st. Paul, minn. - the concordia university baseball team continues their rod-hot april, sweeping bemidji state today at barnes field on a cool, windy and gloomy sunday afternoon. Concordia powered their way to a 20-8 victory in a 10-run rule shortened first game in seven of nine innings. In game two, they used pitching to capture a 4-3 win in extra innings, winning in the bottom of the eighth of a seven inning game. Concordia has now won 11 of their last 13 games, turning a bleak 10-21 record (2-8 nsic) into a 21-23 overall record including a 13-10 mark in the league standings, just 1.5 games out of the nsic's top-six for tournament participation. Bemidji state falls to 15-30 overall, 6-22 in the nsic. game 1 box | game 2 box
game 1: cu 20, bemidji state 8 (7 inn.)
the beavers scored first, getting a two-run single in the top of the second inning to take an early lead after sophomore right handed starting pitcher ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) mowed them down 1-2-3 in a quick first inning.
in the bottom of the inning, senior blake devries (eden prairie, minn.) laced a solo homer to dead center field, defying the 20-30 mile per hour winds blowing in from left field to cut the lead in half. Concordia scored three more runs in the inning to take their first lead. Devries' home run was his 15th, establishing a new single season record with eight games to play on the season. Devries also notched another outfield assist, throwing out a runner at third base.
bemidji state came back strong in the top of the inning, rallying for three unearned runs off lemke, but he fanned their no. 9 hitter to leave the bases loaded to avert further damage in a frame that consisted of 42 pitches.
in the bottom of the third, concordia put the exclamation point on the game, sending 11 batters to the plate in a seven run inning that included a grand slam by senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) while junior sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) added an rbi double in the inning as well. The homer by furrow was his 13th of the season and 31st of his career. He is now two homers shy of matt borman's (2003-04, 07) career record of 33. S.fagely, meanwhile, would hit doubles in his next two at bats and would add a fourth double of the day in the second game.
lemke settled down on the mound after the big inning gave him some breathing room. He induced five ground outs in the fourth and fifth innings and at one point had retired six consecutively.
despite his long third inning, lemke was able to pitch deep into the game, going 5.0 innings allowing four earned runs (seven total) on eight hits with five strikeouts. He earned the victory to improve to 4-4 on the season.
he was relieved by freshman left hander griff kilber (chanhassen, minn.) who pitched the final two frames, allowing a run on two hits.
concordia scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth to go ahead by 12 runs and kilber pitched a perfect seventh inning to end the game early. Concordia scored in every inning except the first, sending 11 hitters to the plate in the third and sixth innings.
s.fagely led cu with a 3-4 performance with three runs and two rbi along with his three doubles. Sophomore logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) extended his season long hitting streak to 11 games by going 2-5 with a double and a pair of rbi before his streak was snapped in the second game.
furrow went 2-4 with five rbi including his 12th double and 13th home run. Leadoff hitter bryan lippincott (johnston, iowa) went 1-2 but reached base four times on the day with a pair of walks and a hit by pitch. He scored four runs and swiped his 15th base while his lone hit was his 14th double.
furrow and lippincott went into the second game of the day in a heated battle for the single season hits record. Lippincott tied furrow's 2009 mark of 69 with his double; while furrow's two hits gave him 68.
game 2: cu 4, bemidji state 3 (8 inn)
bemidji state once again started out with lead, getting an unearned run in the first inning on a two base fielding error, then manufacturing their leadoff hitter home without a hit.
in the second inning, concordia flexed their muscles again with a three run outburst, two of them being unearned but they stranded runners on 2nd and 3rd after leaving runners on 1st and 2nd in the first inning.
the three run inning was started by the bottom of the order as s.fagely got things started with a one out double to the opposite field down the right field line into the corner. He moved to third on a balk and scored when junior jon stockton (oakdale, minn.) reached on a fielding error by the second baseman. Sophomore troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) singled as the 7-8-9 hitters all got on base for the top of the order. Lippincott delivered an rbi double to the opposite field down the left field line and freshman j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) scored dubay on an rbi groundout to short.
leaving runners on base was a frequent issue plaguing the team early in the season in their 10-21 start. Today, it came back to haunt them again. They left 11 runners on base at the end of seven innings as they left the bases loaded in the seventh. They also left runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
while it seemed like concordia would jump all over bemidji state's freshman left handed starter, phil bray, after a 20 run first game and a three run second inning in game - the opposite occurred.
bray settled down, retiring cu in order in the third inning before scattering the golden bear baserunners for the rest of his outing.
it was a pitcher's duel, however, as sophomore right hander chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.) had excellent control once again. He pitched to contact to get a number of ground outs, and also was able to overpower bsu for six strikeouts over seven strong innings. He forced 11 ground outs and had six strikeouts while allowing only three fly ball outs.
he used his defense as well, with schneider making two of the best plays made at second base of the season in the second and third innings. Both were on grounders up the middle that he had to range far to his right to make diving stops. He quickly bounced to his feet and threw across his body to get the runners at first. The plays were nearly identical, and equally impressive.
bray, meanwhile, lasted 5.2 innings as he allowed just one earned run (three total) on seven hits. He forced 10 ground ball outs with six fly outs.
but neither pitcher would factor into the decision as the game went extra's.
peterson allowed two earned runs in his outing, lowering his earned run average to 4.28.
in the eighth inning, concordia turned to closer/starter nick anderson (plymouth, minn.) for his 22nd appearance. Anderson allowed a tough luck one out wind-aided double but was able to strand the runner on third by striking out his final hitter.
in the bottom of the inning, lippincott lifted a wind-aided double to right with one out as well. With one down and a runner on second, schneider chopped a grounder to deep short, hustling down the line as the throw sailed high over first. Schneider was credited with an infield single as lippincott alertly sprinted around third and dashed home, sliding in safely ahead of the throw for the game winning run.
anderson picked up the win to improve to 6-5 on the season while lowering his era to 4.48 in a nice battle for the team lead with peterson.
cu officially left 12 runners on while the beavers only stranded five. But with the team playing well and finding success, they overcame the stranded runners to grind out a one run victory in extra's.
lippincott went 3-5 with a pair of doubles, giving him 16 to lead the team. Furrow, meanwhile, went 1-3 and has 69 hits for the second straight season and currently holds three of the top four season hit totals in school history while lippincott has 72 on the year. Furrow has opened up his season long hitting streak of 10 games and has the longest active streak on the squad with eight games to play in the season, meaning schneider's 20-gamer will hold up as the longest hitting streak of the 2010 season.
out of the ninth spot in the lineup, dubay went 2-3 with his 12th double. With a 1-1 performance in game one that included two walks and a sacrifice bunt, dubay has successfully raised his average above the .300 mark and is hitting .302. He has hit safely in nine straight games.
s.fagely went 2-4 with his ninth double (fourth of the day) to raise his average to .285. Devries also went 2-4 with a double, a laser to the left center gap that one-hopped the fence, his seventh of the year. Both players have seven game hitting streaks heading into tomorrow.
concordia and bemidji state will complete their series tomorrow at noon at barnes field. The games will be streamed live online for free courtesy minnesota sports broadcast network (msbn) with dan flanagan calling the action. Log-on to www.mnsportsnetwork.com.
