st. Paul, minn. - despite falling into a 6-0 hole after two innings in game one, the concordia baseball team continued to show strong resolve, coming back to force a 6-6 tie after six innings. But augustana would score two go-ahead runs in the bottom of the seventh as the vikings took game one from the golden bears 8-6 in a nine inning affair at barnes field in northern sun action. In game two, augustana held their strong lead in a 7-1 final score in a seven inning game. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: augustana 8, concordia 6
despite a five run first and allowing another run in the second inning, sophomore right hander ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) was able to settle into a groove and worked into the seventh inning in the first nine innings of a 32 inning, four game series. The innings were valuable to the start of the series, but lemke eventually left the game with two runners on in the seventh in a tie game.
junior right hander nick anderson (plymouth, minn.) came on in relief, looking to pitch out of lemke's jam with two outs. Anderson has been concordia's top reliever all year, not allowing a run in 16 innings between the 5th and 9th innings on the year. Today, anderson would pitch 1.1 innings without being charged with a run but he did allow lemke's runners to score in the inning.
lemke took the loss, falling to 1-3 on the year after working 6.2 innings allowing eight runs (seven earned). Anderson's era dropped to 1.88 on the season after he finished the game in relief.
augustana used back-to-back homers in the first, a three run shot by charlie dubanoski and a solo by dan morrison to build their early advantage.
in the fourth, concordia scored a pair of unearned runs off per nestigen, augustana's starter. They used patience against nestigen, drawing six walks and being hit by pitch three times against their top starter. The result was three unearned runs off nestigen in five innings and he did not factor in the decision.
and the patience brought concordia back into the game heading into the late innings.
in the sixth, a three run inning for the golden bears tied the score to complete the comeback down the stretch.
but missed opportunities early plagued concordia, leaving the bases loaded in the third and runners in scoring position in the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. For the game, concordia stranded 14 on base while augustana left only five on.
junior blake devries (lf, eden prairie, minn.) and freshman j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) each went 2-4 with an rbi and lemke was 1-3 with two walks and two runs. Concordia out-ran the vikings with three stolen bases to augustana's two.
the vikings were led by the heart of their order as the 3-4-5 hitters went 5-10 with eight rbi.
game 2: augustana 7, concordia 1
the 1-4 hitters for augustana continued to be tough outs in game two as they combined to go 7-11 with six rbi, five runs with a pair of steals and doubles.
but the story of this game was the strong pitching of tyson gau, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before being tagged for a pair of hits and a run in his complete game victory. He walked three and struck out two as he improved to 1-0 on the year.
for concordia, lemke was moved into the leadoff spot and didn't let down, going 1-2 with a run and a walk and is continuing to emerge as a solid offensive threat in addition to his ability as a front line starting pitcher. Concordia's only other hit in the game was a single by sophomore bryan lippincott (ss, des moines, iowa) as he went 1-3 on the day.
sophomore righty chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.) was tagged with the loss as he surrendered six runs (five earned) on eight hits in four innings while striking out two. Freshman hogan jackson (rhp, oakdale, minn.) worked the final two innings and did not allow a hit, walked two and struck out one and allowed one run.
the golden bears will look to flip the series around tomorrow when they play another 9/7 inning doubleheader at barnes field starting at noon. The vikings have now won five straight against concordia.
