ST. PAUL, Minn. - Postseason play begins for the Concordia-St. Paul softball team (37-13, 19-7 NSIC) on Thursday at Bowden Field in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Golden Bears face Minot State (22-18, 18-10 NSIC) in the NSIC quarterfinals at 3 p.m. 

Concordia-St. Paul opens the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the 10-team single-elimination tournament. If CSP advances to the semifinals, it will face the winner between No. 3 Minnesota Duluth (39-14, 20-8 NSIC) and No. 6 Winona State (33-19, 17-9 NSIC) on Friday at 2:30 p.m. The NSIC Championship takes place on Saturday at noon. 

LAST TIME OUT 

CSP was swept in their midweek matchup against Winona State before sweeping Wayne State (8-40, 4-20 NSIC) on Saturday. Concordia's regular season finale on Sunday against Sioux Falls (20-27, 11-15 NSIC) was canceled due to rain. 

The Golden Bears trailed 7-1 after the fourth inning in game one against the Warriors. CSP started chipping away at the lead after a three-run home run by Alexus Houston in the fifth inning. 

Annalise Scamehorn tied the game at 7-7 with a two-out solo home run in the top of the seventh inning. However, CSP couldn't get the game into extra innings, as Winona State hit an RBI single at the bottom of the seventh inning to win. The Warriors used that momentum in game two, getting a 9-1 six-inning victory. 

Concordia-St. Paul picked up their first win after five straight losses on Saturday against Wayne State. Riley Rosenthal, Danni Sharum and Sydney Pelzer all hit home runs in Concordia's 5-2 win. Junior pitcher Erica McCullough threw a career-high 10 strikeouts in the victory. 

Houston tallied her second home run of the week in the opening inning of game two vs. the Wildcats. The senior homered down the left-field line, bringing in three early runs. Senior Clara Heislen hit two RBI singles in CSP's 8-5 victory. 

ALL-NSIC AWARDS

Six Golden Bears earned recognition as the All-NSIC softball teams were announced by the conference on Tuesday. The awards were headlined by head coach Bob Bartel winning NSIC Coach of the Year and Alexis Monty winning NSIC Freshman of the Year. 

This is Bartel's first NSIC Coach of the Year award in his 20-year career. He's the second coach in program history to win the award as former coach Tom Rubbelke won it in 2001. 

Monty is the first Golden Bear to win NSIC Freshman of the Year since the award was created in 2011. The freshman was CSP's lone All-NSIC First Team selection, and she made the All-Defensive Team. 

Pelzer earned All-Defensive Team honors as well, marking the third straight season CSP has had a player selected to the team. Heislen, McCullough and Sharum earned All-NSIC Second Team honors.

SEASON LEADERS

Monty leads the team with a .497 batting average, ranking third in the nation. Her .547 on-base percentage is 14th in the nation and the best overall in the conference. She leads the conference in stolen bases with 22 and has the fifth-best slugging percentage at .684. 

Heislen has the second-best batting numbers on the team slashing .362/.473/.503. Sharum is batting .355 and leads the team with 44 RBIs, which is eighth in the NSIC. Houston and Sharum lead the Golden Bears in home runs with seven each. The Golden Bears have seven batters hitting .300 or higher this season. 

On the pitching side, McCullough leads the Golden Bears this season with a 3.28 ERA. She's pitched the second-most innings in the NSIC at 190.0. Her 132 strikeouts rank fifth in the conference, and her 24 wins are the most by any NSIC pitcher this season. She's thrown the fifth-most complete games and won the fifth-most games in the nation.

The Golden Bears have a .341 batting average this season, which is first in the NSIC and 17th in the nation. CSP has the second-most RBIs in the conference with 301. Concordia's 3.63 ERA ranks eighth in the NSIC. 

IN THE RECORD BOOKS

Monty hit her 21st double of the season in the first game against Winona State, breaking the school record previously held by Amanda Yurek in 2006. She currently has the highest batting average and on-base percentage in a season in school history. 

The freshman is closing in on some other season records. She scored the second-most runs in a season with 56, one behind Carlie Hart with 57 in 2019. Monty's tallied the second-most hits with 85 this season, also behind Hart in 2018 with 93. Her 117 total bases currently sits at third in school history, with the most being 129. 

Sharum is tied for the fourth most RBIs in a season in school history. Pelzer's 48 last season is third, Sami Mattson is in second with 52 in 2011 and Bekah Roth has the most with 53 in 2014.

In the career rankings, Heislen has the fifth-highest slugging percentage at .543 and the 10th-highest on-base percentage at .411. The senior has played in the fifth-most games in school history with 517. When she starts her next game, she will have the third most in school history with 218. 

Heislen has scored the most runs of any Golden Bear in her career with 174 and has the most total bases with 382. She's tied for the third-most doubles in school history with 47 and has the second-most home runs with 34. Her 139 RBIs are fourth in school history, only two behind Abby Brundidge and Justine Schattner in first with 141.

As a team, CSP's .341 batting average is currently the highest for any Golden Bear squad in school history. Concordia currently has the best slugging percentage at .490 and the highest on-base percentage at .401. The 324 runs scored by CSP is the most in a season in school history. 

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The Golden Bears have won the tournament four times in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The most recent victories were in Bartel's first two seasons as a head coach. CSP is tied with Minnesota State for the third-most NSIC Tournament titles. Minnesota Duluth won the tournament last season, putting the Bulldogs ahead of the Golden Bears with five championships. 

Concordia-St. Paul is 41-29 all-time in the NSIC Tournament. The Golden Bears entered last season's double-elimination tournament as the No. 9 seed and finished as one of the last four teams in the field after going 3-2. CSP lost its final game in the tournament 7-6 last season against St. Cloud State. The Golden Bears went 0-2 in both the 2021 and 2022 NSIC Tournament. 

MINOT STATE - Thursday, May 2 at 3 p.m.

Series History: Minot State 15, Concordia-St. Paul 8

The Golden Bears are 5-5 in the last 10 games against the Beavers. CSP is 2-0 all-time against Minot State in the NSIC Tournament with the last victory in 2018's opening round. 

The Beavers ended CSP's 14-game winning streak to start NSIC play this season in their doubleheader on April 13. Minot State won the first game 2-1 in eight innings on a walk-off sacrifice fly. CSP outhit the Beavers 9-6 in that contest, but left seven runners on base with five in scoring position.

In game two, Minot scored four of its seven runs on sacrifice flies to defeat CSP 7-5. The Golden Bears scored three runs in the fourth inning and two in the seventh inning. The Beavers outhit CSP 9-8, and the Golden Bears had three errors while Minot State had two. 

The Beavers enter this weekend as the No. 7 seed in the NSIC Tournament. Minot State went 1-4 last weekend against Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, winning the series' final game against the Huskies. On Wednesday afternoon, the Beavers defeated No. 10 seed Northern State 7-0 to make the quarterfinals. The game was scoreless until Minot State scored all seven runs in their last two innings at-bat. 

Senior infielder Brooklyn Morrison enters the tournament leading the Beavers with a .391 batting average this season, tied for fourth in the NSIC. Morrison was named All-NSIC First Team. Sophomore Anna LaCount is 10th in the NSIC with a .378 batting average. LaCount led the team in the doubleheader against CSP with four hits, a double and two RBIs.

Senior Gabi Dawyduk is batting .307 this season with 22 RBIs. In game one against Concordia, she hit her lone home run of the season. Senior Lauryn DeGuzman tallied four hits with a triple and scored three times against CSP in the doubleheader. 

On the pitching side, the Beavers are led by Dawyduk with a 2.23 ERA, ranking seventh in the NSIC. Dawyduk played in game two against Concordia, throwing a complete game with two strikeouts and allowing four earned runs on eight hits. She was named All-NSIC Second Team. 

Junior Reegan Floyd has a 2.81 ERA this season, putting her at 14th in the NSIC. Floyd pitched all eight innings in the first game against CSP tallowing nine hits, 0 walks, one run and threw a strikeout. 

Minot State's team batting average is seventh in the NSIC at .285. The Beavers have the fifth-best ERA in the conference at 2.96. 

Sal Rodriguez is in his first season as the head coach of the Beavers. He served as the spring interim coach for two weeks last season. He was previously a softball assistant coach at Bishop Ryan High School and has experience as a public address announcer with the Beavers.