ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia University softball team (1-4) finished off their action in the Kelly Laas Memorial Invitational with a split against Nebraska-Kearney and Fort Hays State on Friday in the Husky Dome. The Golden Bears slugged their way past UNK in a 15-7 win before falling to FHSU 9-2 in their second game.
 
Concordia-St. Paul 15, Nebraska-Kearney 7 (5 inn.)

The bats broke out in a big way in the first game of the day as Golden Bears bombarded the Lopers by scoring nine runs in the first two innings.
 
After Teona Zepeda, Nicole Thompson and Jamie Fleischhacker all reached base to start the top of the first, Liz Jarosz drew a walk to bring home the first run of the game. Lizzy Swenson followed with a bases-clearing triple that plated three more runs. A miscue on a ball to left field off the bat of Elena Koncar brought in Swenson to make it 5-0 before an out was even recorded. Later in the inning, Zepeda brought in Emily Shinn, who reached on a single, to extend the lead to 6-0 after one half inning.

In the second, it was Shinn and Frankie Munkwitz who drew bases-loaded walks and Kelly McKenzie who drove in a run with a fielder's choice as the lead reached 9-0.

Walks and errors hurt the Golden Bears in the bottom of the second as four runs came across without a single hit in the inning as the Lopers cut the CU lead to 9-4. UNK added another run in the third to shrink the deficit to four.

The Golden Bears weren't going to let this one get away as they added three insurance runs in both the fourth and the fifth, while Nebraska-Kearney added two runs of their own on a Kate Ruwe two-run homer in the fourth, to enact the run-rule in a five inning 15-7 win.

Nicole Thompson delivered a two-run single while Jarosz drew another walk with the fourth and Zepeda added an RBI groundout and Thompson plated two more with a double in the fifth.

All in all, Thompson finished the day 3-5 with a double and four RBI while Lizzy Swenson went 2-4 with a triple and three RBI as the freshmen pair made a big impact. Emily Shinn also had a big game at the plate as she went a perfect 3-3 with a walk and three runs scored.

Haley Schanks got her first career win in the circle as she gave up just one earned run on three hits in her three innings of work.


Fort Hays State 9, Concordia-St. Paul 2
 
The Golden Bears fell into an early hole in their final game of the tournament as the Tigers put three runs on the board with a three-run blast from Tori Beltz in the first inning.
 
That turned out to be enough run support for FHSU pitcher Paxton Duran as she held the Golden Bears scoreless for the first six innings before allowing two runs in the seventh. Duran allowed four hits, two runs, one earned, and struck out 13 while collecting the complete game win for the Tigers.
 
The Tigers tacked on two more runs in the third, including a solo homer for Amanda Voepel, a run in the fourth, a run in the fifth and two more in the seventh to bring them to a total of nine runs.
 
Stephanie Kappes (0-3) got the start in the circle for Concordia and worked three innings while taking the loss. She allowed five runs on seven hits while striking out six in the game. Haley Schanks and Linzy Heim each came on to throw two innings in relief as all three Golden Bear pitchers got work in the game.
 
Offensively, Emily Shinn was a bright spot as she reached base three times, going 2-2 with a walk and a run scored as she finished the day 5-5 with two walks in the two games. Teona Zepeda and Kelly McKenzie each added a hit as they both went 1-3 with RBI singles in the seventh inning.

Concordia has a long layoff before returning to the field on March 4th against Minnesota Duluth at the West St. Paul Dome for a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.