mankato, minn. - concordia university (32-17, 13-14 nsic) fell 9-2 and 4-1 in an nsic doubleheader at minnesota state university, mankato (29-13, 22-4 nsic) on thursday afternoon at msu baseball complex. Senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) extended his hitting streak to a season long 13 games going 1-2 while senior chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) jacked his ninth home run of the season to follow furrow, a two run shot in the first game. Herbert now has 56 rbi on the season, two shy of the school record. Furrow's streak came to a close in the second game. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: minnesota state 9, cu 2
the mavericks, fighting for a northern sun regular season championship, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first against senior left hander kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.). Ingram made his first career start in his 71st career appearance on the mound in a golden bear uniform.
he settled down as the score remained 2-0 through the first three innings. In the fourth, the mavericks bit the golden bears for a four run inning. Ingram pitched out of the jam but cu fell into a 6-0 hole.
the offense was no-hit through the first four innings by msu starter james dale. In the fifth, freshman logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) broke it up with a single.
freshman left hander ty hall (spring lake park, minn.) pitched a scoreless fifth before herbert delivered his two run shot in the top of the sixth.
concordia rallied after the homer, with singles by seniors zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) and adam bertrand (la salle, ill.) but they were stranded.
the mavericks added three insurance runs off hall in the bottom of the inning. Cu left two runners on the top of the seventh to end the game.
ingram falls to 3-3 on the year with the loss, working four innings allowing six runs (four earned). Hall allowed three runs in two innings of relief.
dale improved to 3-0 for msu with a complete game, allowing two runs on five hits. He struck out four and walked three.
the first four hitters in msu's lineup had two hits, with clean-up hitter geno glynn driving in three runs while the first three batters each scored three times. Seventh batter travis taran was 2-4 with a pair of rbi as well while ninth batter corey laplante was the sixth maverick to record a two hit game.
game 2: minnesota state 4, cu 1
freshman right hander ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) hurled a complete game for the golden bears, working six innings allowing four runs. He struck out four and only walked one while throwing only 75 pitches in the outing. He took the loss falling to 4-2 in his rookie campaign.
concordia tinkered heavily with the lineup in the second game, batting herbert leadoff with furrow second and froehlich third. The adjustment paid off for froehlich, who was 2-3 with a run and a steal. Froehlich also earned his first start at shortstop defensively with senior zach strouts (st. Louis park, minn.) moving back over to second base.
the mavericks scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth off lemke to break a 1-1 tie. Geno glynn was 1-2 with a pair of rbi out of the clean-up spot, giving him five rbi for the day.
blake schwartz improved to 3-1 on the year throwing a complete game allowing one run on four golden bear hits. He struck out eight and didn't walk anyone.
the golden bears turn their sights to winona state this weekend. They will host the warriors (19-9) this saturday and sunday at barnes field. The golden bears are now in eighth place in the northern sun, a half game behind seventh place minnesota duluth (14-14). St. Cloud state is 14-10 in league play and hosts a four game series with second place minnesota state this weekend. Upper iowa moved up to fifth at 16-11.
