st. Paul, minn. - a 12-strikeout pitching outing and two 10-hit games by the golden bears gave concordia (18-8, 6-2 nsic) a sweep of minnesota, crookston (3-13, 0-6 nsic) on a beautiful saturday afternoon at carlander field. The golden bears ended an 8-0 game 1 win in six innings and pulled off a 9-7 victory in game 2. They host msu moorhead in a 12:00/2:00 doubleheader sunday afternoon. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1
a walk-off two-run home run from senior nikki scherr ended a spectacular pitching performance by freshman pitcher ashley kluever in six innings, the golden bears taking the game by a final score of 8-0. Kluever improved upon her season and team high strikeout total as she fanned the golden eagles for 12 of the game's 18 outs and allowed just two hits. This was the third straight complete game win for kluever who now has a 5-2 season record.
the golden bears went up 3-0 early with a hot first inning. The first three batters knocked around a single, triple and a double in quick fashion.
while the early start was great for the cu offense, um, crookston pitcher erin fowle held the golden bears scoreless for the next three innings. Kluever took even greater control of the circle on cu's end, striking out eight of the first nine batters and throwing a no-hitter through four innings. Even a lead-off single in the fifth failed to deter kluever's efforts, as she put two more k's in the book to close out the inning.
the golden bears bounced back with two runs in the fifth inning, abby brundidge picking up the 2-rbi single for a 5-0 lead. sami mattson gave cu a lead-off homer in the sixth and nikki scherr then ended the game with her bomb for an 8-0 win.
game 2
game two of the doubleheader started out with a bang, five straight hits from the opening golden bear batters and freshman missie feuerbach driving a grand slam over the fence in left center field to put a pointed exclamation point on the frame. The 7-0 head start was built up with a two-out bomb to straight away center by abby brundidge for an 8-0 lead after just two innings.
the golden eagles saw plenty of pitches from cu starter katie feuerbach who worked from behind in the count against the majority of umc's batters. But feuerbach walked only one batter and gave up just two hits in the first three innings. The golden eagles scored their first run of the day by the way of a lead-off home run in the third.
minnesota, crookston made it 4 unanswered runs with a three-run fifth inning, tagging all three to concordia's cassye mcmahon in her first inning of relief work.
abby brundidge took a lucky triple that was lost in the sun of umc's center fielder in leading off the fifth inning. tiff rodd scored her with a sacrifice fly and the golden bears picked up the 9-4 lead. The golden eagles answered with three runs in the sixth to make it a 9-7 game, another home run sailing over the fence to drive in all three.
stephanie schmikla was assigned the task of getting the final four outs of the game. Not normally known as a strikeout pitcher, schmikla gained the save by fanning three and ending the decision with a 9-7 win.
abby brundidge was 3-for-3 at the dish in the second game with a single, triple and home run. Starter feuerbach picked up the win with four innings pitched, four strikeouts and four runs given up.
