MOORHEAD, Minn. (3/31/15)—For only the second time in the past 11 years Concordia was able to play on their home diamond in the month of May but unfortunately the offense was unable to match the warm weather and the Cobbers lost 8-0 and 7-0 to No.12-ranked St. Thomas.
The home opener was also the first conference games for Concordia . The two losses snap a four-game winning streak for the Cobbers who fall to 6-5. The twin defeats also continue a string of hard luck on the last day of March for CC. Concordia is now 2-12 lifetime in games played on Mar. 31. St. Thomas is now 20-4 overall and 4-2 in the MIAC.
The home opener started with three scoreless innings as Concordia starting pitcher Hillary Rotunda continued her quality inning streak. Rotunda retired the first five batters she faced, three by strikeout, and then worked out of a two-out jam in the second.
After a 1-2-3 third inning, the Tommies came up with a lone run in the fourth on a two-out unearned run.
The big innings for St. Thomas in the opener came in the fifth and sixth frames where the Tommies put up seven runs on eight hits.
Concordia only had one hit in the opener and that came in the very first at-bat. Sophomore Madison Little led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to right field and CC had runners on first and second with only one out but were unable to score and were held hitless for the final six frames.
Rotunda gave up only five earned runs in the game and struck out six batters.
The Cobbers had five hits in the second game but were unable to get on the board. Concordia had runners at first and second in each of the fifth and sixth innings but couldn't come up with a clutch hit. Concordia was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and 1-7 with runners on base in the second game.
The Tommies scored single runs in the first and second innings but then broke the game open with a three-run pinch hit homer in the third.
Dominique Giesen and Kaia Nygord both had doubles in the second game for CC. It was the first two-bagger of theyear for both players.
Abigail Haraldson went the distance in the circle for Concordia in the second game. She struck out five and only allowed four earned runs.
The Cobbers will now embark on a back-to-back conference road trip. Concordia will play at Augsburg on Thursday, Apr. 2 at 3:30 p.m. and then head south to St. Peter to take on Gustavus on Friday, Apr. 2 at noon.
