st. Paul, minn. - a left center bomb off of the bat of abby brundidge came close enough to fulfilling the senior's earlier prophecy and set the tone for golden bear softball at the new carlander field. Brundidge's walk-off homerun gave concordia a 5-3 win in the first-ever game played at cu's new on-campus facility. The golden bears followed up with a 9-7 victory in the second game of the non-conference doubleheader over southwest minnesota state. game 1 box - game 2 box
homeruns were the plays of the game that led to concordia's success early in the history of carlander field. After three scoreless innings of play, senior tiff rodd got just enough of the ball to send a line drive over the left field fence to put the first-ever run on the carlander field scoreboard. The golden bear lead was nullified in the fifth inning as a double to the fence sent an smsu runner from second to home in a 1-1 score. Doubles from anna bjorlin and calli brennan gave cu a new 2-1 lead, but the mustangs made their bats known in the top of the seventh and forced the issue with the golden bears.
southwest minnesota state used four well hit balls to score two runs and nab a 3-2 edge in the top of the final inning, but the mustangs left the bases loaded, which would come back to spell disaster in the bottom of the inning.
team hitting leader bjorlin completed a 3-for-3 game with a double to right field to get concordia's 7th inning rolling. katie anderson followed with a single to set up brundidge for her game-winner. Standing solid in the box, brundidge drove a dinger that easily cleared the right field fence to end the game at 5-3.
the golden bears took the first game win with eight hits, three from bjorlin and five more scattered among the team. Stephanie schmikla threw a complete game win, her sixth victory of the season, striking out five along the way.
game 2
the second game of the twinbill was a roller coaster of big offensive frames that gave cu multi-run leads, answered by nearly equally big frames from the mustangs. The golden bears jumped ahead with a huge five-run first inning, knocking around four hits and taking four walks. Sophomore calli brennan hit a two-rbi single up the middle for cu's first runs of the game.
the mustangs found some early scoring success as well, gaining five baserunners from walks and scoring two runs in each of the second and third innings. Smsu's amy dreessen knocked out a homerun for the visiting team, the first considerable swing for the mustangs on the day.
with the game suddenly closed in at 5-4, the golden bears had a remarkable fourth inning due largely to bloop hits. The frame started out with four straight texas-league singles, a ball falling into short center field off of brennan's bat for two runs. jamie lindboe then drilled a solid double into left field in order for two more runs to cross.
with the lead now at 9-4, concordia simply had to hold on for the win. The mustangs came away with a three-run fifth to draw the score to 9-7. Freshman katie feuerbach was responsible for the final two innings of work from the circle and kept smsu at bay in each of six at-bats. She took the handy help of her fielders, including a remarkable, diving stop from second baseman anna bjorlin, and did not allow a baserunner.
brennan's four-rbi performance matched her own team season high. The golden bears had ten hits in the game, with four players marking two hits each. Bjorlin had her second straight multi-hit game and finished the day going 5-of-7 at the plate with two doubles and four runs scored. cassye mcmahon took the win in the game while feuerbach came away with the save.
concordia opens nsic play next weekend, heading to bemidi state and minnesota duluth for a pair of doubleheaders. Their next play at carlander field comes on april 10 when minnesota, crookston comes to town.
