winona, minn. - add another ranked team to concordia's (23-29, 15-16 nsic) season win total as cu snapped a five game losing skid by defeating #30 winona state (34-12, 24-8 nsic) 7-5 in a 9-inning contest at laughrey field before a 9-4 game two loss in 7-innings. The win for concordia helped block the warriors from claiming an nsic championship, as the warriors finished second in the league by a game. The golden bear 2-3-4 hitters, bryan lippincott (so, des moines, iowa), brenden furrow (sr., johnston, iowa) and blake devries (sr., eden prairie, minn.) all homered in the first game victory. Furrow and troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) each homered in game two as the 2010 team tied the club record with 62 homers. Furrow led the league in hr in league play and finished with 18 overall for the school record. game 1 box | game 2 box
game 1: cu 7, #30 winona state 5
redshirt freshman right hander andy fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) pitched deep into the game, working into the eighth inning before giving way to junior stopper/closer nick anderson (rhp, plymouth, minn.) with two on and one out.
a.fagely had surrendered just three earned runs (four total) before anderson came in from the bullpen. Anderson walked his first two batters, allowing wsu's fifth run to score but got the next two outs including wsu leadoff batter and star player tony mueller to end the inning. Mueller has struggled in the series, going 2-14 as he has fallen out of the nsic batting title race.
anderson finished off the ninth inning for his seventh save, extending his own season record in his 26th appearance and is now 6-7 with 7 saves in a cu record 79.2 innings on the season.
a.fagely, meanwhile, won his sixth game of the year, improving to 6-2 as he allowed four earned in 7.1 innings. He struck out five and allowed eight wsu hits.
concordia started strong in the first when furrow belted a two out solo shot to the opposite field (rf). Concordia kept wsu off the scoreboard for the first three innings and took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth with runners on first and third. Junior sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) took off on the pitch, stealing his first base of the season while devries held at third until the pitched miss low and went wild, allowing devries to score on a rare sb-wp combination.
winona state came back strong in the bottom of the fourth with a three run inning to take their first lead of the game.
in the fifth, lippincott pulled a two out, two run homer to right for his only hit of the day. Lippincott went 1-4 and is now hitting .465 (59-127) in league play. He is well ahead of mueller who has dropped to .436 (51-117). But smsu's cody curry had another nice day at the plate, going 2-4 in smsu's first game to raise his average slightly to .475 (48-101).
the two run shot put concordia back in front by a run, 4-3 but the warriors countered with a run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game up at the end of five frames. In that inning, a.fagely pitched out of a jam that had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out as he struck out wsu's 3-4 hitters, jared anderson and john magee, getting them both swinging.
concordia didn't let up, as devries led off the sixth by pulling his 17th homer of the year to left to start a three run inning that was capped by a two run double by junior jon stockton (oakdale, minn.). Stockton continues to produce from the eighth spot in the lineup. After a slow start, stockton has seen his average increase to .353 with a career high .503 slugging pct. With his 2-4 performance today. The double was his 13th of the year.
while the golden bears are just two homers shy of the single season team record of 62 set in 2008, they broke their team double record of 102 set in 2006 by slugging 105 as a team. They have six players who have hit at least 10 doubles while lippincott's 18 are just one shy of the individual season record of 19 held by erik quarberg.
the three run inning gave concordia a 7-4 lead and all seven runs were charged to wsu starter andrew desousa who took the loss to fall to 3-4.
the warriors turned to their bullpen for the final three innings and once again their bullpen answered the call with three shutout innings and three strikeouts.
but concordia's bullpen closed the door for cu's first win of the series.
in the game, furrow went 2-5, getting himself a hit closer to lippincott as the team enters their final game of the season. Lippincott has 83 hits to furrow's 82. Furrow extends his rbi record to 68 while lippincott and furrow are hitting .413 and .408, respectively and are both safe bets to finish the season as .400 hitters in over 200 at bats - an impressive feat over so many chances at the plate.
furrow is also leading the nsic home run race with 14 in league play, two ahead of smsu's andrew kinney who has yet to homer in three games against u-mary while devries has plunked a pair in three games and has 12 in league games. Furrow also now has 50 rbi in league play and was the league leader entering the weekend with 46 while augustana's deryk marks had 45.
game 2: #30 winona state 9, cu 4
the warriors came out strong in game two, hoping that a win could help them clinch a share of the nsic championship. Anderson got the ball in game two and the warriors jumped on him early for four runs in the first two innings. Two of the runs charged to him were unearned. It was his 27th appearance of the season, appearing in over half of concordia's 52 games.
he'd work 4.0 innings in the game, finishing with a record 83.2 innings pitched on the year - the only concordia pitcher to ever throw more than 80 innings in a season.
the offense fought back with a two run homer by furrow in the third and another two run shot by dubay in the fourth to tie the game. The golden bears forced wsu starter jim kovacs from the game in the fourth with just one down in the inning.
but the warriors kept pushing, and would score three more times off anderson, who took the loss to fall to 6-8 on the season.
meanwhile, the warrior bullpen continued to dominate, working 3.2 shutout innings scattering two hits and a walk along the way.
the warrior bullpen worked 13.2 shutout innings in the four game series and was the main reason why winona state won the series 3-to-1. Concordia was able to rough up each of wsu's four starting pitchers, but in a 32 inning series it was the bullpen that made the biggest difference.
concordia's bullpen finished the game for anderson as freshman left hander griff kilber (chanhassen, minn.) pitched an inning allowing a solo homer before sophomore right hander logan bouts (hopkins, minn.) pitched the bottom of the sixth. Bouts, making his second career appearance, allowed his first run, facing four batters allowing a hit and a walk. Bouts also went 1-3 at the plate and scored a run.
furrow finished the game 2-4 with a two run homer while lippincott went 1-4 with his 57th run scored. They finished tied for the season hits record with 84. Furrow establishes new records in home runs with 18 and rbi with 70. The league stats will be posted by monday morning but there is a strong chance he wins the hr and rbi crowns for league play.
lippincott just missed out on the batting title to cody curry of smsu. Lippincott hit .458 (60-131) in nsic play while curry hit .462 (48-104). Mueller, who was in the top-three heading into the weekend, finishes at .438 (53-121).
overall, lippincott and furrow finish with identical .410 batting averages, both going 84-205 at the dish. Furrow's 35 extra base hits edge out lippincott's 33 as both had impressive slugging seasons in addition to their excellent batting averages.
the golden bears finish with a record 105 doubles, 542 hits and 1664 at bats while tying the team record for home runs with 62.
