WAYNE, Neb. - The Concordia University baseball team (21-25, 12-20 NSIC) closed their season out on Sunday afternoon, dropping a pair of games (6-11 and 2-11) to Wayne State (32-16, 23-9) at Pete Chapman Complex. BOX SCORES: Game 1 | Game 2
Game 1: Wayne State 11, CU 6
Senior right hander Ben Lemke (Rosemount, Minn.) set a school record with his 38th game started as a Golden Bear pitcher. In his career finale, Lemke also was penciled into the lineup in the ninth spot for the first time all year, returning to the two-way player status that he had contributed in as a sophomore and junior, and sparingly as a freshman.
Although Lemke lasted just two innings, he only allowed one earned run (three total) on four hits with a walk and a strikeout. He did take the loss, however, falling to 2-6 on the year. He finishes his career with 183 strikeouts over 195.2 innings and a 14-13 record.
After the 3-0 hole Concordia fell into in the early innings, the offense wasn't able to get back into the game until it was too late.
Concordia got their first run in the fourth inning, a 2-out RBI single by senior Doug Stearns (Minnetonka, Minn.) that drove home senior Bryan Lippincott (Des Moines, Iowa) from second base after a 1-out double to cut the score to 5-1.
But Wayne State put up a 6-run inning in the bottom of the fifth to blow the game open to an 11-1 score.
In the sixth, Concordia rallied for four more runs, sparked by five straight hits to start the inning including an RBI double by senior Logan Bouts (Hopkins, Minn.) and RBI singles by Stearns and senior Troy DuBay (Urbandale, Iowa).
They added another run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter T.J. Obermeyer (Sargent Bluff, Iowa), scoring pinch runner Sean Graff (Harris, Minn.).
Four of Concordia's RBI's came from seniors, as Stearns went 2-for-3 with a pair, Bouts went 1-for-3 with an RBI and DuBay went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Lippincott added another 2-hit game, going 2-for-4 including his 18th double while Bouts' double was his 14th.
Sophomore Drew Turk (Plainfield, Ill.) also had a 2-hit performance, going 2-for-3.
Wayne State was led by Mike Bisenius with a pair of doubles, going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI while the 5-through-9 hitters all had either two or three hits as well.
Mike Frericks improved to 4-0 with the win, pitching 6.0 innings while allowing four earned runs (five total) with four strikeouts and no walks.
Game 2: Wayne State 11, CU 2
Once again, Wayne State jumped out to an early lead, scoring in each of the first three innings and never trailed in the game.
Bisenius hit the first of two homers, a solo shot, in the first and Braulio Acosta added a 2-run single in the second inning to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.
In the top of third, Concordia rallied with a pair of runs, the first coming on an RBI single to right by junior Mick Sawinski. Sawinski moved up to third on a single to right by Lippincott and would score on a balk.
The hit for Lippincott was his second of the game, as he delivered his 19th double of the season in the first inning to tie the single season school record, matching Erik Quarberg's 2006 total.
Wayne State answered back with another run in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-2 lead.
The 4-2 score would hold until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Wildcats blew the lead open wiht a 7-run inning off a pair of Concordia relievers and included a 2-run triple and 2-run homer. The homer was Bisenius' second of the game and 10th of the season. He went 4-for-5 with three RBI in the second game.
Concordia's starter, junior Andy Fagely (Mahtomedi, Minn.) worked the first 5.0 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits while striking out three. He fell to 7-4 on the season.
He was relieved by freshman right hander Nate Reagles (Apple Valley, Minn.) who was excellent in his first two innings of relief. He pitched out of a second and third, no out jam in the sixth, striking out Justin Beranek swinging to end the inning, and a 1-2-3 seventh inning. He ran into trouble to start the eighth, though, and was forced from the game after working 2.1 innings.
Concordia's offense struggled in the middle innings, as Wayne State starter Nick Ragan had retired 15 straight from the end of the third until there were two outs in the eighth inning. With two outs, Obermeyer doubled down the left field line and Sawinski walked, both moving up on a wild pitch to force Ragan from the game.
Taylor Simmonds retired Lippincott as the only batter he'd face with Trevor Reeves finishing off Concordia with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
Ragan improved to 3-1 on the year for Wayne State, pitching 7.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits as he struck out and walked a pair.
In the season finale, Concordia used some lineup adjustments with Graff and Sawinski starting in the middle infield (Graff at SS, Sawinski at 2B) and DuBay moving back behind the plate to catch his final game. Bouts played first base in both contests while Obermeyer came into the game in the fourth inning to play right field, shifting seniorKris Long (Rochester, Minn.) to center.
INDIVIDUAL HISTORICAL NOTES:
Logan Bouts finishes his career having played the fourth most games in school history, 164, starting 162 of them ... he was a .322 hitter ... he finished fourth in career hits (176), sixth in RBI (109) and tied for sixth in doubles (32) while finishing ninth in career walks (63) ... his 169 at bats as a senior were ninth most in a single season ... he set career highs in season average (.355), hits (60), runs (27), RBI (46), doubles (14), OBP (.410) and slugging (.485).
Bryan Lippincott set Concordia single season records in batting average (.494), on base percentage (.594) and finished second in slugging percentage (.864) and is likely to win the NSIC's triple-slash crown for the three categories as well when the final league stats are posted ... the national leader in hitting entering the final weekend, his average dropped below .500 for the first time since April 1st but is still in contention for the national batting title ... he also tied the single season doubles record ... in his career, he played and started in 161 games, setting school records in career average (.428), runs (170), doubles (63), triples (12), intentional walks (16 - 15 coming in 2012) and fielding assists (313) ... he finished second in at bats (594), hits (254), RBI (165), total bases (425), third in stolen bases (41), and fourth in slugging percentage (.715), on base percentage (.497) and home runs (28).
Troy DuBay finished with the fifth most games played in team history, with 162 (153 starts) ... he ranks fifth in career at bats (510) and 10th in career hits (145) and is a career .284 hitter with 25 doubles, 106 runs scored and 73 RBI ... he had a career .369 on base percentage.
Greg Larpenter slugged 17 doubles, tied for the sixth most in a season in club history .. he didn't commit an error all year and threw out five runners from centerfield.
Andy Fagely is up to 163.0 career innings pitched in his three years and has eclipsed 55-innings each of his three seasons including this year's 63.0 inning total ... he set a career-best with seven wins (7-4) which is tied for fourth most in a season ... his career 184.1 innings rank seventh in school history ... his 16 career wins (16-10) are tied for seventh ... he is 10th in career strikeouts (126) and has a 5.96 career ERA in 26 starts (33 appearances).
Doug Stearns finished his four-year Division II baseball career with a .338 average between two years each at Concordia and Southwest Minnesota State ... he set career-highs as a senior in at bats (146), hits (49) and doubles (10).
