ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul softball team (26-6, 8-0 NSIC) is in action this week after posting the best conference start in school history. Game dates and times this week have been altered due to weather conditions. 

Concordia St. Paul's doubleheader against Winona State (21-13, 5-3 NSIC) originally scheduled for this week has been moved to April 24 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The Golden Bears start action this weekend facing St. Cloud State (20-12, 3-3 NSIC) in a doubleheader on Friday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. CSP then plays Minnesota Duluth (21-10, 2-4 NSIC) for a doubleheader at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. Both games will take place at Reynolds Field on the campus of Northwestern-St. Paul in Roseville. 

LAST TIME OUT 

The Golden Bears swept both MSU Moorhead and Northern State this weekend. Freshman Alexis Monty led the Golden Bears slashing .643/.706/.857 on the weekend. She went 9-14 with three doubles and no strikeouts. 

Sophomore shortstop Riley Rosenthal hit a team-high eight RBIs on a team-high four doubles. Junior Danni Sharum had a .571 batting average and senior Clara Heislen hit a .455 batting average. 

Junior pitcher Erica McCullough went 3-0 on the weekend with a 2.25 ERA in 19.2 innings pitched. She threw a total of 16 strikeouts. Against Northern State, McCullough pitched 10.2 innings without giving up a run and picked up both victories in the doubleheader. Freshman pitcher Makayla Wigern tallied her first career win in the second game against MSU Moorhead. 

SEASON LEADERS

Monty leads the Golden Bears with an NSIC-leading .550 batting average and a .590 on-base percentage. She has the third-best batting average in the nation and fourth-best on-base percentage. Her .721 slugging percentage is third in the NSIC. She's hit 12 doubles this season and has stolen a team-high 16 bases.

Rosenthal leads the team with 31 RBIs while batting .377. She has the second-most RBIs in the NSIC. Sharum and senior Alexus Houston lead the Golden Bears in home runs with three each. Senior Annalise Scamehorn leads the team in doubles with 13.

McCullough has a 15-2 record this season with a 2.65 ERA. She has the most wins in the conference and the 13th-best ERA. The junior lefty has thrown 72 strikeouts this season in 105.2 innings pitched. 

The Golden Bears lead the NSIC in batting average hitting .363 as a team. Their 209 RBIs leads the league by 35 RBIs. Concordia-St. Paul is seventh in pitching with a 3.31 ERA.

St. Cloud State - Friday, April 5 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Series History: Concordia-St. Paul 26, St. Cloud State 26

Concordia-St. Paul has lost the last four games to the Huskies after winning five straight from 2021-23. CSP's season ended last year in a 7-6 loss to St. Cloud State. The Golden Bears are 5-5 in the last 10 matchups and 7-7 all-time at home. 

Before the matchup against Minnesota Crookston this week, the Huskies are coming off of a 2-2 weekend with losses against Augustana and wins against Wayne State. St. Cloud State went 1-1 against Winona State in their only other NSIC doubleheader this season. 

St. Cloud State is ninth in the NSIC with a .273 batting average and eighth in pitching with a 3.45 ERA. Junior Reese Holzhueter leads the Huskies slashing .358/.400/.660. Her slugging percentage is fifth in the NSIC. 

Freshman Bethany Weiss and senior Holly Weinberger are the only two other batters hitting above .300 on the team. Weiss is hitting .338 and Weinberger is hitting .337. Junior Maggie Fitzgerald leads the team with 28 RBIs. 

Sophomore RHP Justyce Porter leads St. Cloud State with a 1.75 ERA this season, which is the sixth-best ERA in the NSIC. She's thrown 41 strikeouts and has held teams to a .229 batting average. 

Emma Eickhoff has led the Huskies pitching 77.1 innings during her junior campaign. She has a 3.44 ERA this season and has thrown a team-high 48 strikeouts. 

Mitch Roberts is in his third season as the head coach for St. Cloud State. He previously served as the pitching coach at Cal-Berkeley in the 2020-21 season. Roberts has a 90-60 record before this week's games. 

Minnesota Duluth - Saturday, April 6 at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Series History: Minnesota Duluth 42, Concordia-St. Paul 27

CSP has lost six straight games to the Bulldogs with the last victory coming in 2021. The Golden Bears are 8-10 all-time at home against Duluth. Concordia-St. Paul is 3-7 in the last 10 matchups. 

The Bulldogs picked up a pair of victories this past weekend against Wayne State and were swept by Augustana the day before. Minnesota Duluth was also swept by Winona State last weekend. The Bulldogs face Bemidji State and Southwest Minnesota State before playing CSP this weekend. 

Minnesota Duluth is seventh as a team with a batting average of .286. The Bulldogs excel at pitching posting a 2.21 ERA which is the third-best in the NSIC. Senior Lauren Dixon leads the pitching room with a 1.46 ERA. 

Dixon has appeared and started in 16 games pitching 110 innings, which is the second-most in the NSIC. She's thrown a conference-leading 144 strikeouts giving up the lowest batting average for a pitcher in the league at .157. She has the third-best ERA in the conference. 

Freshman Maddy Walsh has the eighth-best ERA in the NSIC at 2.15. She's thrown 42 strikeouts this season and has a 6-0 record. She's giving up a .235 batting average which is eighth in the conference. 

Senior Julia Gronholz is leading the Bulldogs with a .404 batting average, which is fourth in the NSIC. She has a .479 slugging percentage and a .442 on-base percentage. She's tallied 17 RBIs this season with four doubles and a home run. 

Junior Nicole Schmitt is batting .323 and senior Kat Burkhardt is batting .315. They are the only two other batters for the Bulldogs batting .300 or higher. 

Minnesota Duluth is led by head coach Lynn Anderson who is in her third season. She led the Bulldogs to an NSIC Tournament Championship last season. Anderson is 90-39 coming into this week at the helm of the program.