MINOT, N.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (16-29, 10-12 NSIC) was swept by Minot State (29-16, 10-12 NSIC) as they opened up their final road weekend. The Beavers grabbed a 5-0 win in game one before taking game two 6-2.
Minot State 5, Concordia-St. Paul 0The Golden Bears were unable to get much of anything going against Minot State pitcher Mindy Lorimor as she limited CU to just a pair of hits in the game. Lorimor finished off the complete game shutout as she struck out five and walked none.
Stephanie Kappes took the loss in the circle for Concordia as she worked all 6.0 innings, allowing 11 hits and five runs (four earned) while striking out six. She held Minot State to just an unearned run through the first three innings before the Beavers broke through with runs in each of the last three innings.
After Jordan Grant opened their half of the first with a single and stole second, Concordia aided their effort with a miscue that allowed her to score.
That would be all the scoring until Alyssa Cornejo went deep in the fourth to extend the lead to 2-0 for the Beavers. Rachel Burdette tacked on two more runs in the fifth with a two-run single to the gap in right center and Sarah Nicks brought it to the final score of 5-0 with a solo homer in the sixth.
Jamie Fleischhacker provided all of the offense for the Golden Bears as she broke up the perfect game with a two-out single in the fourth and a one-out single in the seventh to pick up the multi-hit game.
Minot State 6, Concordia-St. Paul 2Lorimor (19-11) kept the Golden Bears' bats quiet in game two as she pitched her way to another complete game victory. She gave up two unearned runs on six hits and struck out five for her second win of the day.
Concordia wasted no time in game two to put up their first run of the day as
Teona Zepeda singled and
Nicole Thompson reached on an error before
Liz Jarosz came through with a two-out RBI single to make it 1-0 in favor of CU.
The lead wouldn't last long as back-to-back one out singles coupled with a wild pitch allowed Ashley Hill to deliver a sacrifice fly and Rachel Burdette a run-scoring single to put Minot State on top.
Rylee Cygan added another run in the second as she launched a solo home run to left to give the Beavers a 3-1 advantage.
The Golden Bears put base runners on in every inning but were unable regain the lead as Minot State pulled away. The big inning came in the fifth as the Beavers used an RBI double from Melissa Hill, an RBI single from Ali Cygan and another RBI double from Ashley Hill to build a 6-1 lead.
That would be more than enough for Lorimor as the only other run to cross the plate for CU came off of a pair of errors that allowed Zepeda to reach base and come around to score as Minot State claimed a 6-2 victory.
Kappes (10-17) also made her second start of the day but she lasted just two innings before the Golden Bears went to the bullpen as she took the loss.
Amber Galloway worked the next 2.1 innings before
Haley Schanks worked the final 1.2 innings in relief.
Lizzy Swenson led the Concordia offense in the game as she went 2-3 with a stolen base as she got the start at third base. Zepeda, Thompson, Jarosz and
Emily Shinn all had hits as well.
Concordia will be right back at it tomorrow with another pair of big NSIC games at U-Mary. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.
