st. Paul, minn. - wayne state college pulled away with two energetic league victories at carlander field on saturday, handing concordia university their first-ever losses at the new field and leap-frogging cu in the nsic standings. A rally in the sixth and seventh innings gave the wildcats the go-ahead runs in a 5-4 win and frequent scores in game two resulted in a 10-4 score. The golden bears fall to 30-12 overall and 18-6 in the nsic while wayne state moves up to 3rd in the nsic standings at 34-12 overall and 19-5 nsic with two games left on the regular season schedule. The golden bears host #12 augustana college in the nsic finale tomorrow starting at 1:00 pm. Cu is currently 4th in the nsic and has a chance to finish as high as 2nd come the end of the day sunday. game 1 box - game 2 box

game 1
things were looking good for the golden bears early in the day against the wildcats. They came up with huge hits against the nsic's best active pitcher, katie goetzinger, using a pair of two-run home runs from sami mattson to put four runs on the board. Mattson's long balls were both sent over the left field fence, the first one being an absolute no-doubter and hitting the opposite side of marshall ave. While the second had the distance and snuck a few feet inside the foul pole. The dingers were both preceded by solid knocks from mattson's teammates.

the wildcats scratched out an unearned run in the fourth inning but looked at a 4-1 deficit as the waning innings neared. All four of concordia's runs were earned against goetzinger, who came into the weekend leading all active nsic pitchers with a 1.00 era. Goetzinger put the decision into her own hands in the sixth inning, using her third at-bat of the game to give her team the lead. With two on and two out, goetzinger launched a ball just far enough to clear the left field fence and tie the game up 4-4. She then pitched a quick bottom of the sixth, three up, three down with two strikeouts.

with the wildcats back at the plate, starter stephanie schmikla looked to hold on and give her team a chance. Schmikla had allowed baserunners earlier in the game, but was still in position for the win in the seventh. The junior's luck turned on one out, however, giving up a single and then tossing away a potential double play ball to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Wsc's blaire kuhl put her team ahead with an rbi single and goetzinger closed out the win facing four cu batters in concordia's final round of outs.

the golden bears put out just five hits in the game, four of which proved very timely with mattson's homers scoring jamie lindboe and tiff rodd in the second and fourth innings. nikki scherr had the team's other knock, a bunt single to the third baseman.

game 2
the slightly deflated golden bear squad had a rough go of it in the second game, but showed stretches of willpower and offensive success. The defensive effort against the wildcats, however, put them in a tough position. Concordia committed three errors and gave up four multiple run innings.

the day's fourth multi-run homer came off of wayne state's bat to give the wildcats a 2-0 lead in the second. Wayne's third inning started off with four straight hits and a throwing error, helping wsc to go up 5-0. The golden bears got their bats working in the middle innings and had a breakout fifth, with an abby brundidge double clearing the loaded bases and getting cu on the board, 5-3.

just when the golden bears were showing signs of making a comeback run, however, the wildcats tamed the mood with a three-run sixth inning. Wsc got their first good swings at reliever cassye mcmahon in the sixth and went up 8-3. They added two more runs in the seventh and held the golden bears to a single run in a threatening bottom of the seventh. Goetzinger came in with the bases loaded in the seventh and retired the next three batters without incident, striking out a pair.

nikki scherr was the most active cu batter in game two, sending three singles to the outfield and scoring two of cu's four runs. The golden bears trailed the wildcats in hits by just an 11-10 margin, anna bjorlin, calli brennan and brundidge gaining two hits each. Starter ashley kluever was credited with the loss, giving up four earned runs and seven hits.