-15 (13-12 nsic) while bsu is 15-33 (8-21 nsic) on the season.game 1 box - game 2 box - game 3 box
game 1: bemidji state 5, cu 2
in a game that officially started on saturday evening, concordia fell behind early as the beavers' colton smith drilled a two run home run, his second of the year, in the first inning with no outs. In the second, the beavers hit senior right handed starting pitcher chris kimpton (canberra, aus.) for a pair of unearned runs and the four run lead would prove to be enough.
the golden bears left a runner on third in the second inning, first and third in the third and first and second in the fourth. Cu did manufacture a run in the third with furrow delivering an rbi single to center scoring senior jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) on the play.
but from the fifth inning on the beaver pitching staff was lights out as they retired 11 of the final 12 batters with no one advancing past first base.
kimpton took the loss despite rebounding from the sluggish start to hurl his fourth complete game of the year. He allowed five runs (three earned) in six innings while scattering five hits. He did not issue any walks but hit five batters. He falls to 4-5 on the season despite boasting a team best 3.38 era over nine starts (11 appearances) and 56.0 innings.
bryan jamieson picked up the win throwing five innings of relief allowing two runs (one earned) after coming in when starter matt fossen was removed from the game after being struck by a line drive up the middle.
dubay had the only multi-hit performance for cu in the first game of the day, going 2-3 with an rbi.
game 2: bemidji state 10, cu 2
schmidt led off the second game with a home run to grab some early momentum. It was schmdit's 10th home run of the season to lead all golden bear sluggers.
but things soured in a hurry, as the beavers went ahead in the bottom of the first with back-to-back two out rbi hits, a single by paul newman and a double by ryan bohannan.
they added another pair of runs in the second, one of them being unearned as the beavers took a 4-1 lead.
in the third, schmidt put cu back on the board with a one out rbi double to left scoring dubay, who led off the inning with a single. But cu stranded runners on second and third to end the inning. It was schmidt's 10th double of the season.
in the bottom of the third, trailing 4-2 to the home team, senior right handed starter aaron pfalzgraff (garland, texas) was chased from the contest, allowing a five run inning to let bsu take a 9-2 lead.
it was the first time pfalzgraff failed to pitch four innings and the first time he allowed more than five runs. He would eventually take the loss and fall to 5-2, snapping a string of three consecutive starts won.
concordia was not able to muster any more offensive output in the game as bsu's ryan sander worked a complete game to improve to 2-4 on the season. He scattered six hits, allowing two runs while pitching to contact as he struck out only one batter without walking anyone.
for concordia, senior left handed reliever kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.) worked out of the third inning jam for pfalzgraff and that was his only batter.
junior righty steven king (johnston, iowa) came on and worked the final three frames allowing one run on five hits.
schmidt and dubay each had two hit performances for the golden bears.
bsu leadoff hitter josh silvernagel was 3-3 with a triple, colton smith was 2-4 with three rbi behind him at the two spot and newman was 3-4 for the beavers.
the back-to-back losses to the beavers were the first since the final game of a four game 2001 series combined with the first game of a 2003 series. Cu had won 15 of 16 against bsu prior to the two game skid.
game 3: cu 7, bemidji state 6
in the third game, cu jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first as freshman logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) produced a two out, two run double to the opposite field in right, scoring furrow and senior zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) who each reached with two out walks. Bouts finished the game 3-4, the double his ninth of the season.
concordia held the lead through the first three innings with bsu getting a run back in the second, an unearned run off sophomore right handed starter nick anderson (plymouth, minn.).
the golden bears provided anderson with some support in the fourth with five consecutive one out singles that produced three runs in the inning. Cu left runners on second and third to close out the frame, but had taken a 5-1 lead in the process.
in the fifth, senior adam bertrand (la salle, ill.) clubbed a two run homer, his third of the season, pulling a pitch to right with two outs and furrow on first. The bertrand bomb put the golden bears ahead 7-1. Bertrand wound up going 3-4 at the plate and scored twice lifting his average to .333 on the season.
anderson cruised through five innings, striking out four while allowing only three singles and the one unearned run without issuing any walks.
but he ran into trouble in the sixth. After a leadoff single by nick jelacie, anderson forced a foul pop out but then proceeded to load the bases giving up a single and hitting a batter. With the bases loaded, he walked in a run, ending his afternoon.
he left the game leading 7-2 but all three runners on base were his. King came out of the bullpen, allowing two runners to score before giving way to ingram with a 7-4 lead. Ingram allowed two more runs to score, one anderson's and one king's, but preserved the lead pitching out of the jam.
ingram allowed the beavers to load the bases with one out in the seventh but closed the door with a strikeout and a groundout to end the game. He earned his fifth save of the year, pitching 1.2 innings without allowing a run. The five saves ties his own single season record set as a freshman in 2006 while making his 22nd appearance of the season.
anderson would get the win in the game, allowing five runs (four earned) in 5.1 innings. He allowed six singles and walked one while striking out four. The win improves him to 6-2 on the season, second most wins on the squad.
bryan buhr took the loss for the beavers falling to 0-2. He worked 3.1 innings giving up five runs.
dubay produced his third straight two hit game and finished the three game day with a 6-10 effort to bump his season average to .352.
jelacie and newman both went 2-4 for bsu while alex messick was 2-2 with an rbi.
the win salvaged a series split for concordia, it's the first four game split since the 2003 series that was played at bsu baseball field. The two wins on the weekend also give 2009 golden bears the outright season record with 32 wins.
the golden bears (13-12, 7th nsic) will play at minnesota state university, mankato (20-4, 2nd nsic) on wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Concordia closes out the season with a four game weekend home series against winona state (17-9, 4th nsic).
concordia is currently two games behind sixth place upper iowa for the final spot in the six team nsic tournament. Uiu hosts augustana (12-13, 8th nsic) on wednesday and travels to minnesota duluth (12-14, 9th nsic) for a four game series to close out the season.
