ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia University softball team (6-11) wraps up their non-conference schedule this weekend as they travel to the Missouri Western Invitational for six games. The Golden Bears are set to play a pair of games each day from Friday to Sunday against six different MIAA opponents.
In total, eight MIAA schools and seven NSIC schools will be taking the field at the Heritage Park Softball Complex over the three days.
Concordia opens up against Missouri Southern State at 10 a.m. and #16 Central Oklahoma at 2 p.m. on Friday as they gets things started for the weekend. CU then takes on Missouri Western State at noon and #11 Emporia State at 4 p.m. on Saturday before concluding action on Sunday against Northwest Missouri State at 11 a.m. and Washburn at 1 p.m.
The Golden Bears enter the weekend with a combined record of 16-21 against their opponents all-time. Concordia has faced Missouri Western State the most out of any of the teams as they have gone 8-10 against the Griffons and they hold a 4-8 record against the Hornets of Emporia State. The amount of exposure shrinks after those two as CU holds a 3-2 record against Washburn, a 1-1 record against Missouri Southern State and will be facing Central Oklahoma and Northwest Missouri State for the first time.
Concordia is coming off going 4-6 in the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla. last week which saw several strong individual performances. As a team, the Golden Bears hit .304 on the trip while holding their opponents over 30 points lower at .271.
Nicole Thompson continued to collect hits in bunches as she collected 17 hits in 37 at-bats to move her season average to .467 to go along with a team-best 12 runs scored and 10 steals.
Jamie Fleischhacker also had a very strong week as she drove in 10 more runs, giving her 18 RBI on the season, and picked up 12 hits to improve her batting average to .373 on the year.
Elena Koncar supplied the power for the Golden Bears as she hit both home runs the team had on the trip as she slugged .613 and hit .387 over the 10 games. After a slow start to the season,
Liz Jarosz really turned things on over the final six games as she hit .381 (8-21) with a double, a triple and six runs scored in that span.
Live stats will be available for Saturday afternoon's game against Missouri Western State with results tentatively set to be available on cugoldenbears.com shortly after the completion of each game.
