MARYVILLE, Mo. - Concordia-St. Paul (15-2-1) bounced back from its Florida finale loss by winning a pair of games on Saturday, picking up an 8-4 road win at Northwest Missouri State (5-19) before a 3-1 neutral site win over Missouri Southern State (14-9), both games played at Bearcat Softball Field.
Sophomore third baseman
Grace Beseman went 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double and five RBIs in the two games and the Golden Bears hit a pair of home runs in each victory, with
Cam Veenbaas adding a 2-run homer against NWMSU and
Sydney Pelzer delivering a solo in the second game against MSSU.
Beseman leads Concordia with a .482 average on the year, getting on base at a .531 clip with team-highs in runs (16), tied for the team high in RBIs (14) with Pelzer and tied for the team lead with four home runs with
Alexus Houston.
Concordia will run it back against the same two teams on Sunday, starting with Missoui Southern at 1 p.m. followed by NW Missouri State at 3 p.m. at Bearcat Softball Field.
GAME 1: Concordia 8, NW Missouri State 4
The Golden Bears took command early, as
Alexus Houston continued her early season power surge with a 2-run triple in the first inning. She went 2-for-7 in the two games and is now slugging .744 to lead the team on the season.
In the second inning,
Cam Veenbaas ignited the offense with a 2-run homer, her first of the season and fourth of her career in 336 at bats.
Grace Beseman continued the trend, adding another 2-run home run in the inning for an early 6-0 lead.
The cushion was helpful for
Kristi Pilz, who carried a shutout into the fifth inning when the Bearcats put two runners on base with no outs, chasing her from the contest. After her two runners scored, Pilz finished with four strikeouts across 4.0 innings, allowing five hits and a pair of walks. She would eventually pick up the win, improving to 3-0 with a 1.58 ERA on the year.
Erica McCullough relieved Pilz and nearly went the rest of the way, working 2.2 innings of long relief before giving way to
Bryanna Olson, who entered with a 4-run lead and two outs in the seventh, striking out the final batter with the bases loaded to earn her third save.
Veenbaas went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer, two runs and two RBIs from the bottom of the lineup, and
Clara Heislen was 2-for-5 with a run from the leadoff spot. Beseman was 3-for-4 with two runs, three RBIs, a double and a homer.
Amanda Parsons and
Danni Sharum each added doubles, as well, and
Jacey Defries was 2-for-3.
GAME 2: Concordia 3, Missouri Southern 1
After closing out the first game,
Bryanna Olson took the ball against the Lions and remained tough to square up, going the distance to improve to 10-1, allowing a run on five hits and one walk, striking out four. Her earned run average continues to hover around the 1.00 mark at 1.01 on the year.
Once again, Concordia wasted no time giving her support, as
Grace Beseman delivered her second home run of the day and fourth of the season in the first inning. The lead held at 2-0 until
Sydney Pelzer connected for her first career home run in the fourth inning.
The Lions finally scratched a run across in the sixth inning, using a 1-out bunt single, a wild pitch to advance to second and a 2-out single to break the shutout. They put two runners on base in the seventh, but Olson recorded the final two outs of the day via strikeout to end the threat and secure the win.
