Cobbers Fall To Ranked Gusties

MOORHEAD, Minn. (5/03/16)—Concordia ran into one of the top pitchers and one of the top teams in the MIAC and dropped a pair of games in their last doubleheader at Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex.

The Cobbers fell behind second-place Gustavus 7-0 in the opener and lost 7-2 and were held to five hits in the second game and lost 5-2.

The two losses to the regionally-ranked Gusties drop the Cobbers to 16-22 overall and 3-17 in the MIAC. The Gusties win for the eighth straight time and finish the regular season at 26-10 in all games and 17-5 in league play.

Gustavus raced out to a 7-0 lead after the top of the fourth inning. That was more than enough run support for junior All-Conference pitcher Hannah Heacox who entered the game with a 2.15 ERA and a 16-4 record.

The Cobbers didn't have a hit until the fifth inning when Nicole Johannes led off the frame with a double to straight away center field. CC would then score both of their runs in the seventh inning. With one out in the seventh, Kayla Nack and Mackenzie McCloud had back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. After a ground out moved the runners up a base, Madi Veith hit a ball that was booted by the second baseman which allowed both runners to score.

Kali Covert and Mariah Prokott pitched all seven innings for the Cobbers. Covert started the game and went the first four innings and then gave way to Prokott who pitched the final three innings and only allowed one earned run.

The second game was a more hotly contested affair with the score at 2-1 after four innings of play. The Gusties got two runs off of CC starter Abigail Haraldson in the first and then Haraldson retired nine of the next 10 batters she faced.

Concordia got on the board in the fourth when McCloud doubled home Devonie Smith from first base. It would be the first of two doubles in the game for McCloud.

Gustavus had single-run innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings while Concordia added their final run in sixth. McCloud led off the sixth with a double and then scored after Sydney Roberts singled and then stole second. McCloud came home on the back end of the steal when the throw went all the way down to second base.

The Cobbers had five hits in the finale. McCloud went 2-for-3.

Haraldson pitched all seven innings a day after she threw 14 innings on Monday. Haraldson struck out eight hitters for the game.

2-HONEY
The eight K's for Haraldson pushes her season total to 195 on the year. That total extends her single-season school record and also extends her lead in the MIAC.         

GOING THE DISTANCE
Haraldson is also closing in on the single-season innings pitched record. Haraldson's seven innings on Tuesday gives her 175.2 for the year. That total is 8.1 innings shy of Erin John's school-record total of 184.0 which she set in 2008.

WHAT'S NEXT
Concordia will finish off the 2016 season when they play St. Olaf at St. Benedict on Wednesday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m.