SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (12-34, 6-20 NSIC) had a pair of late comeback attempts foiled as they were swept by Augustana (33-16, 20-7 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
 
Augustana 3, Concordia-St. Paul 0
The Golden Bears and Vikings matched zeroes for much of game one until Augie finally broke through against Linzy Heim in the fifth.
 
Maggie Kadrlik broke the deadlock with a two-run shot down the right field line before Shannon Petersen made it back-to-back homers with another shot down the line to bring the game to the final score of 3-0.
 
Heim (8-18) was handed a tough loss as she successfully worked out of trouble in the complete game effort. She shut down Augustana outside of the three-run fifth, allowing a total of eight hits and striking out two.
 
Carley Pickett (20-8) picked up her 20^th win of the season as she threw six shutout innings, allowing five hits with six strikeouts.
 
Karlee Koopman came in and delivered a perfect seventh to collect the save for the Vikings.
 
Carlie Hart led the way offensively for CSP as she picked up two of their five hits, including a double.
 
Liz Jarosz added a double while Nicole Thompson and Jamie Fleischhacker added singles.
 
Despite being held off the board, Concordia threatened in nearly every inning as they put runners in scoring position in five of the seven innings, including the last four.
 
In the seventh, CSP put the tying run in scoring position with runners on second and third with one out, but Koopman retired the final two hitters to end the game.
 
Augustana 8, Concordia-St. Paul 5
After a quiet first few innings, the offenses broke out midway through the second game. The Vikings took advantage of a big five-run fourth to run out to a comfortable lead before holding off the Golden Bears in the seventh.
 
Maggie Kadrlik was a difference-maker for Augie for the second game in a row as she picked up a pair of extra base hits, including her second homer of the day, as she grabbed five of Augustana's six RBI.
 
Liz Jarosz homered for the fourth time on the season for one of her two hits to go along with a single and an RBI groundout.
 
Elena Koncar reached base safely all four times in the loss as she finished with three walks and a single.
 
After picking up the save in game one, Karlee Koopman (12-8) snagged a complete game victory in game two. She allowed a pair of earned runs on six hits and six walks while striking out four.
 
Haley Schanks (4-16) threw a complete game for the Golden Bears as she allowed seven earned runs and struck out two in the loss.
 
The first two and a half featured a few baserunners but no runs until Augustana opened the scoring in their half of the third. The Vikings took advantage of their lone hit in the inning as Carly Peterson led off the inning with a single before being moved up with a sacrifice bunt and a groundout and scoring on a wild pitch.
 
Concordia turned things in their favor in the top of the fourth as Jarosz tied the game with a leadoff home run and Carlie Hart capitalized on a pair of errors to cross the plate and give CSP a 2-1 lead.
 
The lead shifted back to Augustana for good in the bottom of the inning as they need just three hits to push five runs across. A fielder's choice followed by an error brought home the first two runs before a bases-loaded double from Kadrlik cleared the bases and pushed the advantage to 6-2.
 
The Vikings tacked on two more runs to their lead with Kadrlik's homer in the sixth, but Concordia made things interesting in the seventh.
 
Jarosz opened the scoring in the seventh with an RBI groundout before a fielding error allowed another in and an RBI walk for Koncar brought in the third run of the inning. This brought the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs, but a fielder's choice ended the inning and the game as Augie held on for the sweep.
 
CSP closes out the regular season tomorrow as they head to Wayne State.