ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (6-19, 0-2 NSIC) dropped their first two NSIC games as they were swept by St. Cloud State (17-11, 2-0 NSIC) in the Husky Dome on Saturday afternoon. The Huskies grabbed game one by a score of 8-5 and game two by a score of 2-1.
The Huskies extended their winning streak to three in the all-time series against the Golden Bears as they shrunk the gap to 19-15 in favor of CU overall. The Huskies' pitching staff limited the damage against the Golden Bears as they struck out 19 and allowed just two earned runs in 14.0 innings of work.
St. Cloud State 8, Concordia-St. Paul 5The Golden Bears found themselves in an early 6-0 hole and battled back to pull within three but were unable to get over the hump as St. Cloud State claimed the victory.
The Huskies got on the board in the first on a Concordia fielding error that brought home a pair of runs after a walk and double with one out put two in scoring position. They added a third run in the second on a sacrifice bunt that resulted in a runner from second base coming all the way around to score.
Concordia starter
Haley Schanks pitched around a leadoff single in the third but SCSU was right back at it in the fourth as they tacked on three more runs. A triple, a double and a single brought home two runs and another came home on a double steal to bring it to 6-0.
The Golden Bears broke through in the top of the fifth as a rally with two down resulted in
Sarah Kivisto coming in on a passed ball and
Teona Zepeda scoring on an error off the bat of
Nicole Thompson.
St. Cloud State responded with two runs of their own as the leadoff hitter doubled and came around to score on two passed balls and Hodges added an RBI single to push the lead back to six at 8-2.
It wasn't over for the Golden Bears from there as they managed to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the sixth but they were unable to get the big hit to pull even or take the lead.
Linzy Heim,
Liz Jarosz and
Emily Shinn loaded the bases with three straight singles and
Amber Galloway reached on an error to bring home the first run of the inning before the first out was recorded. After a strikeout,
Kelly McKenzie was hit by a pitch, bringing in the second run. A force out at the plate resulted in the second out before a
Nicole Thompson single cut the deficit to three. A strikeout ended the inning and the rally as CU trailed 8-5 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Despite a leadoff single in the seventh, Concordia was unable to get things going as SCSU closed out the 8-5 win.
As a team, Concordia collected eight hits in the game, led by Zepeda, Thompson and Heim all delivered a pair of hits in the loss.
Schanks (2-4) took the loss in the circle as she worked the first four innings before Heim came in to work the final two.
St. Cloud State 2, Concordia-St. Paul 1Runs were at a premium in the second game of the day as both teams were held off the board through the opening five innings before Concordia scored a single run in the sixth and St. Cloud State scored single runs in the sixth and seventh to claim a 2-1 win.
Stephanie Kappes (3-11) was excellent in the early going as she allowed a pair of hits and didn't walk a batter through the first five innings before surrendering two runs in the final two innings. She allowed three hits and struck out three in the complete game loss.
Senna Francesconi (5-5) matched Kappes' effort as she allowed the lone run and struck out nine as she worked around seven hits and four walks to pick up the complete game win.
Concordia threatened throughout as they put runners on in each of the first five innings of the game before finally breaking through with a run in the sixth. They put runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth but were unable to push any of them across.
In the sixth,
Kelly McKenzie drew a walk to open the inning and moved up to second on a passed ball but was left there as the next two hitters were retired.
Teona Zepeda delivered the big blow as she doubled to drive in McKenzie and put the Golden Bears on top 1-0.
The lead wouldn't last long as the Huskies answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth. With one down and runners on the corners, Alyssa Coletto hit a sacrifice fly to even it up. Kappes retired the next batter as the two teams headed to the seventh with a tie score.
Things unraveled in the St. Cloud State half of the seventh as the leadoff hitter was hit by a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt and a pop out to second base, the next three hitters all drew walks to force home the winning run as the Huskies celebrated a walk-off win and a sweep of the day.
Concordia will look to pick up their first win of the conference season and snap their 13-game losing streak on Monday as they travel to Minnesota Duluth for a doubleheader. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
