st. Paul, minn. - after 29 games away from their home field to start the 2009 season, senior leadoff hitter jake schmidt (oakdale, minn.) was ready to return home to bob barnes field as he punished northern state (4-14, 0-6 nsic) by going 6-9 with four home runs and eight rbi in a two game sweep for concordia university (22-9, 3-6 nsic). Cu took the first game 9-5 before a 14-3 win in game two behind a 10 run second inning during which schmidt blasted a grand slam. game 1 box - game 2 box

game 1: cu 9, northern state 5
schmidt set the tone for the type of day he would have, taking a 2-1 pitch the opposite field for a leadoff homer. Cu added another run in the inning and scored again in the third with senior chris herbert (white bear lake, minn.) driving in each run to give concordia a 3-0 lead.

with senior right hander aaron pfalzgraff (garland, texas) on the mound, cu felt confident in their early lead. But the wolves got to pfalzgraff in the fourth, scoring three runs in the inning to tie the score.

in the bottom of the third, cu opened up offensively as they batted around scoring six runs. After sophomore jon stockton (oakdale, minn.) drew a bases loaded walk to score the first run, senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) opened things up by driving in two with a laser of a double down the right field line. After an rbi groundout by herbert, who drove in a run on each of his first three at bats, senior zane froehlich (sioux falls, s.d.) belted a two run home run to left center putting cu on top 9-3 after four innings.

pfalzgraff let in two more runs in the fifth before giving way to the bullpen.

junior right hander steven king (johnston, iowa) got the ball with the bases loaded after senior left hander kirk ingram (woodbury, minn.) walked a pair of runners to load the bases with two outs.

king pitched out of the jam and then threw the final two innings to secure the save. King worked 2.1 shutout innings allowing two hits while striking out one without a walk. He lowered his season era to 1.69 in two appearances.

pfalzgraff picked up the win improving to 3-1 working 4.1 innings allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits. He walked three and struck out a pair.

for the wolves, michael gardner was tagged with the loss falling to 1-3 after allowing nine runs in four innings. Nick wallentiny pitched two scoreless innings to finish things off for nsu.

northern state stranded nine runners on base in the game compared to just four for concordia as the golden bears provided timely hitting to score runs and were able to pitch out of jams.

northern state's 5-6-7 hitters had two hits each as lucas jung was 2-4 with a run and an rbi, mitch locke was 2-3 with a run and andrew lunsetter was 2-4 with a run and an rbi. They combined to hit 6-11.

furrow finished the first game 3-4 with two rbi while herbert was 2-4 with three rbi. Schmidt was 2-4 with his third home run and froehlich was 2-3 with his first homer of the season.

stockton walked and scored in his first three plate appearances before grounding out his last time up. His walk total after the first game was pushed up to 32 through 30 games.

game 2: cu 14, northern state 3
although he didn't deliver a game two leadoff home run as he did in the first game, schmidt produced homers in his next three at bats, none bigger than the grand slam in a 10 run second inning that put cu ahead 6-0 before they plated four more runs in the inning.

he provided a solo homer in the third inning and a two run shot in the fifth. He finished the second game 4-5 with three home runs and seven rbi. Furrow and freshman logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) each had three hit efforts in the game with bouts driving in three runs and scoring a pair and furrow scoring twice.

stockton walked two more times in the game and went 2-3 while senior zach strouts (st. Louis park, minn.) also had a two-hit game going 2-4 with an rbi. Freshman troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) was 1-2 with two walks and two rbi as well.

on the mound, freshman right hander ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) continued his strong rookie season by picking up the win throwing four innings of one-hit ball to improve to 4-1. He struck out three but walked five allowing three runs in the performance.

he was relieved by another freshman right hander, chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.) who worked three shutout innings for his first career save. Peterson struck out four, didn't issue a walk while throwing 33 of his 46 pitches for strikes. He scattered three hits in the three shutout frames.

lucas jung took the loss for northern state, allowing the 10 run second inning. He worked two complete innings, allowing 10 runs on nine hits with three walks. Three other northern state hurlers pitched at least an inning apiece the rest of the way.

the wolves had just four hits in the game.

the golden bears look to continue utilizing their home field advantage this friday and saturday when they host st. Cloud state in a four game nsic series. Doubleheaders start at 2:00 p.m. On friday and 12:00 p.m. On saturday. The huskies are 27-7 overall and 6-2 in the northern sun in a pivotal series for cu.

doubleheader notes:
senior brenden furrow went 6-9 and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He is hitting .400 on the season and .528 (19-36) during the streak
senior jake schmidt was 6-9 with four hr, giving him 6 hr on the season. He had 8 rbi giving him 25 and is hitting .398
senior chris herbert was 4-8 with four rbi extending his nsic lead to 44 through 31 games
sophomore jon stockton walked five times in two games pushing his season total to 34, two shy of the cu record (mason reinhart, 36, 2006). Stockton has a .588 obp and ranks in the division ii top-10 in both walks per game and obp. Stockton went 2-4 hitting and increased his average to .403.
concordia's top-ranked defense in division ii baseball held strong, committing one error in the two games keeping their season fielding pct. At .981
with junior steven king and freshman chris peterson recording saves, concordia now has seven different pitchers with at least one save, only senior kirk ingram has more than one (3)
senior zane froehlich went 3-4 in the two games pushing his season average to .300 for the first time since after game 1 against grand view on march 3