GAMEDAY COVERAGE: SUN: LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO | MON: LIVE STATS || UPDATED SOFTBALL RECORD BOOK (thru 4/21 games)
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (26-12, 13-7 NSIC) takes on the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (36-10, 16-4) and the St. Cloud State Huskies (27-20, 12-8) for their final pair of regular season doubleheaders on Sunday and Monday. Sunday's doubleheader with UMD is at Carlander Field and starts at 1 p.m., and Monday's doubleheader is in St. Cloud and begins at noon.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
Concordia is 26-12 overall and 13-7 in the NSIC in seventh place. Both St. Cloud State (12-8) and Upper Iowa (11-7, NSIC) stand a game behind CU in the battle for the two final playoff spots. Upper Iowa finishes their schedule with a pair of doubleheaders with Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston SCSU plays Minnesota State on Sunday before facing with the Bears and Huskies to finish the regular season. The top-10 teams make the NSIC Softball Tournament, which will be played in Rochester, Minn.
BARTEL REACHES 300 CAREER WINS
Concordia head coach
Bob Bartel collected his 300th win in Thursday's split with SMSU. He's 300-181 in his ninth year as Golden Bear head softball coach.
AVERAGE, ON-BASE and SLUGGING CAREER NOTES
Concordia has a number of individuals climbing the record list in the softball program. Offensively,
Alicia Meiser and
Brynn Larsen's current .385 career averages would be high enough to set program records, ahead of
Erin Tjornhom's .374 mark set last year. They are also 1-2 in career OBP, with Meiser leading at .451 with Larsen at .429 just ahead of Tjornhom's record .424. Larsen's career .555 slugging percentage trails only Tjornhom's .582 mark.
AVERAGE, ON-BASE and SLUGGING SEASON NOTES
This year, Larsen's .444 average (48-108) ranks ahead of Carr Rindal's 1992 mark of .443 (47-106) for the best mark in school history. Meiser's .392 average (47-120) ranked eight for a season. Larsen's .488 OBP trails Rindal (.500) while Meiser is not far behind at .455 which would be fifth if the season ended today. Larsen's .713 slugging percentage is the third highest season total, trailing Sami Mattson (.763 in 2011) and Kelli Strehlo (.746 in 1998) while
Missie Feuerbach is just outside the top-10 at .529.
SPEED KILLS
Meiser's 33 stolen bases puts her at second most in school history and also rank eighth in the nation with 0.89 steals per game. In just two seasons, Meiser has swiped 6 bases which is the third most in a career. She has a ways to go to catch second place, as Natalie Mast had 101 steals from 2006-09 and
Katie Anderson holds the record of 108 (2009-12). Mast holds the single-season record of 43 set in 2008.
DOUBLE DOWN
While the Golden Bears won't be setting any home run records this week, the sluggers are led by doubles hitters
Missie Feuerbach and
Brynn Larsen. The pair, who bat back-to-back in the order, each have 12 doubles this year which is tied for the 10th most in a season already with plenty of games remaining on the schedule. But they are eight off Amanda Yurek's record 20 set in 2006.
MORE CAREER OFFENSIVE NOTES
Brynn Larsen ranks third in career triples (10), seventh in runs (101) and eighth in stolen bases (31).
Missie Feuerbach ranks seventh in doubles (32), sixth in home runs (18) and 10th in RBI (93).
KLUEVER'S SHUTOUTS & STRIKEOUTS
Senior
Ashley Kluever ranks third in the country with 10 shutouts on the season, adding two more to her season ledger last weekend on the same day at Wayne State. She also ranks 17th in the nation in strikeouts per seven innings (8.58), which is the second highest rate in program history trailing only Kristen Schmidt's 2006 campaign (8.84). Kluever holds hitters to a .217 season average, which would rank as the eigth lowest in program history for a season and her 16-7 record has produced the ninth-most wins in a season and her 10 shutouts are second in a single season.
Kluever is second in school history in wins with a 67-36 record, fourth in career opponent average (.244), second in strikeouts per seven innings (6.15), second in strikeouts (566) and second in innings pitched (644.2) in her four years.
SERIES HISTORY: CU 17, UMD 18
Concordia is 17-18 all-time against UMD and 5-5 against the Bulldogs at home … Concordia took the final two meetings of the three total last season … Concordia is 6-10 against UMD in conference games.
SERIES HISTORY: CU 16, SCSU 12
Concordia has 16-12 mark against SCSU in series history … CU is 8-2 against the Huskies in St. Cloud … St. Cloud took both meetings in St. Paul last season … Concordia is 5-3 against SCSU in NSIC play.
