Concordia seniors (L-R): Kelly Riordan, Nicole Johannes, Lexi Olek, Cora Zackrison and Brooke Swarthout
Concordia seniors (L-R): Kelly Riordan, Nicole Johannes, Lexi Olek, Cora Zackrison and Brooke Swarthout

Senior Day Split

STORY LINE: Concordia used a 6th-inning home run from Taylor Erholtz and a stellar pitching performance from Megan Gavin to come away with a split against St. Mary's on the annual Senior Day Celebration. Erholtz broke open a 2-2 in the first game to help the Cobbers to a 4-2 win and then the Cardinals came back to take the finale 14-0 in a game that ended after five innings.

RECORDS: The win in Game 1 was the second in the past three games for Concordia. CC is now 10-26 in all games and 2-18 in the MIAC. St. Mary's has won two of their past four and is now 9-25 overall and 5-15 in league play.

GAME 1 RECAP: Megan Gavin only allowed three hits in 7.0 innings of work. She didn't give up more than one hit in any inning. Her only stumble came in the fifth frame when she hit a pair of batters and walked in both runs. She settled down and then finished off the game by only allowing a single base knock in the final two innings. The Cobbers scored single runs in the first and third innings. Kate Wensloff singled home Maria Pake after Pake doubled to left center to lead off the inning. Taylor Erholtz scored the team's second run after she doubled with two outs in the third. Erholtz would score the game-winning run when she hit a laser over the left-center field fence in the bottom of the sixth. Madison Kostelecky brought home the insurance run later in the inning when she singled to plate Riley Bergstrom who pinch ran for Johannes after she singled to shortstop.

Concordia outhit St. Mary's 8-3 in the first game. Erholtz went 2-for-3, scored two runs and drove in a run. Kostelecky was also 2-for-3 with the RBI in the sixth. Gavin allowed three hits and struck out three.

GAME 2 RECAP: The second game was all St. Mary's as they scored three runs in the first and then added eight in the second to run away from the Cobbers. Concordia had three hits in Game 2. Riley Irmen, Emily Bukkila and Lexi Olek had the base hits for CC.

STILL IN THE .400 NEIGHBORHOOD: Cobber freshman shortstop Maria Pake went 1-for-4 on the day and is still within range to finish the season with a .400 average. Pake has a team-leading .398 average. She went 0-for-1 in the second game which ended a 5-game hit streak. Pake stole a base in the second game and now has a team-best 17 swipes on the year which is seventh best in the MIAC.

GAVIN CONTINUES TO GATHER: Megan Gavin picked up her 10th win of the year in the first game. She is the first CC pitcher to win 10 games in a season since Abby Haraldson won 12 in 2016. Gavin now has 147 strikeouts on the year is the third highest single-season strikeout total in program history.

UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off the 2019 season when they play at Hamline on Sunday, Apr. 28 at 1 p.m.