ROCHESTER, Minn. – For the second straight year, the Concordia-St. Paul softball team (33-18) opened the NSIC playoff tournament with a win, this year defeating Minnesota Duluth (31-19) 2-1 on a cloudy day in Rochester, Minnesota. The Golden Bears, who were seeded sixth in the tournament, capitalized on a home run from sophomore
Cam Veenbaas in the seventh to upset the number three seeded Bulldogs.
With the win, the Golden Bears remain in the winner's bracket and will face the winner of #2 seeded Augustana and #10 seeded Southwest Minnesota State tomorrow, May 3
rd, at 12 p.m. Concordia enters the second round of the tournament red hot, winning their past 11 games straight.
This was the fifth time that the Golden Bears and the Bulldogs have met this season with all five games being decided by one run. The two teams also met in the NSIC tournament last season, but this time it was CSP that would come out on top.
Scoring was tough to come by in the contest, with each team only scoring one run through the first five innings. It was Veenbaas that came up with some late-inning heroics for the Golden Bears, hitting a solo home run in the top of the seventh to lift CSP to a 2-1 win.
Junior
Kali Kaestner pitched a complete game, her ninth of the season, to improve to 12-4 on the season. This was Kaestner's eighth straight win and the seventh time in her past eight starts that she has given up two runs or less.
Junior
Hannah Carlson and sophomore
Hanna Mortenson led the Bears' offense, each producing two hits in the game. Besides Veenbaas' homer, sophomore
Amanda Parsons added the other RBI for the Bears, and with a single in the fifth, senior
Carlie Hart extended her current hitting streak to 15 games.
The Bears broke the 0-0 tie in the second inning when
Hannah Carlson led off with a single to right field and advanced to second when the UMD outfielder bobbled the ball. Mortenson and Parsons then came up with back-to-back singles that scored her.
CSP would hold Minnesota Duluth scoreless through the first four innings, with 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth innings. Parsons threw out a UMD runner in the first and the defense stranded two Bulldog runners in the second. In the fifth, UMD tied it up as Taylor Koehnen singled, was sacrificed over, and scored when Lexi Janigo doubled to left field.
The Bulldogs threatened to take over the lead in the sixth, getting the first two runners on with nobody out. Kaestner refused to let a runner cross, though, forcing a fly out for the first out and striking a batter. The Bears then intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases, but Kaestner got out of the inning with a pop out to second to keep the score 1-1.
In the seventh, the Bears were down to their last out in the inning, when Veenbaas drove a ball over the left field wall that barely stayed fair to put CSP up 2-1. With the momentum, the Golden Bear defense retired the Bulldogs in order to seal the win.
