st. Paul, minn. - the golden bears had their regular season come to an abrupt end in two shutouts against southwest minnesota state, 8-0 and 10-0. Concordia (33-21, 15-9 nsic) could not figure out mustang ace amanda johnson while their own pitching staff and defense gave up a combined 18 runs and 29 hits to smsu, who sealed the 2009 nsic regular season title with the wins. The golden bears now look ahead to what they hope will be an improved postseason, heading into the nsic tournament this friday and saturday in marshall, minn.

concordia hopes its recent five-game slide will end with the regular season. The team has had the last three games end early due to the eight-run rule. They spackled only four hits throughout the doubleheader tuesday evening and were pounded on defense as the mustangs let the bats loose. Cu's starting pitchers were eached pulled early, combining for only three innings of work. jenn kaminski came in to relieve both starters, throwing eight innings on the night.

the golden bears are assured a spot in the nsic tournament, but their seeding is still unknown. They are currently sixth in the standings, but a number of games are slated to be played tomorrow, which could affect their position.

it was a rough outing for the entire golden bear squad. The first game started with a fielding error and continued with two hits, a walk and a hit batter as the mustangs jumped out 2-0 in the first inning. The third inning got really messy as a leadoff home run by kristin braden was followed by another hit batter and three quick singles. Another two singles drove in continued runs before the golden bears helped themselves by turning a double play to get out of the inning, but down 7-0.

concordia's offense saw no better luck than their defense, going down in order through the first four innings. Smsu pitcher amanda johnson had great movement on the ball and used a wicked changeup on her way to eight strikeouts and brought a no-hitter into the fifth inning. jamie lindboe broke up her perfect game with a single dropped into left center field, but was thrown out as she tried to extend her hit into a double. abby brundidge followed with a solid hit to center field, but johnson wrapped the game up by striking out concordia's last two batters.

concordia's defense was less than perfect in the game, committing two errors and also getting a number of bad reads on balls that ended up falling for hits. Two of southwest minnesota state's eight runs were unearned.

a solo home run by the mustangs in the fourth inning gave them enough ammunition to end the game in five innings after johnson kept all but one cu runner off of the base paths. Smsu's christine borowiak led her team with three singles and two rbi.

stephanie schmikla worked 2.1 innings and gave up five earned runs off of seven hits. jenn kaminski came in and pitched effectively, giving up only one earned run but allowing five hits. She struck out two batters.

having jumped out early and ended strong in the first game, the mustangs looked to repeat their fortune in the second game, with a win needed to seal their nsic regular season title. They put up three runs in the first inning from three hits and three walks, forcing out concordia starting pitcher cassye mcmahon in just two-thirds of an inning.

with amanda johnson making a return appearance in the circle, the golden bear offense saw little more luck offensively in the second game despite having batted around the order a number of times. Johnson's pitches were just too good on this night as she struck out another nine batters and had four innings of three up, three down work.

calli brennan gave the golden bears hope for success in the first inning, however, rapping a single into right field to get a runner on base right away. A strikeout ended the chance to get on the board and it wasn't until the fourth inning that concordia put another runner on base. jamie lindboe got her second hit against johnson, again dropping a ball into left center field with two outs in the fourth. Johnson got out of the inning and went on to strike out four of the final six concordia batters.

the mustangs added two runs in the third inning to go up 5-0 and had a breakout sixth inning, notching another five runs to set the score at 10-0. There was no particularly big at-bat for southwest, just a continued assault from each and every batter. Christine borowiak continued to tattoo the ball, driving in another two rbi in the game while going 1-of-2 with a sacrifice fly. Meaghan laetsch was 3-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored.

jenn kaminski once again came in to pitch a number of innings in relief, this time going 5.1 innings with a strikeout. She kept the mustangs at bay in three innings, forcing smsu batters to roll over into a multitude of ground outs.