Bonus Baseball For The Home Opener
MOORHEAD, Minn. (3/28/17) --- The Cobbers have been road warriors for the first six weeks of the season.
Being a baseball team in northern Minnesota, it just comes with the territory.
Mayville State improves to 19-5 overall while Concordia slips back to .500 at 7-7 with the tough loss.
The Cobbers managed to record just five hits through the first eight frames but the bats came alive when CC needed it most.
In the home half of the ninth inning, Austin Ver Steeg and Nate Hoeft started the rally with consecutive singles. Chad Johnson stepped to the dish moments later and ripped an RBI gap single to left field to score Ver Steeg from second base.
Two batters later, Joe Hallock tied the game with a bloop single to center that just got beyond the outstretched glove of the Mayville shortstop to score Hoeft.
With the speedy wheels of Johnson sitting in scoring position after the Hallock blooper, a Concordia batter went down on strikes to send the game to bonus baseball.
Hallock swapped his catcher's mitt out and went to a fielder's glove and took the mound for the extra frames.
Nick Gonzales singled to lead off and then proceeded to steal second. He was then sacrificed over and scored on the next pitch on a deep sac fly to left that was about three feet from leaving the yard.
Concordia went three up, three down in the bottom half of the inning to end the game.
Fletcher Andel started the game for Concordia and went three innings, allowing one earned run on five hits. Hallock (0-1) took the loss for his work in the bonus frames.
Four Cobbers had multi-hit days against Mayville pitching. Grant Toivonen, Nate Leintz, Hoeft and Hallock all recorded two hits for Concordia.
As aforementioned, CC had just five hits in the first eight innings, but pounded out six of their 11 base knocks in the last three frames.
NERD STATS – Grant Toivonen recorded his team-leading fifth multi-hit game of the season on Tuesday. Toivonen now has two or more hits in three of his last four games.
WHAT'S NEXT? It is a quick turnaround for the Cobbers as they host Jamestown on Wednesday, March 29 at 4 p.m. Concordia were swept by the Jimmies in the first two games of the season at U.S. Bank Stadium before embarking on their Florida Trip. Jamestown has won five straight and is currently 21-8.