wayne, neb. - with every increase in the stakes of the central region tournament comes an increase in tension for players, coaches and fans. A sharply contested matchup between the tournament's home team, wayne state college (42-12), and the visiting golden bears (35-16) was decided by a grand slam home run in favor of the wildcats, just some of the action that went largely under the radar with drama happening all around the complex. The 7-3 loss puts concordia in an elimination game later this afternoon, taking on the winner of the augustana vs. Minnesota duluth game at 4:00 pm. box score
it appeared that defense would battle offense in the regional matchup on saturday morning, with concordia defending the score against a swinging wildcats squad and wsc pitchers fighting to keep the golden bears off of the paths. A solo home run unknotted the scoreless game in the second for wayne state, pitcher katie goetzinger giving herself the lead. The game got truly heated in the third inning, however, with the game's umpires calling numerous illegal pitches and other contested calls. The result was a disrupted flow of game, with concordia's throwers taking the brunt of the calls. Solo home runs by wildcats in the third brought the score to 3-0 as the team struggled to play against not only their opponents, but the officials as well.
abby brundidge struck the game's fourth solo home run to get her golden bears on the board and pull a bit of momentum cu's way in the fourth inning. The wildcats loaded the bases up in the bottom of the frame, however, and refused to let cu get out of the mess. First baseman jennifer radley launched a home run over the right field fence to give wsc a 7-1 lead. The four runs would prove to be the difference in the game.
the golden bears showed resiliance and came back with a pair of fifth inning runs, both scored on a two out double by anna bjorlin. The atmosphere improved for concordia, drawing to a 7-3 score, until sophomore katie anderson was hit by a pitch and verbal volleys were exchanged in the crowd, the game having to be halted until things got back under control.
many more interesting events unfolded before the game drew to a close, but concordia failed to cross any further runs and fell into the elimination game to be played later in the day.
bjorlin had two of concordia's five hits in the game and also a set of rbi. Wayne state came up with 10 hits and was struck out only once. They advance to the final round of play tomorrow.
