ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University softball team (12-20, 7-5 NSIC) will open their home slate with an NSIC doubleheader with #19 Winona State (22-6, 5-3 NSIC) on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Carlander Field.
Last week, Concordia-St.Paul finished an even 3-3 on the week with doubleheaders against Sioux Falls, Northern State and MSU Moorhead. The Golden Bears got off to a slow start as they were swept by USF on Thursday. CU rallied from a 6-0 deficit in game one to cut it to 6-4 with the tying run on second in seventh, but fell just short in the loss. Game two was all Cougars as they jumped on the Golden Bears with eight runs in the first three innings. Concordia collected only one hit in the 8-0, five inning loss. They pulled their record even on the week with a sweep of NSU on Saturday. The Golden Bears took a pair of low scoring games with a 3-1 win in game one and a 3-2 win in game two. On Sunday, the Golden Bears split with MSU Moorhead in a series played in Aberdeen due to field conditions in Moorhead. The Dragons won game one 1-0 on a walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh and the Golden Bears used a pair of runs in the sixth to take game two 2-1.
Freshman pitcher
Linzy Heim was thrust into a bigger role this week as fellow pitcher
Stephanie Kappes was out of action due to illness and she responded with perhaps her best stretch in the circle of her young career. She appeared in all six games, starting five, while collecting a record of 3-2 with a 2.16 ERA in 35.2 innings of work. She allowed just 11 earned runs and walked only five while striking out 26. She was especially solid over the weekend as she allowed just five runs in her four consecutive complete games. Heim has been stellar since the conference season has began as her 48.2 innings rank second and 1.87 ERA ranks sixth in the NSIC during that time.
Senior second baseman
Bekah Roth ranks seventh in the NSIC in hits with 39 and RBI with 29 while her team-leading .364 average ranks 16th in the league. She is hitting an even better .436 in NSIC play, which ranks 13th.
Winona State is coming off a 3-3 week as well in which they split with #13 Augustana, got swept by Minot State and swept U-Mary.
The Warriors lineup features four hitters with at least 20 at-bats that are hitting over .400 on the season. Freshman Lexi Perez leads the team with a .413 average while Shannon Nelson is hitting .412 and Morgan Lintz and Cydnei Gunderson are hitting .400.
The Golden Bears were only able to play two games at Carlander Field last year, losing a doubleheader to UMD, but they went 10-4 on their home field in 2012.
They will continue conference play this weekend as they cap off the six-game homestand with doubleheaders against U-Mary and Minot State.
