ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (1-3) dropped both of their games on Saturday in their final contests at the 2023 Portolite & Field Turf MSU Invitational Softball Tournament. The Golden Bears were defeated 2-0 in game one by the Lewis Flyers (2-2) and 9-2 by the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats (1-2) in game two.
 
GAME ONE: Lewis 2, CSP 0
The CSP struggled to get going bats going in game one, only reaching base four times on three hits. The Flyers were slightly more successful with nine baserunners on five hits.
 
Lewis struck early after collecting two singles and scoring on a one-out sacrifice bunt. Bryanna Olson was back on the mound for her second start of the season for Concordia. She was able to limit the damage to just one run after getting her second strikeout to close out the first.
 
Lewis got one more run in the third inning, scoring from third on a failed double steal.
 
CSP's best chance to get a run came in the top of the fourth when Alexus Houston hit a leadoff triple on a shot down the right field line. She would be left stranded on third after the next three Concordia batters were sat down.
 
Delaney Garden was the star of the game for Lewis. The sophomore pitcher finished the game going 2-for-4 at the plate with a double, stolen base, and crossed the plate for both runs in the game. On the mound she shut down the Golden Bears, pitching all seven innings and giving up three hits, one strikeout and a walk.
 
Olson pitched all six innings for CSP and allowed five hits and two earned runs while striking out five and walking three.
 
GAME TWO: NWMSU 9, CSP 2
The Golden Bears had their best hitting game of the tournament against the Bearcats, but the NWMSU's offense was more potent in the game out-hitting CSP 12-7.
 
Concordia had a chance to score first in the second inning after Dani Sharum singled down the left-field line and advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch with no outs. Jacey Defries moved her to third with a single to left center but was cut down at second after trying to advance. The Bearcats shut down the scoring opportunity on a 4-3-2 double play on a ground ball from Avery Johnson and they tagged Sherum out at the plate.
 
NWMSU started the scoring in the bottom of the inning, stringing together four two-out hits to and capitalizing on a CSP error to score the first two runs. They took advantage of another CSP error to score two more runs in the third inning, making it 4-0.
 
The Bearcats doubled their score and knocked Concordia starter Erica McCullough out of the game in the fourth inning after scoring the first run on a flyball and three more runs on a three-run home run off the bat of Olivia Daugherty.
 
Kristi Pilz would replace McCullough and go the rest of the game. She gave up one more run in the sixth inning but limited Northwest Missouri State to three hits while walking one.
 
The Golden Bears scored both of their runs in the sixth inning. Morgan Medlo and Rachel Novak led off the inning with singles. Clara Heislen reached first to load the bases before an Alexus Houston RBI single brought in Medlo to score the first run of the game for CSP. Novak would cross the plate during the next at-bat on a wild pitch. NWMSU would lock in defensively and hold the Bears' to jsut two runs, leaving the bases loaded to end the inning.
 
CSP put a baserunner on in each of the next two innings, but neither made it further than second base as the Bearcats took the win 9-2, giving the Golden Bears their third 1-3 start in the past four years.
 
Concordia softball is back in action February 17-19 for six games, including a rematch with Northwest Missouri State at the Emporia 5-State Classic in Emporia, Kansas.