ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (12-32, 6-18 NSIC) finished off their regular season home slate on Wednesday afternoon with a pair of losses to Sioux Falls (31-16, 15-9 NSIC) at Carlander Field.
Sioux Falls 9, Concordia-St. Paul 3
The Cougars took advantage of the long ball as they scored eight of their nine runs via the home run with Betsy Thomas and Shannon Daly each hitting two apiece.
The duo of Thomas and Daly combined to drive in all nine runs with five of their six hits going for extra bases.
Liz Jarosz collected a team-best two hits while
Jamie Fleischhacker hit her fourth home run and drew a run-scoring walk for the Golden Bears.
Breanna Black (16-7) picked up the win as she worked the first four innings before Alyson Netty grabbed her third save in a three-inning save.
Linzy Heim (8-17) was the losing pitcher for CSP as she struck out four in her five innings of work before McKenna Giese worked the last two innings.
The Cougars jumped on the Golden Bears right away in the first as Shannon Daly and Alyson Netty hit back-to-back singles with two outs before Betsy Thomas launched a homer out to left to quickly make it 3-0.
CSP got one back in the bottom of the inning in the form of a line drive RBI double to the gap in right center, but Cougars were right back at it in the top of the third. A Brooke Stetzler bunt single set up a Shannon Daly run-scoring double before Thomas sent her second home run over the wall in center to extend the lead to 6-1.
Sioux Falls tacked on two more in the fifth as Danielle Walker drew a walk and Daly hit one off the Gangelhoff Center in right field as they pushed their lead to seven.
Jamie Fleischhacker provided a bright spot in the bottom of the fifth as she led off the inning and drove a homer out to left center to pull the Golden Bears a run closer.
Concordia had their best threat of the game in the sixth as they loaded the bases with nobody out, but just a run crossed the plate as Fleischhacker's RBI walk brought home the only run.
Daly put a bow on a tremendous game as she homered for the second time in the seventh, her third extra base hit, as she finished the game a perfect 4-4 with four batted in.
Sioux Falls 6, Concordia-St. Paul 0
Game two was much more of a pitcher's duel as the score sat at 2-0 through the first six innings before the Cougars tacked on four runs late to close it out.
Kerrigan Hoshaw (14-9) and Breanna Black combined for the shutout for Sioux Falls as Hoshaw worked the first four innings for the win while Black worked the final three for the save.
Haley Schanks (4-15) pitched much better than her final line indicated as she allowed four earned runs on nine hits while striking out five in the complete game effort.
Nicole Thompson picked up the lone extra base hit for CSP while
Carlie Hart,
Haley Schanks and
Lizzy Swenson all added singles.
After three scoreless innings, USF final broke through in the fourth with a solo home to center field off the bat of Alyson Netty.
The Golden Bears put themselves in a great position to score in their half of the inning as
Carlie Hart singled and
Haley Schanks walked before they moved up on a sacrifice bunt from
Lizzy Swenson. After a strikeout,
Justine Schattner walked to load the bases, but Hoshaw coaxed a comebacker to end the inning and the rally.
Both pitchers went back to putting up zeroes until Shannon Daly hit her third home run of the day with a blast to left in the sixth to double the Cougar lead.
The Cougars added four insurance runs in the seventh as Leah Husemoen stepped in an delivered a long three-run home run, her first of the season, to push it to 5-0 before Sioux Falls capitalized on a CSP miscue to bring it to 6-0.
CSP closes out the regular season this weekend as they travel to Augustana and Wayne State.
