sioux falls, s.d. - two innings of attack by the vikings of augustana college ruined concordia university's tournament hopes in a 9-8 decision. The golden bears led 8-0 after the first inning and a half of work, but boundless hitting by the vikings led to nine unanswered runs. Junior sami mattson hit her second grand slam of the tournament to push the golden bears ahead early on. Mattson and pitcher ashley kluever were named to the nsic all-tournament team. Concordia now awaits the ncaa tournament selection show on monday morning (www.ncaa.com) to see where they will fall among the top eight. The regional tournament starts next weekend. box score
the game couldn't have started out better for the golden bears against #12 augustana college. The first four batters of the game reached and an abby brundidge single put concordia up 2-0 without an out in the books. sami mattson came to the plate with bases loaded and drilled her second grand slam in as many days and in the blink of an eye, the golden bears had a 6-0 lead with just one out. The vikings continued to dig a hole with an error leading off concordia's second inning and another two runs added to the total for a commanding 8-0 lead.
the vikings used their own offense to put at least a small flicker of warmth into their game in the bottom of the second. A double, sacrifice fly and a single turned out two runs and put cu starter ashley kluever, who had pitched 26 innings in the past two days, on the bench for the last part of concordia's tournament life. The game fell apart for the golden bears in the fourth inning when the vikings credited five runs against cassye mcmahon to narrow the game to an 8-7 lead for cu. Three walks and a single scored one runner and left the bases loaded without an out being credited.
stephanie schmikla came into the game and the vikings knocked back-to-back hits into left field for another three runs. The golden bear defense finally ended things with an unusual double pick-off; a nikki scherr throwdown to second catching the first viking and the third base runner then being pegged off as well after breaking on the play.
the golden bear offense got two runners into scoring position in the top of the fifth, but both runners were stranded and the vikings used their momentum in the bottom of the inning to score the go-ahead runs. Although the bases were left loaded at the end of the inning, a two-run bomb did all the damage necessary for the 9-8 win.
in addition to mattson's big swing, brundidge did damage offensively with a three-hit game and three rbi. The vikings out-hit the golden bears 12-8 in the game.
2010 nsic softball all-tournament team
pitchers
chelsey durland, augustana
katie goetzinger, wayne state
ashley meyer, augustana
kassie nurton, wayne state
position players
ashley kluever, concordia
sami mattson, concordia
kristin danielson, minnesota duluth
sarah kabes, minnesota duluth
katie betry, winona state
jenny brown, augustana
amy sandstrom, wayne state
