ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (7-19, 1-5 NSIC) returned home to Carlander Field and dropped a pair of games to Minnesota Duluth (15-8, 4-2 NSIC) on Monday afternoon.
 
Minnesota Duluth 6, Concordia-St. Paul 2
The Bulldogs used a four-run fourth to build the decisive cushion as they rode the arm of Sam Hartmann to victory in game one.
 
Hartmann (6-4) came within two outs of picking up the shutout as she allowed a two-run homer off the bat of Lizzy Swenson in the seventh before closing out the complete game. She held CSP to just the two runs on six hits as she walked one and struck out five.
 
No Golden Bear registered more than a hit in the first game as Swenson's two-run shot proved to be the only run-scoring hit. Swenson also drew a walk as she was the only CSP player to reach safely twice.
 
After two scoreless innings to begin the game, the Bulldogs jumped on the board with four in the third. Three straight singles to start the inning loaded the bases before Natalie Wright drove in two with the fourth single in a row. The next at-bat, UMD successfully executed the first and third double steal to bring home another run and Becky Smith singled home the fourth run of the inning.
 
A two-out error in the fifth extended the inning for UMD before another double steal attempt allowed the fifth run to cross the plate before the runner on first was tagged out to end the inning.
 
Sami Sadler pushed the lead to 6-0 in the sixth as she drove home Ashley Lewis, who led off the inning with a single before moving to third on a Hannah Bloch base hit.
 
That was more than enough for Hartmann as Concordia finally got to her in the seventh as Elena Koncar singled before coming home on Swenson's opposite field home run, but they were unable to get any more as they dropped the opener 6-2.
 
Linzy Heim (5-9) picked up a complete game loss for the Golden Bears as she allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits while striking out a pair.
 
Minnesota Duluth 21, Concordia-St. Paul 10 (9 inn.)
While the first game was fairly pedestrian, the second game was anything but. The two teams combined for 31 runs on 33 hits in an extra inning affair, while UMD scored an incredible 11 runs in the ninth to pick up the win.
 
Ashley Lewis, who entered the game with seven RBI on the year, drove in a staggering eight runs as she went 5-6 with two homers in a huge game for the Bulldogs.
 
Becky Smith wasn't far behind as she fell a triple short of the cycle, going 3-7 with a homer, a double, four runs driven in and four runs scored. Natalie Wright also chipped in four hits and four runs while Ashley Schilling collected three hits and scored three times.
 
For Concordia, Carlie Hart had a strong game with two hits in three at-bats as she drove in three and was also hit by a pitch. Nicole Thompson added two hits and two RBI while Justine Schattner delivered a pair of hits and a pair of runs as well.
 
Liz Jarosz hit her second homer of the year in the loss while Lizzy Swenson homered for the second game in a row and third time this season to pull into the team lead in homers on the season.
 
UMD jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on an RBI double from Smith before adding two more in the third to take a 3-0 lead.
 
Concordia answered in their half of the inning as a Lizzy Swenson RBI groundout put CSP on the board before Carly Hart evened it up with a bases loaded single that scored two.
 
Minnesota Duluth went back out front with a Lewis RBI single in the fourth, but the Golden Bears erased that deficit and took their first lead of the day with five in the fifth. Hart tied the score with another RBI hit before pinch hitter Emily Shinn drew a bases loaded walk to make it 5-4 in favor of CSP. Fleischhacker followed with another bases loaded walk before Thompson closed out the scoring in the inning with a two-run single to make it 8-4.
 
That lead didn't last long as UMD came back with a six-run sixth to jump back out front at 10-8. Wright and Smith each brought a run home with a single before Lewis tied it up with a two-RBI single. Bloch put the finishing touches on the six-run outburst as she launched a two-run shot to left to put Minnesota Duluth on top.
 
The Golden Bears responded with two homers of their own in their half of the sixth as Jarosz and Swenson went back-to-back to put both teams in double digits at 10-10.
 
That score held until the ninth when the Bulldogs exploded for 11 runs to put the game out of reach. Smith homered to center to give them the lead and Lewis hit two home runs while picking up four of her eight RBI in the inning to put the icing on the cake.
 
Concordia went quietly in the ninth as UMD claimed the 21-10 extra-inning win and the sweep of CSP.
 
Heim (5-10) took the loss as she with 3.1 innings in relief of starter Haley Schanks while freshman Valerie Hohol (1-0) picked up her first career win for UMD.
 
Concordia is back to regularly scheduled action tomorrow as they play host to Southwest Minnesota State in another NSIC doubleheader. The Golden Bears enter the day with a record of 19-23 in 42 previous meetings with the Mustangs. The two teams split the doubleheader in Marshall last season.