Softball | 3.21.16
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (6-14) kicks off the NSIC season with six home games this week as they play host to Minnesota State (17-7) on Tuesday before taking on Minnesota Duluth (11-6) on Friday and St. Cloud State (14-11) on Saturday.
Concordia enters league play after a tough weekend in which they went winless in the Apple Market Classic in St. Joseph, Mo. Despite that stretch, the Golden Bear lineup has been potent this season as four different regulars have registered an on-base percentage over .400 with a pair of them putting up a batting average over .400 as well.
Freshman shortstop
Justine Schattner continues to be consistent presence in the middle of the CSP order as her leads the team in hitting (.415), slugging percentage (.646), extra-base hits (10), total bases (42), runs batted in (21) along with being tied for the team lead in home runs (two).
In addition to Schattner's solid performance at the plate, fellow middle infielder
Nicole Thompson has also hit safely at a high clip with a .403 average to go along with being tied for best on the team with four steals. Thompson also ranks second in total bases (30) as well as tied for second in RBI (11) and walks (eight).
Liz Jarosz hasn't been far behind those two as she enters play this week with a .316/.400/.474 slash line while
Jamie Fleischhacker has drawn a team-best 19 walks to add a .477 on-base percentage.
The Golden Bears have had a lot of success under Head Coach
Bob Bartel in conference opening days as they enter the week with a record of 16-8 in 24 opening day games over the past 11 seasons. Concordia hasn't had quite as much success opening up at home as they hold a record of 2-6 on their home field during that span, including mark of 1-3 against Minnesota State.
In the all-time series against the Mavericks, CSP heads into Tuesday's NSIC opener with a record of 15-28. In last season's doubleheader in Mankato, the Golden Bears took the first game 4-2 before falling 7-3 in the second game.
The Bulldogs and Golden Bears have met 46 previous times heading into Friday's doubleheader as UMD has won 25 of the previous 46 meetings. The two schools met four times last year, with the teams playing to a doubleheader split both in non-conference and NSIC play.
Against Saturday's opponent, St. Cloud State, Concordia holds a slight 19-15 edge in the series. SCSU has won the last three meetings, however, including sweeping the doubleheader in St. Cloud last March.
Live stats and live video will be available for all six games at the links listed above.
