WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Golden Bear softball team (8-3) split a pair of games against Findlay (Ohio) (9-7) and Dominican (N.Y.) (1-1) on Saturday. Concordia-St. Paul lost the first game of the day to Findlay 10-0, snapping a five-game win streak for the Golden Bears. The team then rebounded in a 10-7 victory against Dominican in the afternoon.

The Golden Bears struggled with six hits in the first contest, but more than doubled that total with 14 in the second game. Junior Riley Rosenthal had three RBIs off of two hits, which included a triple. Freshman Alexis Monty had five hits on the day with an RBI. Senior Annalise Scamehorn recorded a hit three times with two RBIs.

Junior pitcher Erica McCullough picked up the win against Dominican, bringing her season record to 5-1. She threw three strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched. Freshman Emmy Bowne took the loss against Findlay, but recorded a save against Dominican. She threw four strikeouts on the day in her 141 pitches.

The Golden Bears have the day off on Sunday before returning to action with a doubleheader on Monday, March 4. Concordia-St. Paul is playing West Virginia Wesleyan at 8 a.m. and Glenville State (W.Va.) at 10:30 a.m.

CSP vs Findlay

Findlay started the morning with two singles and a walk to load the bases. First baseman Joslynn Frazier hit a grand slam to give the Oilers an early 4-0 lead. Findlay then added two runs in the sixth inning and four runs in the seventh inning to get the 10-0 advantage.

CSP only had two opportunities with runners in scoring position in the game. The first was in the fourth inning when senior Alexus Houston hit a double with two outs already on the board. CSP tallied a pair of singles in the seventh inning, but the next three batters all recorded outs. 

The Golden Bears were outhit 15-6 in the contest and both teams left seven runners on base. Concordia had one error and Findlay had none. 

Bowne picked up her second loss of the season. She tallied one strikeout and three walks and threw 105 pitches. Senior Molly Pfiffner picked up the victory for Findlay. She threw three strikeouts with one walk in 107 pitches.

CSP vs Dominican

The Golden Bears got the bats going early with a four-run first inning. Monty and Rosenthal each hit singles to start the game to bring Monty home for the opening run. Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Scamehorn hit a single batting in two runs and bringing in a third run off an error. 

After Dominican scored two runs in the bottom of the first, CSP scored three more runs in the second inning. Following singles by sophomore Rachel Novak and Monty, Rosenthal hit a 2RBI triple to extend CSP's lead to 6-2. Senior Clara Heislen then laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring in Rosenthal for the seventh run of the game. 

CSP scored another run in the third inning with a Monty RBI single, bringing the lead to 8-2. Dominican answered with five more runs in the next three innings to cut the lead to 8-7 heading into the final inning of play.

The Golden Bears added two insurance runs in the seventh inning starting with an RBI double from junior Avery Johnson. Freshman Mikayla Wigern pinch ran for Johnson and scored on an error after another single by Monty.

Rosenthal finished with a team-high three RBIs. Monty hit 4-5 in the contest with one RBI and scoring twice. Junior Danni Sharum, Johnson and Novak all recorded two hits. 

McCullough picked up her fifth win of the season throwing three strikes and four walks in 5.0 innings pitched. She gave up six runs on eight hits in 100 pitches. Bowne came into the game in the sixth inning and picked up her second save of the season. She threw one strikeout giving up three hits and one run. 

The Golden Bears hit four doubles and one triple on the day. The Chargers only hit one double. Concordia outhit Dominican 14-11 and had five errors compared to Dominican's four errors. Dominican left 11 runners on base and CSP left eight on base.