TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia Golden Bears baseball team (4-4) picked up their fourth consecutive victory with a 16-5 seven-inning win over Northwestern (5-8) on Wednesday afternoon in the Tucson Invitational Games at Kino Sports Complex.
Trailing 5-2 heading to the fourth, the Golden Bears exploded for 14 runs over their final three trips to the plate while holding the Red Raiders off the scoreboard to invoke the run rule for the second time in as many games.
With a season-best 21 hits to go along with 16 runs, CSP improved to an incredible 55-113 (.487) at the plate with 43 runs in just 21 innings at the plate on the trip. Concordia added some power in Wednesday's win as 10 of the 21 hits for the team went for extra bases.
Patrick Bordewick played a big role in the outburst as he finished 2-5 with the team's first home run of the season while driving in a team-best four runs in the win.
Ryan Christopher added three hits in four trips, including a pair of doubles, while driving in three more runs. The junior has been nearly impossible to get out on the trip as he has gone 10-14 (.714) with four extra-base hits and 10 runs batted in over the three games.
Christopher was not the only Golden Bear to hammer out three hits as
Eathan Soeffker,
Griffin Lapp and
Matt Pietsch all had three hits as well. Soeffker had a double with three runs scored and a pair driven in while Lapp had a double with two RBIs and two runs and Pietsch had a double, a pair of runs scored and an RBI.
Chandler Ibach added a pair of doubles while
Shea Pekarek went 2-2 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs and
Jack Young went 2-4 with a double and two runs scored as well.
On the mound,
Michael Voss made his return to the mound as he worked the first inning, allowing just one run while picking up a big double play to limit the damage. Freshman
Matt Sherman (1-0) delivered an extremely impressive outing out of the bullpen as he worked 4.2 innings of shutout baseball to pick up his first career win. The left-hander allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out two in the game.
Both offenses wasted little time getting things started as the first three hitters reached safely for Northwestern to give them a 1-0 lead before the Golden Bears responded with two in the bottom of the frame. Back-to-back doubles for Pekarek and Christopher to start the inning put CSP on the board before a one-out infield single drove in Christopher to put them in front.
That lead did not last long, however, as the Red Raiders regained the edge with two in the second and two more in the third to take a 5-2 lead. An RBI triple for Isaac Thurm tied the game in the second before Sutton Derr beat out a potential inning-ending double play to allow Thurm to score to give NWC the lead. It was Noa Vogel that delivered the blow in the third as he sent the first pitch of the at-bat over the right field wall for a two-run home run.
The score held at 5-2 in favor of Northwestern until the Golden Bears completely changed the momentum of the contest with a massive eight-run fourth inning to take a 10-5 lead of their own. With one on and one out, Concordia rattled off six hits and a hit by pitch over the next seven batters as they nearly batted around without an out being recorded. Lapp opened the scoring with an RBI single before Pekarek was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to trim the margin to one. Christopher once again delivered a run-scoring hit as he drove in two with a single to right to put CSP in front. Bordewick put the icing on the cake as he launched a 2-1 pitch over the left field fence for a three-run shot. Pietsch added on one more as he doubled down the right field line before scoring on a sacrifice fly to bring the Golden Bears to double figures for the game.
Concordia tacked on another run in the fifth on a Pekarek sacrifice fly before they put the game out of reach with five runs in the sixth. Soeffker brought home the first two runs with an opposite field single before coming around to score on a Lapp double down the left field line.
Jack Young followed with an RBI double of his own to right center as he eventually scored on a line drive single off the bat of Bordewick to bring the game to the final score of 16-5.
Concordia will look to make it five wins in a row tomorrow afternoon as they take on Southwest Minnesota State at 4 p.m.
