MOORHEAD, Minn. (4/07/14)—Concordia allowed three runs in the first inning of their home opener and was never able to recover as they lost a pair of games to St. Olaf. The Cobbers fell 7-2 in the opener and 9-8 in the finale in the first conference games for both teams.
The auspicious start included a pair of unearned runs and three walks in the first frame. The Cobbers were never able to get back on track for the rest of game 1 and had their six-game winning streak come to an end. Concordia is now 8-7 in all games and 0-2 in the league. The Oles win for the fifth time in the last six games and move to 11-7 in all games.
The three-run first was just one of two three-run innings in the first game for St. Olaf. The also plated a trio of runs in the sixth inning, two of which were also unearned.
Concordia picked up their only runs of the game on a two-run homer to left field off the bat of Tim Carlson in the bottom of the seventh inning. Carlson was 2-for-3 in the first game and was the only CC player with more than one hit in the contest.
Jackson Meland started on the hill for the Cobbers and went the first 5.2 innings. He allowed only three earned runs and struck out four. Justin Anderson finished off the final 1.2 innings and did not give up a run. He struck out two and conceded two hits.
The second game was settled by the long ball and a pair of clutch double plays. St. Olaf scored five of the nine runs in the nightcap and the Cobbers hit into two ill-timed double plays. The Oles bolted out to a 3-0 lead behind a two-run homer in the second inning.
Concordia was able to take a 5-3 lead by scoring a quintet of consecutive runs in the second, third and fourth innings. St. Olaf then leapfrogged the Cobbers with five runs in the sixth inning. The final two runs in the frame came from a two-run homer. CC would then tie the game at 8-8 with three runs on three hits in the seventh inning. The big hit in the inning was a three-run double from Jordan Domine. Domine hammered a ball to center field that scored Devin Johnson, Michael Olson and Erik Hiedeman.
The game would be decided in the top eighth on a solo home run. St. Olaf was able to connect on a lead-off round tripper to go up 9-8.
The Cobbers pushed for the game-tying run in the bottom of the inning. CC had runners on first and second with only one out but a line drive back up the box was snared by the pitcher who relayed the ball to first to finish off the inning-ending twin kill.
Concordia posted 14 hits in the second game and had five players with at least two hits. Johnson was 3-for-5 while Domine went 2-for-4 and had three RBI. Jordan Gefroh hit the longest ball of the afternoon. He smoked a pitch that landed in the pine trees way over the left-center field fence. He was 2-for-5 and also had three RBI. Kyle Kraemer and Braden Rahman both collected two hits for the game.
Concordia used four pitchers in the game. Starting hurler Shawn Krueger gave up the three early runs and then retired 10 of the next 13 batters he faced before he was struck in the face with a batted ball and had to come out of the game.
The Cobbers will have little time to think about Monday's twinbill as they will travel to St. Paul to take on Macalester on Tuesday, Apr. 8 at 2:30 p.m.
