CLERMONT, Fla. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (3-6) picked up a split against California (Pa.) and Kutztown (Pa.) on Sunday afternoon at the NTC Spring Games. The Golden Bears knocked off the California Vulcans 6-3 in the first game before falling just short in a 9-7 loss to the Kutztown Golden Bears.
Concordia-St. Paul 6, California (Pa.) 3Concordia broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning with a run and added two more insurance runs in the seventh to pull away with a 6-3 win over the Vulcans.
Nicole Thompson was a major threat in the second spot in the lineup as she collected four hits in four at-bats while adding two steals and scoring twice. The freshman now has four games with at least three hits and five multi-hit games to start her career in navy and gold.
Stephanie Kappes (2-4) picked up her second win of the season as she limited Cal (Pa.) to five hits and three runs while striking out four in the complete game effort.
The top of the order got things going quickly as
Teona Zepeda and
Nicole Thompson both singled to open the game. Jamie Fleishhacker followed with an RBI groundout to bring Zepeda home in the first.
Kelly McKenzie got another rally going in the third with a leadoff double and Thompson added her second bunt single to put runners on the corners with one out. Fleischhacker then drove home her second run of the game with a fielder's choice and
Liz Jarosz brought home Thompson with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
Lindsay Reicoff evened the score in the bottom of the third for the Vulcans with a three run shot which represented the only runs that Kappes would allow in the game.
Concordia finally broke the tie in the sixth as Jarosz reached on an error, stole second, and scored on a pinch-hit RBI single for
Sarah Kivisto. Fleischhacker added her third RBI of the game and 11
th of the season with a double in the seventh and Jarosz picked up and RBI single of her own as Concordia extended the lead to its final mark at 6-3.
Kutztown 9, Concordia-St. Paul 7The second game of the day got off to a wild start with 13 runs being scored by the two teams in the first two innings before Kutztown eventually pulled out the win with a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh.
Kutztown jumped all over the Golden Bears early as they scored a run in the first before piling on six more in the second to jump out to a huge 7-0 lead through the first inning and a half. KU managed to put seven runs on the board in that span despite collecting just three hits. A bases loaded walk brought in the first run before all three hits in the second brought in two runs apiece to bring the total to seven runs.
Concordia struck back in their half of the second as they put up a six-spot of their own on four hits. CU managed to push across all of their runs on a series of botched attempts to retire runners at the plate and two sacrifice flies with a
Nicole Thompson RBI single sandwiched in.
With the deficit remaining at 7-6 heading into the bottom of the fifth,
Elena Koncar completed the comeback with a solo blast, her first of the season. Concordia rallied in the sixth with back-to-back hits to lead off the inning but were unable to push the go-ahead run across.
Kutztown grabbed the lead for good with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh off the bat of Krista Schauder as she scored the first runs off of
Linzy Heim, who came in in relief during the second inning.
The Golden Bears threatened again in the seventh as they loaded the bases with one out but a strikeout and a fielder's choice silenced the rally and gave Kutztown the win.
Elena Koncar had a big game at the plate as she fell a triple short of the cycle, going 3-4 with a double and a homer in the game. Thompson stayed hot with three hits in five trips and
Jamie Fleischhacker and
Kelly McKenzie each added two hits apiece.
Heim (0-2) pitched 5.2 solid innings as she gave up just the two runs on four hits while striking out five in the loss.
