ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (8-13) kicks off the NSIC season with six games this week as they travel to #23 Minnesota State (22-4) on Tuesday before returning home to host Wayne State (6-18) on Saturday and Augustana (15-7) on Saturday.
Concordia enters league play coming off a 6-5 week in Florida and a three game winning streak. The Golden Bear won four of their last five games down in Florida, outscoring their opponents 26-9 in the final five games. Entering NSIC play, Concordia is currently ranked second in the conference with a .325 team batting average.
Sophomore shortstop
Justine Schattner continues to be consistent at the plate as leads the team in hitting (.438), slugging percentage (.641), extra-base hits (9), total bases (41), and runs batted in (16). Her .438 batting average currently ranks eighth in the NSIC.
In addition to Schattner's solid performance at the plate, fellow middle infielder
Nicole Thompson has also hit safely at a high clip with a .414 average to go along with being best on the team with seven steals and hits with 29. Thompson also ranks second in total bases (32). Her 29 hits currently ranks seventh in the NSIC.
Carlie Hart hasn't been far behind those two as she enters play this week with a .397/.476/.435 slash line. Hart played very well down Florida as she finished the trip with a team leading .421 batting average, 16 hits, and five doubles and tied for third with five RBI.
The Golden Bears have had a lot of success under Head Coach
Bob Bartel in conference opening days as they enter the week with a record of 16-10 in 26 opening day games over the past 12 seasons.
In the all-time series against the Mavericks, CSP heads into Tuesday's NSIC opener with a record of 15-31. In last season's doubleheader in St. Paul, the Golden Bears dropped both games by scores of 5-1 and 10-1, respectively. Concordia and Minnesota State met earlier this season at the Kelly Laas Invitational in St. Cloud where the Mavericks shut out CSP 9-0.
The Wildcats and Golden Bears have met 32 previous times heading into Saturday's doubleheader as WSC has won the last seven meetings. The two schools met twice last year in Wayne, with Wayne State winning both games by scores of 8-0 and 14-2, respectively.
Against Sunday's opponent, Augustana, Concordia has only compiled five wins in the 27 game series history. AU has won the last 16 meetings with the Golden Bears last win coming back in 2010 when CSP won by a score of 2-0.
Live stats will be available for all six games and live video will be available for the four games at the links listed above.
