aberdeen, s.d. - senior brenden furrow (johnston, iowa) belted a pair of home runs as concordia used the 10-run rule to defeat northern state 20-8 in the first game of an nsic doubleheader on wednesday afternoon. In game two, concordia's comeback attempt fell short as the wolves out-hit the golden bears 20-18. Sophomore shorstop bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa) hit a home run in each game and has now hit a homer in six straight games while furrow moves into 3rd on concordia's all-time home run list with 24. Concordia is now 2-7 in nsic play (10-20 overall) while nsu gets their first league win (1-9 nsic, 3-24 overall). The doubleheader featured 66 runs scored with 73 hits between the two teams. game 1 box - game 2 box

game 1: cu 20, northern state 8 (8 inn)
in a game that was supposed to go nine innings, concordia's offense decided to end it early in their largest margin victory of the season. The golden bears rallied for an eight-run top of the 8th inning to take a 14-run lead.

when northern state couldn't cut the gap to single digits, the game was called due to ncaa 10-run rule after 7 innings in a 9 inning game.

concordia hit three home runs in the fifth inning, blowing the game open with nine runs as they sent 15 batters to the plate in the inning. That gave concordia an 11-5 lead.

but the game started completely different as none of the 28 runs scored were in the first three frames.

concordia jumped on the scoreboard first with two in the fourth when furrow hit his fifth homer of the season.

northern state countered with five in the bottom of the inning to take the lead.

in the top of the 5th, sophomore ty hall (spring lake park, minn.) led off with his second career homer, first of the season, to get things going. A walk and a hit by pitch set up lippincott's three-run shot, his sixth homer of the year. After a single, furrow delivered the two-run jack, his sixth homer of the year and second in as many innings/at bats.

once he got the lead, starting pitcher nick anderson (rhp, jr., plymouth, minn.) settled into a groove. He allowed three more runs but pitched a complete game to earn the victory to improve to 3-4 on the year. He struck out three and walked one while using just 108 pitches over eight full frames.

lippincott and furrow each had three hits, with lippincott driving in five and furrow topping him with six rbi. For the day, lippincott was 6-8 with 10 rbi while furrow was 6-12 with seven rbi. Lippincott is now hitting 17-29 (.586) during his seven game hitting streak to raise his average to .404 while furrow has upped his average to .381.

freshmen upstarts j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) and hogan jackson (oakdale, minn.) continued their torrid hitting. Schneider went 2-4 with three runs and three rbi while jackson was 2-5 with two runs. Schneider extends his hitting streak to eight while jackson has multi-hit games in five straight and seven of eight overall.

schneider hit safely in the second game as well, going 2-6 with a pair of runs while jackson had his sixth straight multi-hit game going 2-5 with three rbi. Schneider is now hitting .351 while jackson is at .353.

also having a big doubleheader was sophomore troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) who was 6-7 with seven runs and five rbi, sky-rocketing his average to .280.

game 2: northern state 20, cu 18
when the losing pitcher allows nine unearned runs, that pretty much sums up how the golden bears have arrived at a 10-20 record. Junior right hander ryan rodeck (lino lakes, minn.) was effective in two scoreless innings in his last outing against a potent wayne state offense last friday. Today, rodeck wasn't necessarily ineffective as much as he was a victim of defensive miscues.

he took the hill in relief of freshman lefty griff kilber (chanhassen, minn.) who couldn't make it through three full innings in his second career start.

the concordia offense claimed the lead for rodeck, but those same bats that put them on top in the top of the fourth turned into the gloves that victimized him in the bottom of the inning.

six unearned runs touched home in the fourth as northern took the lead back for good. Rodeck allowed a leadoff single before getting the next two hitters on a fly out and strikeout. But with two down and a runner on first, a seemingly harmless situation blew up. A two out double set up runners on second and third when the first of back-to-back errors let the flood gates open for the wolves, who capitalized by rallying for six two-out runs.

in the fifth inning, concordia stranded runners on second and third with one out and were trailing 12-10 heading into the bottom half of the frame. Rodeck was in a two-on, two-out situation when a two-run single extended nsu's lead to 14-10. But another costly two out error allowed four more runs to cross the plate as nsu blew the game open with an eight run lead.

in a series where concordia won with 20 runs in the first game, they knew the game was far from over.

concordia scored six more runs in the top of the sixth inning. They had the go-ahead run at the plate, tying run on first with runners on first and third with two outs in the inning, but struck out to leave the tying run stranded. After two more runs scored to push the nsu lead back to four runs, 20-16, concordia started the seventh with back-to-back doubles from their 8-9 batters, junior jon stockton (oakdale, minn.) and dubay. Dubay's double scored stockton and dubay would score on a sacrifice fly by lippincott.

but the next two were retired in order and the comeback was stopped two runs short in the seventh inning. In a game that featured 38 runs, it was cu that left nine runners on while nsu only stranded five - a storyline the golden bears would soon like to forget.

in the second game, junior blake devries (eden prairie, minn.) delivered his sixth home run of the season to tie furrow while lippincott's homer was his team-high seventh.

rodeck's final line was 2.1 innings, two earned runs (11 total runs) with two strikeouts and one walk. Nsu got to him for 11 hits as he moves to 1-4 on the year in his eighth appearance. Freshmen andy fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) and patrick rydeen (stillwater, minn.) finished off the game for concordia, allowing a combined one earned run (three total runs).

chalk up another close loss for concordia, who have had 24 of their 30 games decided by four runs or less this season. The 12 run win in game one was their largest of the season, easily topping their previous large win of five runs (7-2 against wayne state last thursday).

they return to action this weekend for a four game series at st. Cloud state, ranked #13 in the ncbwa division ii top-25. The huskies are leading the nsic with an 11-1 record. Earlier this year, concordia lost a 4-3 game to scsu at the metrodome in a dramatic 12 inning contest before their 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning was suspended with cu coming to bat. There has been no official announcement on the fate of the suspended game, but it could be completed this weekend as part of the series.