Softball | 4.1.16
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (8-20, 2-6 NSIC) had their weekend series pushed back a day as the Golden Bears will now travel to Minnesota Crookston (7-19, 1-5 NSIC) on Sunday and Bemidji State (20-8, 3-2 NSIC) on Monday. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. on Sunday and 1 p.m. on Monday.
The Golden Bears are coming off a split with Southwest Minnesota State as CSP bounced back from an 11-0 five-inning loss to pick up a 5-2 win in game two.
Justine Schattner and
Linzy Heim led the way in the win as Schattner homered and drove in five while Heim allowed just two runs in the complete game win.
Since the beginning of conference play over a week and a half ago,
Nicole Thompson has been a major catalyst near the top of the Golden Bear order with 12 hits in 25 at-bats while also drawing three walks, scoring five times and driving in three. Her .480 batting average ranks in a tie of seventh in league play while her .536 on-base percentage ranks in a tie for third. Overall, she ranks eighth in the league in hitting and 12
th in on-base percentage.
A bright spot in the circle over the past few weeks has been junior pitcher
Linzy Heim. In her last four starts, Heim has delivered an impressive 2.75 ERA as she has thrown complete games in each outing. The junior as limited opponents to five earned runs or less in each start to help drop her season ERA by over a run in that span. Her best outing came in a shutout win over St. Cloud State back on Saturday, March 26
th as she gave up just three hits and struck out a career-best eight strikeouts.
The Golden Bears have been nearly perfect in the all-time series with Minnesota Crookston as they have won 32 of the 33 meetings against the Golden Eagles. CSP has won the last 29 meetings in a row with the only win for UMC coming back in 2002 in the form of a 2-1 win. The two schools met in non-conference action earlier this season as Concordia set the DII-era record with 25 runs scored to claim a 25-8 win in five innings.
Concordia has been nearly as effective against Bemidji State as they have gone 32-4 in 36 previous meetings. The Golden Bears had a seven-game winning streak over BSU snapped earlier this season as the Beavers took the first of two non-conference contests by a score of 3-1. CSP bounced back the next day to defeat Bemidji State 11-8.
Live stats will be available for both doubleheaders and live video will be available against Bemidji State on Monday.
