ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team, after opening the season going 3-1 in the first weekend, will continue their non-conference schedule with games on Thursday and Friday this week (February 22^nd and 23^rd) in the West St. Paul Dome. The team will face Bemidji State and MSU Moorhead on Thursday and Southwest Minnesota State and MSU Moorhead on Friday. Although the Bears are facing NSIC opponents, the games will still be counted as part of the non-conference season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears got off to the best start since the 2009 season, defeating Southwest Baptist, Arkansas Tech, and #14 Missouri-St. Louis in their first three games of the 6-State Classic hosted by Emporia. The win over #14 UMSL was the first time that CSP has knocked off a ranked team since April 26^th, 2012 when the Bears defeated #12 Winona State 11-3. CSP then fell to #10 Southern Arkansas in their last game of the classic.  
 
In the first two games of the weekend, Concordia came from behind in both to defeat their opponents. Against Southwest Baptist the Bears were down 2-1 in the fourth inning, but then sophomore Aryka Knoche homered and Hannah Carlson scored on a bases-loaded walk, giving the Bears the lead. CSP would tack on two more runs throughout the fifth and sixth innings and headed into the top of the seventh with a 5-2 lead. Southwest Baptist scored once in the seventh, but the Bears held on, winning 5-3. The Bears next faced Arkansas Tech, and defeated them 4-3 in nine innings. CSP was trailing 2-1, but tied it up in the sixth forcing extra innings. Each team scored in the eighth, but the Bears' defense put up a zero in the ninth and then Carlie Hart drove in Lily Langevin to win the game.
 
In day two of the 6-State Classic, big innings were the deciding factor in each game. The Bears fell behind 2-0 at the beginning of their first game against #14 UMSL, but used a three-run fourth inning to take the lead. Missouri-St. Louis scored again in the sixth to tie it up and since no one scored in the seventh, the game headed into extra innings. The CSP offense exploded for four runs on four hits in the top of the eighth and only allowed the Tritons to get one run back, coming away with a 7-4 win. The Bears next faced #10 Southern Arkansas, who used a big first two innings to score 10 runs, going on to defeat the Bears 10-1 in five innings.
 
Langevin hit .455 on the weekend, scoring a team-best four runs. Senior Nicole Thompson was right behind her, hitting for a .429 average, while recording a team-high six hits. On the mound, sophomore Kali Kaestner went 2-0, giving up no earned runs in her 8.2 innings of work, holding opponents to a meager .143 batting average.
 
THE DRAGON BEAVER BASH
After four games on outdoor fields, the Bears will next play on the turf of West St. Paul dome, facing Bemidji State, Southwest Minnesota State, and MSU Moorhead.
 
The Bears own an impressive 33-7 record against Bemidji State, but have lost in their last three matchups. Before those three losses, CSP had won nine out of the last ten contests against the Beavers. When playing at a neutral site, as they do this week, the Bears have posted a 17-3 record against Bemidji. In their last double-header against the Bears, Bemidji won both. In the first game, the Beavers scored in four different innings and took advantage of three CSP errors to defeat the Bears 8-3. In the second game of the matchup, the Bears were winning 3-0, but the Beavers rallied for four runs in the last two innings of the game to earn a 4-3 victory. This year, the Beavers are off to a 0-2 start, falling to St. Cloud State twice to start the year.
 
Against SMSU, the Bears have a 21-25 all-time series record and have split with the Mustangs every year since 2012. When playing in a neutral site, the Bears are 4-2 against SMSU. CSP lost the first game of the double-header last season, when Southwest Minnesota State had a six-run sixth inning to propel them to a 6-0 win. The Bears bounced back and got the second game, though, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh to break a 2-2 tie and go on to win 4-2. This year, the Mustangs started off the year with two losses to Minnesota Duluth.
 
CSP holds a 32-8 record against MSU Moorhead and the Bears have won 18 of the last 20 matchups against the Dragons. In their last meeting, the Bears took both games of a double-header, winning the first 12-1, when Liz Jarosz hit a walk-off grand-slam to end the game in five innings. The second game was closer, with the Bears winning 6-5. The Dragons are 1-3 to open the year with losses to Crookston, Minot, and Providence (Mont.), and a win over Providence.
 
Live stats will be available for all four games this week and the link can be found above.