Day 2 Double-Filled Split

STORY LINE: Sophomore Megan Gavin pitched a one-run, eight-strikeout, five-hit gem in Concordia's 3-1 win over Carthage in the Cobbers' first game of Day 2 in Florida and then CC ran into an opportunistic Eastern (Pa.) team in the second game and lost 12-4 in five innings.

RECORDS: Concordia is now 3-1 on the season and will have six games left on their Florida spring break trip. Carthage, who was picked to finish second in the competitive CCIW, is now 2-2 on the year while Eastern wins for the first time in 2019 and improves to 1-3.

GAME CLIFFSNOTES: Concordia and Carthage swapped 1-run first innings before the Cobbers plated a pair of runs in the third to come away with the 3-1 win. The two big hits of the game-deciding third frame came off the bats of Taylor Erholtz and Madison Kostelecky. Erholtz doubled down the left-field line to score the game-winning run and then Kostelecky singled to center with the bases loaded to give CC an insurance run. Concordia scored a single run in the first inning again in the second game but then the roof caved in on the Cobbers as Eastern scored four runs in the first and eight times in the first three frames. CC got to within one run in the top of the third inning at 5-4 but then the Eagles scored three in the bottom of the inning and added two each in the fourth and fifth to win 12-4.  

IDENTICAL BACK-2-BACK STARTING GEMS: Sophomore pitcher Megan Gavin started the opener against Carthage and for the second straight start she only allowed one earned run, allowed five hits and struck out eight. She had the similar stat line in the season opener against New England College on Sunday and repeated the performance against the Lady Reds. She is now 3-0 on the year and has struck out 22 in 17.0 innings of work.
    
TOUGH-OUT TAYLOR: Sophomore Taylor Erholtz had two hits in each game and went 4-for-6 on the day. She raised her team-leading batting average to .583 through the first four games. Erholtz has had had multiple-hit games in three of the four contests in Florida. Erholtz has also reached safely in all four CC games this season.  

THE HITS OF MADISON COUNTY: Freshman Madison Kostelecky extended her hitting streak to three games as she went 1-for-3 in each game on Monday. She also added to her team-leading RBI total with a single RBI in both games. Kostelecky is now hitting .364 for the season and has driven in seven runs. Like Erholtz, Kostelecky has reached base in all four games this year.  

STAT STUFF: Eastern was able to get their big innings started with success from the leadoff spot. The Eagles went 4-for-5 at the start of an inning and then backed that up by hitting .526 with runners in scoring position and .500 with runners on third base…there were a combined 11 extra-base hits in the two games and all 11 were doubles. The Cobbers and Carthage only had two extra-base hits in the first game and then CC had three doubles as compared to six for Eastern in the second game…Taylor Erholtz leads CC in extra-base hits. She has four doubles on the year.

UP NEXT: Concordia will hit the halfway point of their Florida trip when they Rosemont (Pa.) and Widener (Pa.) on Tuesday at 12:30 and 2:45 at the Osceola Softball Complex in Kissimmee, Fla.