marshall, minn. - true to form, the golden bear softball team put up plenty of late runs in their nsic tournament elimination game against minnesota duluth, but the bulldogs (26-22) fended off concordia (33-23) with a pair of seventh inning runs to take a 9-7 win. Cu saw one of their better offensive performances of late, but left 13 runners stranded in the game. The golden bears will now wait for the ncaa regional selection to see if they will continue their season at the ncaa tournament.
concordia fell behind 2-0 in the first inning as the bulldogs slapped out a number of hits with rbis coming in back-to-back knocks. The score went up to 3-0 in the fourth inning as a double and two singles loaded the bases and a stephanie schmikla wild pitch allowed a run to score.
the golden bears came back in full force in the later innings, putting up runs in the fourth through seventh innings. nikki scherr showed patience at the plate and drew a walk and was quickly driven in by a long double to the right center fence by natalie mast. Mast, who reached in all five of her at-bats in the game, later came around to score on a minnesota duluth wild pitch.
concordia made things more difficult for themselves with errors in the fifth inning, which helped lead to four runs crossing for the bulldogs. The only earned run in the frame came from a leadoff solo home run. Minnesota duluth took a 7-2 lead into concordia's half of the fifth. But the golden bears fought for their season with their sticks, putting up two runs in both of the fifth and sixth innings. cassye mcmahon, batting in the designated player spot for the game, had a huge hit in the fifth, driving in two runs with a double. abby brundidge and sami mattson each had clutch rbi singles in a long bottom of the sixth. The golden bears batted eight in the inning, but let a huge opportunity pass them by when they left the bases loaded and could only draw the score to 7-6.
the golden bears went into the seventh inning with confidence despite leaving 11 runners on base in the first six innings. They had also forced the bulldogs to leave runners on base in a number of previous innings and had seen a lot of success at the plate in their own at-bats. The bulldogs had other plans, however, notching two more runs as another concordia error allowed an extra out.
the golden bears leaded the bases with no outs and were on pace to attack for a come-from behind win. An infield popup went for the first out and a foul fly down the left field line put up the second out, despite scoring a run to narrow the score to 9-7. A slow roller to third base induced the force out at the bag and ended concordia's high hopes.
mast had two hits and two walks in the game and also reached after being hit by a pitch. She drove in one run and scored two. Mattson also had two hits, an rbi and a run scored. The golden bears put up ten hits in the game, but committed three errors. They left 13 runners on base.
the bulldogs of minnesota duluth came up with 13 hits on their way to the 9-7 win. Laura melde was 3-of-4 at the plate with two rbi. The rest of the team's rbi were spread out among six other players. Kristin danielson gained the win with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. Mandy matula came in to close out the game and gain the save. The bulldogs left nine runners on base in the contest.
