st. Paul, minn. - a home run derby was held sunday afternoon at carlander field as the golden bears took on msu moorhead (2-22, 0-8 nsic) in an nsic doubleheader. Nine total long balls were drilled out of the park, but concordia (20-8, 8-2 nsic) took the edge in both games, 9-5 and 5-2. Senior tiff rodd was 4-of-5 at the dish with a homer and three rbi, while freshman ashley kluever threw a complete game win with 10 strikeouts added to her season total. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1
following solid first inning pitching efforts by both teams, the score quickly jumped up with home runs sent over the fence as the pitchers struggled with their control. The dragons struck the first blow in the second inning with three runs, including a two-run homer.
it was then concordia's turn to swing the heavy bat and put runs on the board. abby brundidge sent a crisp double down the left field line to set the table for tiff rodd, who drilled a shot over the right center field fence. jamie lindboe then replicated brundidge's double down the line and hustled to the dish on a sami mattson single, the fourth straight hit of the inning. The golden bears had tied the game 3-3 after two.
a second dragon home run turned the lead back to msu moorhead, but concordia had a big fourth inning dialed up. Hits from missie feuerbach and nikki scherr as well as an msum error filled the bases. A patient eye by katie anderson allowed the tying 4-4 run to score on a walk and the go-ahead run was tallied by scherr on a passed ball. The inning continued with a run from a sacrifice fly and an infield hit from lindboe advancing the score to 7-4.
more home runs were to follow before the game ended, all solo shots. The first was from a dragon batter, but the golden bears took the last two, one from scherr for her second in as many days and a line drive homer from calli brennan.
with cassye mcmahon sending down the last five batters of the game, concordia gained the 9-5 win. Stephanie schmikla picked up the win with 5.1 innings pitched. The golden bears out-hit the dragons 11-8 and went without a fielding error.
game 2
the home run derby took off with the first batter of the second game, msum's howland with a drive over the left field fence. The homer was the only one of the second game for the dragons, who struggled to make contact with ashley kluever for the majority of the decision.
after the lead-off dinger, kluever sent down the next nine straight batters, five of which went on swinging strikes. Kluever's work game the concordia offense time to get rolling and grab a lead in the game, which they did in the third inning. anna bjorlin dropped a ball over the left field fence for a 2-1 score. sami mattson led off the fourth inning with a solo homer, also over the favored left field fence.
the dragons manufactured a run in the sixth inning to set the score at 3-2 and make concordia a bit uncomfortable, but the golden bears put up two runs during their last at-bat in a most unusual way. Bjorlin stung a double to left center field that sent nikki scherr to the races from first base. Pushing msum's defense as she headed home to score, the relayed ball struck scherr's helmet and flipped toward the backstop. A heads-up bjorlin kept her legs going in high gear and rounded third, also reaching safely on the play. With the runs, the golden bears picked up the 5-2 win, using a double play to end the dragons' hopes of a comeback in the bottom of the 7th.
tiff rodd had the hot bat on sunday, going 2-for-2 in the first game with a walk and sacrifice fly and 2-for-3 in the second game with another walk. Brennan also had four hits for cu, while scherr was 3-for-5 with a team high four runs scored.
kluever took the win to go up 6-2 on the year and struck out 10 batters. She now leads the cu pitching staff with a 2.75 season era and 55 strikeouts.
