CLERMONT, Fla. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (5-6) rode their pitching and defense to a pair of wins over Bentley (Mass.) and East Stroudsburg (Pa.) on Monday morning. The Golden Bears knocked off Bentley 4-1 before picking up a 1-0 win over East Stroudsburg.
 
Stephanie Kappes and Haley Schanks combined to throw 13 consecutive scoreless innings after a first inning run was scored by Bentley in the first game. The pair combined to allow six hits and strike out 10 on the day.
 
Nicole Thompson collected five more hits in seven at-bats as she upped her season average to an amazing .590 on the season. Thompson has gone 12-16 (.750) through the first four games of the NTC Spring Games with at least two hits in each game.
 
Concordia-St. Paul 4, Bentley (Mass.) 1
The day got off to a rough start as the Falcons brought home a run on an outfield following a one out triple to make it 1-0. Concordia escaped the inning without any more damage.
 
After threatening the first few innings, Concordia broke through in the third as Jamie Fleischhacker drove home Nicole Thompson and Kelly McKenzie with a single to make it 2-1 in favor of the Golden Bears. Schanks kept the rally going added a pair of insurance runs with a triple that brought home Fleischhacker and Liz Jarosz to push the lead to 4-1
 
Stephanie Kappes (3-4) took it from there as she blanked Bentley the rest of the way. She finished the complete game win with three strikeouts as she allowed the lone run on three hits. The win is Kappes' third in her last four outings as she has a 1.94 ERA during that span.
 
Concordia put runners on second and third in the fourth but were unable to add on any more runs. The Falcons put base runners on in the fourth and the seventh but never really threatened to cut into the CU lead as the Golden Bears closed out the 4-1 victory.
 
Nicole Thompson and Emily Shinn continued their assault on opposing pitchers as they each collected two hits in three at-bats and Zepeda, Fleischhacker, Jarosz, Schanks and McKenzie all added hits as well.
 
Fleischhacker increased her RBI total on the season to 14 with two more in the game.
 
 
Concordia-St. Paul 1, East Stroudsburg 0
Haley Schanks (2-0) picked up right where Kappes left off in game two as she held the Warriors off the scoreboard in the complete game shutout. She allowed only three hits and a walk as she struck out seven in a strong performance. Schanks lowered her ERA to 1.21 on the season in 17.1 innings of work.
 
The game didn't appear to be headed to a 1-0 finish in the first two innings as the two teams combined to strand nine runners in that span. Each team put a runner in scoring position in each of their first two opportunities, including the Golden Bears loading the bases in the top of the second, but there were no runs to show for it.
 
Schanks settled in to retire nine in a row starting with the final out of the second as Concordia shut the door on East Stroudsburg. The Golden Bears finally pushed the first run across in the fourth inning Koncar got things started with a single. Navarae Honoroff then reached on a fielder's choice and stole second to set up a go-ahead RBI single for Kelly McKenzie.
 
East Stroudsburg put up one final threat in the sixth as they put runners on second and third with a hit by pitch and a double with two outs before a groundout back to Schanks ended the inning.
 
Despite runs being hard to come by in the game, Thompson continued her tear to start her career as she collected three more hits in the game. Thompson now has six games with at least three hits and eight multi-hit games in 11 appearances on the year.
 
Teona Zepeda and Elena Koncar also contributed a pair of hits each and Honoroff and McKenzie delivered hits as well for the Golden Bears.
 
Concordia is back in action tomorrow in the NTC Spring Games as they take on Slippery Rock (Pa.) at 2 p.m. and Quincy (Ill.) at 6 p.m.