CLERMONT, Fla. – The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (6-8) moved to 3-1 at THE Spring Games as they picked up a split on Saturday. The Golden Bears dropped game one 10-1 to Tiffin (6-11) before grabbing a 9-4 win over St. Rose (1-2) in game two.
 
GAME #1: Tiffin 10, Concordia-St. Paul 1 (6 inn.)
After the two teams traded runs in the first frame, the Dragons took control with four in the second, another in the fourth and four more in the sixth to secure the run-rule victory.
 
Jacey Defries registered two of the team's five hits in the contest while Clara Heislen and Alexus Houston picked up a single and a steal. Grace Beseman added a hit of her own in the loss.
 
Bryanna Olson (4-3) took the loss as she worked the first 2.0 innings before Kristi Pilz worked the final 4.0 innings in relief.
 
Tiffin's top three hitters did much of the heavy lifting at the plate as they combined to go 7-9 with seven runs scored and seven driven in while Dragon starter Claire Feldkamp (3-8) picked up the complete game victory, allowing no earned runs and striking out five.
 
Tiffin struck first with a run in the top of the first, but the Golden Bears wasted no tie tying the game up in the bottom of the frame. CSP did it without a hit as Heislen reached on an error before stealing third and scoring on a Houston RBI groundout a batter later.
 
Tara Gall delivered the big blow in the second with a three-run blast to make it 5-1 before another three-run homer off the bat of Katie Deardorff in the sixth brought it to the final score of 10-1.
 
GAME #2: Concordia-St. Paul 9, St. Rose 4
After being sunk by a pair of big innings in the first game of the day, Concordia flipped the script in game two as they used a five-run second and a four-run third to pull away from the Golden Knights for their third win in four games on the week.
 
Clara Heislen continued her demolition of opposing pitching as she launched a grand slam en route to a 2-4 performance with six RBIs in the win. Her effort brought her total to a staggering 13 RBIs in four games in Florida as she moved to 9-15 (.600) with six extra-base hits, including three homers, during that span.
 
As a team, CSP needed just five hits to score nine times as they also drew five walks and were hit by a pair of pitches to aid the effort.
 
Erica McCullough (2-2) stepped up in a big way in the circle as she limited St. Rose to just one earned run on four hits with six strikeouts in the complete game win.
 
It was the Golden Knights that opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the top half of the second, but the Golden Bears took the lead for good with a big bottom half of the frame.
 
Avery Johnson tied the game with a bases loaded RBI fielder's choice in which everyone was safe on a miscue from St. Rose. Heislen made them pay one batter later as she deposited a deep fly, her sixth of the season, over the wall in left to put CSP in front 5-1.
 
St. Rose got one back in the third, but Concordia once again responded in a big way as Taylor Griffin got the run back with an RBI single before Heislen drove in two more with a single up the middle. Houston collected her second RBI of the day with a run scoring single of her own to balloon the lead to seven at 9-2 through three innings.
 
The Golden Knights trimmed two runs off the deficit in the seventh before McCullough slammed the down to give Concordia the 9-4 win.
 
UP NEXT
Concordia has the day off on Sunday before returning to action with a 10:30 a.m. meeting with #8 Grand Valley State before taking on Lynn at 1 p.m.