ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul head softball coach announced that this weekend's home doubleheaders have been moved to Friday, April 25th and Saturday, April 26th. The Golden Bears will take on Minnesota Duluth at 2 p.m. on Friday before celebrating Senior Day at 1 p.m. on Saturday against St. Cloud State.
Concordia currently sit in the ninth spot in the NSIC with a conference record of 11-15 as they look to lock up a spot in the NSIC Tournament this weekend. The Golden Bears enter the weekend four games behind U-Mary for the eighth spot while they are percentage points ahead of tenth-place Upper Iowa and a game ahead of eleventh-place MSU Moorhead. The NSIC Tournament is set to begin next Thursday, May 1st with the top ten teams in the league earning spots. The teams ranked 7-10 will play opening round games at 10:00 a.m. next Thursday.
CU is coming off a midweek split with Southwest Minnesota State in which they took the first game 2-1 and lost the second 5-2. JuniorÂ
Stephanie Kappes (8-18) was excellent in the circle for CU as she held the Mustangs to one run on seven hits in 10.0 innings of work as she started in the first game and pitched in relief in the second game. She struck out 12 while walking just two on the day.
On Sunday, the Golden Bears will be honoring seniors
Bekah Roth and
Tessa Ewert in their final home games in Concordia uniforms.
Roth, a two-time NSIC All-Academic performer (2014 All-Academic has not been released yet), is a career .314 hitter in 171 games for the Golden Bears. She has 160 hits, 15 home runs and 112 RBI while reaching base at a .368 clip and slugging .467 in her four seasons in navy and gold. Her 112 RBI rank seventh in school history while career batting average and on-base percentage rank 12th. She has enjoyed a career year in her senior season as she ranks 14th in the NSIC with a .377 average, fifth with 58 hits and eighth with 40 RBI splitting time between second base, shortstop and even catcher.
Ewert, also a two-time NSIC All-Academic performer, has played in 146 career games, starting 132, at CU. She has a career .220/.309/.346 slash line with 12 home runs and 46 RBI while drawing 46 walks. She has a .228 average with three homers and 13 RBI in 44 games between first base, third base and DP.
Minnesota Duluth heads into the final weekend in seventh place with a record of 9-6 in NSIC play. The Bulldogs are coming off a sweep of MSU Moorhead on Wednesday after taking three of four over the weekend against Minot State and U-Mary.
St. Cloud State holds a record of 7-14-1 and are in 13th place as they look to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. They picked up a crucial sweep of Northern State on Tuesday after losing three of four to U-Mary and Minot State.
