ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (7-17, 1-3 NSIC) rode an excellent outing from Linzy Heim to claim a split at St. Cloud State (17-14, 3-3 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at the Husky Dome.
 
Concordia-St. Paul 2, St. Cloud State 0
Linzy Heim (5-7) stepped into the circle in game one and claimed the first NSIC win of the year with a tremendous effort for the Golden Bears. The junior shut out the Huskies as she limited them to just three hits and she picked up her second career shutout. The shutout was the first for the team since CSP's 7-0 win over UMC on April 4^th of last season. Heim also set a career high in strikeouts as she struck out eight St. Cloud State hitters while walking three.
 
Concordia registered just three hits of their own at the plate, but it proved to be more than enough as they manufactured runs in the first and the third to build the decisive advantage.
 
The Golden Bears wasted little time to get on the board as Jamie Fleischhacker got things going in the bottom of the first before Nicole Thompson drew a walk to put a pair of runners on before an out was recorded. After a fielder's choice loaded the bases and a strikeout brought up Kelly McKenzie, McKenzie hit a grounder to short that allowed the first run to cross the plate. That would be it in the first, however, as another groundout ended the inning.
 
After a few quiet innings, Concordia added an insurance run in their half of the third to make it 2-0. The top of the order did the damage again as Fleischhacker drew a walk before advancing to second on a Thompson bunt. This time Justine Schattner came up with the big hit as she singled up the middle to bring home Fleischhacker.
 
The Huskies put up their best threat in the first with a pair of walks to start the game but Heim stranded both as she locked in from there. She allowed singles in the third, fourth and fifth but never faced many real threats as she cruised to the win.
 
In addition to the singles from Fleischhacker and Schattner, Carly Hart also added a fourth inning single to right to round out the offense for CSP.
 
St. Cloud State 5, Concordia-St. Paul 3 (9 inn.)
The Golden Bears followed the script of game one early in the second game as they once again took an early 1-0 lead in the first. Nicole Thompson delivered a one-out bunt single in the first before Kelly McKenzie drove in the first run of the game for the second straight game, this time using a two-out single to center to bring in Thompson.
 
Concordia added to their lead in the fourth as Sarah Kivisto led off the inning with a single before Jamie Fleischhacker stepped up with two down and launched her second homer of the season and 10^th of her career over the wall in seven.
 
The Huskies finally snapped CSP's 11 inning scoreless streak to begin the doubleheader in the fifth as a pair of singles put runners on first and third which set up a double steal attempt in which Concordia recorded the out at second and allowed the run to score.
 
St. Cloud State evened the score an inning later as Rebecca Harps singled to lead off the inning and Jessica Goerger hit one out to right for a two-run homer of her own.
 
After both teams went quietly in the seventh to push the game to extras, the Huskies put up a threat in the eighth with a pair of singles to begin the inning before Concordia worked out of the jam.
 
SCSU threatened again in the ninth, but this time the Golden Bears were unable to work out of it as Rebecca Harps drove an RBI double to put the Huskies up 4-3. Jessica Goerger added another RBI hit with a single one batter later to extend the lead to 5-3.
 
Fleischhacker and Thompson tried to get a two-out rally going in their half of the ninth as Fleischhacker drew a walk and Thompson doubled, but a ground out to the pitcher stopped the comeback attempt as St. Cloud State salvaged the split with a 5-3 final.
 
Haley Schanks was solid in the circle as she allowed three run on eight hits in six innings of work to collect a no decision for CSP. Heim (5-8) came in to work the final three innings as she allowed a pair of runs on four hits to take the loss.
 
Thompson paced the Golden Bears with three hits in the game while Fleischhacker also registered a multi-hit game as she went 2-4 with a walk.
 
Concordia will be back in action on their home field on Monday and Tuesday as they host Minnesota Duluth and Southwest Minnesota State.