st. Paul, minn. - the concordia baseball team dropped a pair of close games, 14-13 and 5-3 as the augustana vikings (14-9, 4-0 nsic) completed the four game series sweep of the golden bears on sunday afternoon at barnes field. Concordia lost three of the four games in the series by two runs or less with the fourth loss being a 6-run defeat. In game one, augsutana hit seven home runs to concordia's four and only left four runners on base in a game that featured 27 runs. Concordia stranded nine on base including seven in scoring position in the narrow loss. Concordia falls to 7-12 overall on the season and starts the northern sun schedule 0-4. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1: augustana 14, cu 13
in a game that featured 11 home runs, a tie and four lead changes it was the vikings who struck last, hitting the game winning two run homer off the bat of reserve catcher nate alfson in the bottom of the seventh inning in the nine inning contest.
it was the first time this season that a team has scored between the 5th and 9th innings off of junior right hander nick anderson (plymouth, minn.) who took the loss falling to 2-2 on the season. He worked 4.2 innings allowing three runs on five hits.
anderson still maintains a 2.53 earned run average on the season despite a weekend in which the concordia pitching staff was hit for a 9.96 team era in 28.0 innings.
concordia was down 4-0 after one inning but quickly tied the score in the second doubles from sophomores logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) and bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa), a triple by freshman j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) and a pair of singles. Lippincott's double scored two and he finished the game 4-6 with five rbi including a go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the sixth that gave cu a 13-12 lead.
lippincott led concordia at the plate for the weekend, hitting .444 in 18 at bats with four doubles, a homer and five rbi. He also was bumped to the leadoff spot and scored six runs with three stolen bases on the weekend.
all nine concordia starters scored in the game and eight players had two or more hits with schneider, senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa), and junior sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) all producing three-hit games. Furrow also drove in three and homered for the fourth time this season while bouts and s.fagely had two rbi each and both homered as well.
schneider was impressive in his first taste of official league action, hitting .375 in 16 at bats with a double and a triple. The strong weekend saw him bumped to second in the lineup as he stole three bases in as many tries and was perfect in the field in 17 opportunities.
redshirt freshman andy fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) got the start on the hill and the vikings were able to use the long ball to provide him with an early exit. A.fagely had been concordia's most effective starter throughout the early part of the season before today's outing.
charlie dubanoski led augustana with five rbi and two home runs, giving him five on the season. Dan morrison also homered twice, but hitting behind dubanoski, both were solo shots. Deryk marks was 2-5 with his fourth homer and four rbi.
concordia roughed up augie starter ezra campbell for six runs in three innings and their second reliever out of the bullpen, alfson, earned the win despite allowing three runs in two innings. Marks pitched a scoreless eighth to get the ball to closer bret severtson, who closed both games today and three out of the four augie wins on the weekend.
game 2: augustana 5, cu 3
lippincott was on again at the top of the order for concordia, going 2-4 with three runs, two doubles and his sixth stolen base of the season but the lineup didn't provide the same firepower as in game one in a two-run loss.
augie starter grant larson improved to 3-0, working 5.2 innings allowing three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts while severtson pitched the final two innings in perfect fashion to pick up his fourth save of the weekend. Severtson lowered his season era to 1.29.
concordia freshman left hander griff kilber (chanhassen, minn.) made his first collegiate start and worked five strong innings. He was tagged for 11 hits but considering the day's circumstances, was impressive in holding augustana to five runs (four earned) and did not walk any vikings. He falls to 0-1 in his first collegiate decision.
junior ryan rodeck (rhp, lino lakes, minn.) pitched a scoreless sixth inning for concordia, his third scoreless relief appearance for the golden bears.
marks hit his fifth homer of the season for augustana, going 2-4 with two rbi while dubanoski and morrison each hit doubles and drove in a run.
furrow drove in two more for concordia, knocking in five on the weekend while hitting .333.
concordia returns to non-conference play this week with a wednesday doubleheader schedule for barnes field against minnesota duluth at 2:00 p.m. Before a metrodome doubleheader against uw-la crosse on saturday at 5:30 p.m.
