SAVAGE, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul softball (5-17, 0-2 NSIC) dropped its Northern Sun openers 6-0 and 8-2 to Minnesota State (18-6, 2-0 NSIC) on Wednesday morning at Savage Sports Center.

GAME 1: MSU 6, Concordia 0
Concordia ran into a hot pitcher in the first game as MSU ace Coley Ries mowed down 17 Golden Bears in a three-hit shutout.

Despite Ries being in charge in the circle, the Golden Bears were able to rally to put the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning, but with two outs were unable to do damage in the situation.

Concordia started the game with an Alicia Meiser single and she stole second base to get into scoring position before Ries started her strikeout run.

She struck out the next nine Concordia hitters and 14 of her first 15 outs were recorded via the strikeout.

MSU's offense got on the board early with a two-run home run by Lindsey Erickson. She added a three-run insurance homer in the seventh and has seven on the season. She drove in five of the six runs in the game with two swings.

Meiser led Concordia's offense going 2-3 with two stolen bases, her 11th and 12th of the season. Bekah Roth also had a hit for Concordia, going 1-3.

The steals by Meiser also made Concordia a perfect 48-for-48 on the year.

Stephanie Kappes took the loss, allowing three earned runs in the complete game falling to 3-11. She struck out five and walked two while allowing eight hits.

GAME 2: MSU 8, Concordia 2
Concordia's incredible stolen base streak came to halt on their 49th attempt when Meiser was thrown out on a pitch out in the third inning.

Also in the third inning, freshman backstop Elena Koncar delivered her second home run of the year to cut the MSU lead in half. MSU had started the scoring with a first inning two-run homer by Kelly Wood.

MSU responded with two runs in the fourth including a bases loaded hit by pitch of Wood for her third RBI, and a three-run sixth inning sparked on an RBI single up the middle by Wood. She drove in four of MSU's eight runs in the second game from the clean-up spot after Erickson provided the punch with five RBI in the first game from the third spot.

Concordia added a run in the seventh as Roth led off the inning with a homer to center field, her second of the year. Concordia then put a pair of runners on with one out before the rally ended.

In game two, Concordia's offense provided more punch than the first game with two homers and a double among its six team hits off MSU starter Brittany Lauterbach.

But Lauterbach went the distance for the win, striking out seven and walking two to improve to 8-4.

Kappes got the ball again in the second game and went all seven innings, allowing three earned runs on 13 hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Kappes pitched to a 3.00 ERA in today's two games as MSU was able to take advantage of Concordia's five total errors (one in game one, four in game two) to score eight unearned runs.

Concordia continues Northern Sun play this weekend with doubleheaders at Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State. Game times, dates and location are to be determined and will be announced on cugoldenbears.com/softball.