winona, minn. - the winona state softball team swept the golden bears on the softball diamond on wednesday evening, ending cu's 15-game winning streak and sending the team home for a final homestand to close out the regular season. Wsu pitcher courtney strang threw a perfect game to shut out concordia 2-0 in the first game. The warriors then finished the day with an 8-5 victory. While the games were some of the most exciting of the season, they take the golden bears out of sole possession of second place in the league and tie them with winona state (32-8) at 18-4. Concordia is 30-10 overall. game 1 box - game 2 box
game 1
the perfect game for strang almost wasn't, due to the bat of concordia senior abby brundidge. With the game still scoreless in the fifth inning, brundidge lifted a high fly ball to center field. Initially thought to have enough to give the golden bears the first lead of the day, wsu center fielder mollie bjelland came to strang's rescue with a play that would have made even those at espn take a second look. Bjelland backed off on the shot, reaching the wall with just enough time to gather herself and made a leap to show up even the track team's high jumpers. The southpaw reached across both her body and the three-foot high fence, advancing well out of the park and folding herself over the center field fence. She came back up and held brundidge's home run ball firmly in her mitt.
the outstanding play gave the warriors the momentum shift they needed to pull out a fifth inning run. Working against ashley kluever, who had only given up two hits to that point, winona state started the bottom of the inning with two hits and later drove in a run on a fielder's choice to break the stalemate. They added an unearned run in the sixth inning as well for the 2-0 shutout win.
strang's perfect game came with the aid of nine strikeouts and a warrior defense that refused to let the speedy golden bears battle back. Strang marked at least one strikeout in all but one inning and struck out the side in the fourth. The decision ended concordia's 15-game winning streak and handed kluever her first loss of the year in nsic play.
game 2
the golden bears would not be denied their home runs in game two. Brundidge's hefty swing in her first at-bat sent the ball landing safely over the fence this time, putting up two quick runs for concordia. jamie lindboe also had a display of power late in the game, drilling a three run shot that tied the game up at 5-5 in the sixth inning.
the warriors played an effective game of small ball, starting the game off with back-to-back bunt singles and more sacrifice bunts to come later on. They rapped out a number of rbi hits as well, taking a 4-2 lead by the end of the fourth inning and using a three-run sixth to break the game's tie and go ahead for the win. Both teams' defenses did what they could to protect their pitchers. The golden bears got good swings on the ball, but hit too many sharp shots right to defenders. The warriors were successful in driving cu pitchers out of the game and attacking the new tosser on her first at-bat. Wsu gained rbi multi-base hits following both pitching changes.
concordia had seven hits in game two, with brundidge's two hits topping all players. Winona state out-hit cu 13-7 in the win. cassye mcmahon took her first loss of the season, 8-1, and took responsibility for three wsu runs from two hits given up. stephanie schmikla pitched the first four innings and kluever came in for the final 0.2 innings of work.
