ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (26-14, 13-9 NSIC) dropped a pair close losses to Minnesota Duluth (39-11, 19-5) on Sunday afternoon in both the home opener and home finale for the softball team. Concordia lost game one 4-1 before a 3-2 second game loss.

Concordia heads north to St. Cloud State tomorrow for a noon doubleheader in the regular season finale. Concordia has clinched an NSIC Tournament spot as the top-10 teams make the postseason tournament.

The Golden Bears are 13-9 and in eighth place in the conference standings. They are one game ahead of tomorrow's opponent, SCSU, and are two losses ahead of 10th-place U-Mary. They can't move up, as Wayne State is 17-9 and has completed the regular season.

GAME 1: UMD 4, Concordia 1
The Bulldogs scored all four runs in the first inning and all four were unearned as the first two players of the game reached on errors. A two run homer with two outs capped the first inning scoring for UMD.

Ashley Kluever (Cottage Grove, Minn.) settled in after that, allowing only three runners to reach second base the rest of the game as she compiled four strikeouts against one of the top hitting teams in the conference.

Concordia's offense was stymied, however, as Bekah Roth's (Shoreview, Minn.) fifth inning lead-off home run was the only scoring of the day. In fact, Roth's homer broke up UMD pitcher Julia Nealer's no-hit bid. Roth would finish 2-3 in the game, adding a seventh inning single.

Concordia did put together three straight singles in the sixth inning, but left runners on first and third with another thrown out at third.

Nealer picked up the complete game win, improving to 21-4 while Kluever took the loss, falling to 16-8.

GAME 2: UMD 3, Concordia 2
Concordia started strong, scoring in the first inning with an Alicia Meiser (Circle Pines, Minn.) single to start the game. She came in two batters later on Jamie Fleischhacker's (Maplewood, Minn.) RBI single down the left field line.

Roth led-off the second inning with a solo homer, her second of the day and team-high sixth of the season.

Leading 2-0 after two innings, Concordia's bats went silent as Nealer, who threw complete games in both contests, would retire 18 of the final 19 batters of the game, stranding a two-out single in the fourth by Roth as the only other hit. Roth once again went 2-3 and finished the day 4-6 and is now hitting .339.

Stephanie Kappes (Circle Pines, Minn.) was solid in the early going, striking out four through the first three innings. In the fourth inning, she ran into trouble with a pair of one-out singles. After getting a pop-out to the catcher, UMD delivered a go-ahead three-run homer to center field.

The homer was all they needed as Kappes worked shutout fifth and sixth innings.

She took the loss despite going the distance and fell to 10-5. She struck out four and didn't walk anyone, giving up three runs on eight hits.

Nealer picked up her second win of the day, improving to 22-4 with six strikeouts, no walks and just four hits allowed.