winter haven, fla. - a recurring theme from the 2010 season was 1-run losses. Three games into the 2011 season, the trend has resurfaced as concordia university (0-3) took their second such 1-run loss of the young season against mansfield (pa.) university in a 7-6 contest at chain of lakes park on monday morning. box score | season stats
and for the third straight day to start the season, concordia faced a 2010 ncaa regional participant as mansfield finished 32-20 last year before getting swept in the double elimination ncaa tournament.
the golden bears fell into a 3-0 hole after the first inning but rallied in the second for four runs while chasing mansfield starter mike martin from the game after recording only four outs.
concordia held the 4-3 lead primarily due to station-to-station execution in the second inning with an rbi fielder's choice by junior ben lemke (rosemount, minn.), an rbi single by junior kris long (rochester, minn.), a bases loaded walk by junior troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) and an rbi fielder's choice by sophomore j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.).
after a rough first inning, junior right hander chris peterson (st. Anthony, minn.) settled down for a bit, getting a double play to end the second inning and striking out a pair back-to-back to end the third after allowing a runner to reach on a fielding error.
but he ran into trouble in the fourth, getting tagged for three more runs to end his morning early. He worked four innings on the day while allowing five earned runs (six total) with three strikeouts to one walk. He took the loss to fall to 0-1 on the season.
meanwhile, mansfield reliever marc baker was excellent as he worked 5.2 innings surrendering only one unearned run in the seventh inning. In that seventh inning, trailing 6-4, junior bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa) led off with a double and would come around to score with two outs later in the inning to bring it to a one run game.
concordia countered in their bullpen with effective pitching from a pair of junior left handers, cody wilcoxson (aurora, colo) and ty hall (spring lake park, minn.). Wilcoxson worked the middle innings as he allowed one run on three hits while striking out four over three full innings. Hall pitched the eighth to close out concordia's day, striking out one in a hitless inning.
baker would end up with the win for mansfield as andy young saved it. Concordia was able to push across another run in the top of the eighth off of young when lippincott produced an rbi single, but the tying runner never advanced to at least second base for the golden bears.
lippincott went 3-5 in the game including his first double of the year while lemke and long each went 2-4 and drove in a run.
the golden bears will be seeking their first win of the season tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. (ct) at henley field against wheeling jesuit (w.va.) university. The game will feature live stats courtesy of wju.
