MANKATO, Minn.- The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (1-1) split games on the first day of the 2023 Portolite & Field Turf MSU Invitational Softball Tournament. The Golden Bears defeated Missouri Western State (1-1) 2-1 to start the day before falling to Minnesota Duluth (1-0) 2-1 in a non-conference matchup.
CSP vs. MISSOURI WESTERN STATE
Clara Heislen got it started for the Golden Bears after smashing a double to right center to lead off the bottom of the first.
Grace Beseman would advance her to third after the Griffin third baseman mishandled the throw from the shortstop trying to cut down the lead runner. An RBI single from
Sydney Pelzer that dropped in the right field gap would drive in Heislen for the season's first run.
CSP added another run after the next batter,
Danni Sharum, sent the ball up the middle into center field to drive in Beseman. Missouri Western responded by replacing their starter with freshman Harley Pruetting, who closed out the inning.
The game would turn into a pitching contest, as Pruetting held the Golden Bears to just no runs, no walks, one hit and struck out 12 CSP batters the rest of the way.
Concordia ace
Bryanna Olson was up to the challenge, as the junior went all seven innings and held the Griffins to one run for the game. Olson worked out of several tough situations, including the bases loaded with no outs in the fifth inning, where she struck out the final three batters to leave the bases full.
Missouri Western finally broke through with a run in the top of the sixth with a one out after hitting a sacrifice fly to center field before striking out to end the inning. Olson finished strong with a one, two, three seventh inning to capture Concordia's first win of the season and give Head Coach
Bob Bartel his 500th career victory at CSP.
Missouri Western had plenty of opportunities, as the Griffins out-hit the Bears 7-to-4, but Olsen's pitching kept them off balance, coaxing soft pop-ups for easy outs while striking out 11.
CSP vs MINNESOTA DULUTH
Game two was another pitching duel for the Golden Bears, as the two teams would combine for just four hits through the first five inning, and a total of eight for the game.
Kristi Pilz started on the mound for CSP in game two and got off to a strong start, striking out four while allowing only three baserunners over the first three innings.
The Golden Bears were able to get on the board in the second inning. With two outs and first and third occupied, an error by the UMD third baseman on a ground ball off the bat of
Taylor Griffin allowed
Jacey Defries to come in for the score.
CSP looked like they were putting together something in the third inning after
Clara Heislen singled to lead off the inning and Alexis Houston walked to put two on base. Unfortunately, Heislen would get caught stealing third, and Minnesota Duluth's ace Lauren Dixon would strike out the final two batters to quickly end the inning.
Pilz and the defense continued to play well over the next three innings with only two Bulldog batters getting on base. The offense struggled as Dixon settled in and didn't allow them to extend their one-run lead. The UMD junior pitcher struck out two more CSP batters while holding the offense hitless for the rest of the game
The Golden Bears and Pilz entered the final inning holding on to their 1-0 lead, but after back-to-back singles by Duluth's first two hitters, coach
Bob Bartel would bring in Olson to attempt to close it out.
A sacrifice bunt would move the runners over, and after Olson fanned the next batter for the second out of the inning, UMD's Dea Delean would bring them in on a hard-hit single to left field for a two RBI, giving the Bulldogs the lead. Olson would end the inning with the next batter and added her 13th strikeout of the day.
Dixon held her team's lead in the final inning by sitting down the last three Golden Bears to pick up her and UMD's first win of the season by a final score of 2-1.
Pilz ended the game with four strikeouts through six innings and gave up only two runs, as she took the loss. Duluth would outhit CSP, 6-to-2, and committed the only error of the game.
The Golden Bears are back under the dome tomorrow taking on Lewis University at 9:00 a.m. and Missouri Western State at 2:00 p.m.
