st. Cloud, minn. - concordia junior blake devries (eden prairie, minn.) belted a late pinch hit two run home run in a 16-10 loss in game one before going 3-3 with two more homers and five rbi in an 8-7 game two victory. Devries' bat helped concordia (11-21, 3-8 nsic) power their way to a split against nsic leader st. Cloud state (25-6, 12-2 nsic) on saturday afternoon at joe faber field. Devries now leads concordia with nine home runs, five of those coming in three games against the huskies. Freshman hogan jackson (oakdale, minn.) hit his first career home run in the first game before earning his first career victory on the mound in relief in game two. game 1 box | game 2 box

things didn't look good early for the golden bears. On the road against the top team in the league, ranked as high as #13 by the ncbwa nationally and a regional favorite, concordia fell behind by 10 runs early to start the four game series.

in most northern sun four-game baseball weekend series', a team with a record like scsu's hosting a team with a record like concordia's in their home opener would expect a solid four game sweep.

but one thing is certain about the 2010 golden bears: they take their swings and throw their punches.

facing a 13-3 deficit in the middle innings in a grueling 9-inning game with right handed starting pitcher ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) already knocked out after three, things were bleak. That was magnfified even more by the dominant performance that scsu left hander david deminsky was exhibiting.

he struck out the first three batters he faced and his first five outs were strikeouts. After five innings, the nsic's strikeout leader racked up eight strikeouts and had the healthy 10-run lead. All he had to do was get six more outs without allowing a run and the huskies would 10-run rule concordia after 7-innings in the first game of the series to set the tone.

his only blemish through five innings was a two run home run to jackson over the 375 sign in the power alley, his first career blast which extended his hitting streak to six games. Jackson's streak would be halted in game two, however, as he reached on an error and scored a run but was hitless.

but concordia had other ideas. Just like they've done all season, they came back strong. A three-run homer by freshman j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) in the sixth inning ended deminsky's afternoon and ruined his pitching line, raising his sub-2.00 era to 2.43.

it also ended the idea of a 10-run rule and allowed concordia to break into scsu's bullpen in the first game of a 32 inning series.

it was schneider's second homer of the season and with a hit in each game he has now hit safely in a team-best 11 straight games.

the three-run shot by schneider cut the gap to 13-6. Two more runs by scsu pushed it back to nine before devries' first homer of the day, a pinch hit two-run shot, brought the score to 15-8.

senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) added a solo shot in the eighth to give him 25 for his career while tying devries and sophomore bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa) for the team lead with seven on the season. Furrow hit safely in each game, increasing his hit streak to seven while his 4-9 day raised his average to .385.

furrow's solo homer put him in a tie for concordia's career rbi record with 150, matching erik quarberg's total (2003-06). Quarberg is one of concordia's best sluggers in school history, and furrow has matched his seemingly out of reach feat.

lippincott would deliver an rbi single in the ninth inning, but scsu had racked up 16 runs by that point as concordia's surge fell short. Cu left 10 runners on base (scsu left 8) and the huskies scored four unearned runs in the middle innings to account for the six-run difference. Lippincott went 3-6 in the first game to raise his average to .408.

lippincott entered the series with homers in six straight games, and although that streak came to an end, his 1-5 effort in game two was good enough to extend his hitting streak to nine games and he is still maintaining a .400 average on the season.

lemke took the loss falling to 2-4. Freshman right hander zach goodwin (mahtomedi, minn.) pitched the fourth and fifth innings, allowing the four unearned runs on three hits while not walking anyone. Sophomore left hander cody wilcoxson (aurora, colo.) finished the game strong, hurling three innings. Goodwin and wilcoxson made their third and fourth relief appearances of the season, respectively.

while concordia did not pick up a first game win, they established momentum and proved once again that they could hit scsu's elite-level pitching staff.

in the second game, the huskies once again tried to put concordia away early with five runs in the first inning as they sent 10 batters to the plate off sophomore right hander chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.).

trailing 5-1 after two innings, devries went yard to right center, a three run shot to close the husky lead to a run, 5-4. Although peterson had to depart in the second inning due to lack of command at windy faber field, jackson was moved from the hot corner to the mound and he proved he was ready for the big situation.

jackson tossed 2.2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts to the 10 batters he faced.

in the top of the fifth, the experienced devries took care of the rookie jackson by blasting his second home run of the game (third of the day, ninth of the season) to left, a two-run jack to put concordia on top while making jackson the pitcher of record in search of his first career win.

but before that could develop further, jackson was up at the plate and reached on an error to second base and scored himself an insurance run on an rbi single by junior jon stockton (oakdale, minn.). Stockton has now hit safely in five straight, going 2-4 on the day and is now hitting .316.

leading by two heading into the bottom of the fifth, the rookie was removed for concordia's most experienced pitcher, righty nick anderson (plymouth, minn.). Anderson, a pitcher who has proven he can be an effective starter, long reliever or closer, was asked to shut down the huskies for the final three innings for a save.

he responded, giving up one earned run to earn his third save to preserve jackson's first career win. Concordia's bullpen allowed just one earned run over 5.2 innings to an scsu offense that features five hitters hitting over .400 and six hitting at least .390 with others in a platoon role in the mid-.300's.

the win earned a first day split but the first game effort proved this series would be a battle.

concordia defeated scsu hurler nick anderson (not to be confused with concordia's versatile righty with the same name). Scsu's anderson is a division ii pitching prospect, but concordia torched him for eight runs in a complete game (7 ip) and 10 hits while only striking out three times to the flame thrower. Anderson's era was raised to 3.00.

earlier in the year, scsu had a 7-1 lead heading into the seventh inning when devries belted a game-tying three-run homer. He added a go-ahead solo shot in the top of the 12th before scsu's joey benke launched a walk-off two-run shot to right at the metrodome. In the second game of that doubleheader, concordia led 1-0 behind lemke's dominant four innings on the mount. Concordia was coming to bat with the lead in the bottom of the fourth when the game was suspended.

although these two teams have had completely different paths with scsu on the fast track towards the nsic regular season championship in a best-case scenario with an nsic tournament berth at their home field in a worst case scenario. Meanwhile, concordia used a 4-2 spring trip in florida that included a doubleheader sweep of league rival southwest minnesota state an an upset of #25 nebraska-omaha before falling into a rough spell as their record has taken a turn for the worse.

but at the end of today, concordia proved that even though these two teams are separated by 14.5 games on paper in the standings; things are even between the foul lines.

tomorrow, scsu throws two more stud pitchers while concordia will continue to prove they can execute against league powers. The doubleheader at joe faber field begins at 1:00 p.m. And more drama is expected.