bemidji, minn. - after a pair of 10-run losses in their home opener on wednesday, the concordia baseball team came back and spoiled bemidji state's home opener this afternoon at bsu baseball field, defeating the beavers 17-7 in the first game of a four game nsic weekend series. game 1 box
the 17-run output was more than double their total of their last four games combined, a stretch in which concordia still managed to go 2-2.
all nine hitters had at least two hits and every player scored in the game.
senior catcher sam fagely (mahtomedi, minn.) broke out by going 3-5 with two doubles, a home run and four rbi. He now has three doubles while the home run was his first of the year.
concordia jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning and batted around in the inning with five hits. In the bottom of the inning, junior right hander ben lemke (rosemount, minn.) plowed through the beavers with a perfect inning to get things going on the right foot.
but in the second, bemidji state came alive on their home field with a four run inning to take the lead. Concordia responded in the third with a two run homer by fagely in a three run inning to briefly take a 6-4 lead. Bsu tied the score in the bottom of the inning, though, with two more runs.
in the fourth, junior third baseman bryan lippincott (des moines, iowa) led off with his second home run of the season. He extended his hitting streak to 10 games and recorded his eighth multi-hit game of the year while lifting his league leading batting average to .500. He also scored three times, drove in three and doubled for the seventh time this year.
concordia and lemke didn't relinquish the lead the rest of the way as lemke settled into a groove. It helped when the offense scored six runs in the fifth inning to blow the game open and lemke went the distance on the hill, saving the bullpen for the four game series.
he improved to 2-0 on the year, striking out six without walking anyone. Only five of the seven runs were earned as he hurled 92 pitches in efficient fashion with 63 for strikes.
at the top of the order, junior shortstop troy dubay (urbandale, iowa) extended his hitting streak to seven games by going 3-6 with a pair of runs scored. Freshman elliot powell (minnetonka, minn.) and sophomore j.t. Schneider (oak creek, wis.) each had three hit games from the bottom of the order as well.
game two is in progress and can be heard live through bsu's gameday live website.
