Long And Weary Road Catches Up In MIAC Title Game

MINNETONKA, Minn. (5/12/13)—The long and weary last week of the season finally caught up with the Cobbers as they lost 11-2 to No.2-ranked St. Thomas in the MIAC Championship game on Sunday.

The loss ends Concordia's season at 19-15. St. Thomas, who earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, has now won 25 of its last 26 games and improves to 33-5 on the year.

Playing their 10^th game in the last seven days, Concordia was unable to keep the hot-hitting Tommies off the board in the early innings and fell behind 2-0 after the opening frame of play. UST then added multiple-run innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh to claim the title win.

During the 10-day/7-game marathon, Concordia had to travel to Northfield and then the Twin Cities, back up to Moorhead and then finally back down to the Twin Cities for the conference tournament. All told, Concordia finished the week-long sting by traveling over 1,000 miles and spending over 16 hours on a bus.

The hardest hit department on the Cobbers due to the arduous streak of games over the past week was the pitching staff. Concordia used four pitchers in the game and the first two had seen extended action in CC's sweep over St. Mary's on Thursday. Starting pitcher Jackson Meland earned a complete-game win on Thursday in the opener against the Cardinals and was appearing his fourth game in the last eight days. He pitched a complete game against Carleton on May 4 then duplicated the feat on Thursday. Between his two starts he picked up the save against St. Olaf on May 7. Following Sunday's game, Meland had pitched a total of 20.0 innings in a span of eight days.

On the other side of the diamond, St. Thomas was able to throw four pitchers who were all sitting on at least five days rest. The well-rested Tommie staff held the Cobbers to just four hits on the day.

Cobber center fielder Michael Olson was the only CC player with more than one hit in the game. He finished by going 2-for-4 and drove in both of Concordia's runs. He had an RBI double to center field in the sixth and then knocked home the second run on a single through the right side in the eighth inning. Johnson finished the year with a .344 batting average and had a team-high 30 RBI for the season.

Devin Johnson and Brian Guler had the other two hits for Concordia. Johnson went 1-for-4 for the game but finished the season with a team-best .390 average. He also led the team in slugging percentage (.690), on-base percentage (.451), runs scored (26), hits (41) and total bases (72).