Softball drops two to Concordia-St. Paul

Saturday, April 9

St. Joseph, Minn.

1:00 p.m. CT

St. Cloud State

22-6-1, 5-4

Concordia University, St. Paul

20-10, 8-1

Concordia-St. Paul

St. Cloud State

Alexandra Pinkowski robs a Golden Bear of a home run in game two Saturday afternoon.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

4/9/2022 5:14:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Huskies lose two one-run games Saturday afternoon

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – The St. Cloud State University softball team is human after all. The Huskies dropped their first two games in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play Saturday afternoon, falling to Concordia-St. Paul 2-1 and 4-3. With the losses, St. Cloud State's record now stands at 20-11 and 8-2 in NSIC play.

GAME ONE: St. Cloud State (1) vs. Concordia-St. Paul (2)

Runs and hits were hard to come by early in game one, as Trinity Junker (Lindstrom, Minn. / Chisago Lakes) and Bryanna Olson found themselves deadlocked in a pitcher's dual. The Golden Bears, though, forced Junker to pitch deep into counts, drawing multiple walks through the first half of the game. The Huskies, meanwhile, put runners on base in both the second and third innings with nothing to show for it, as Holly Wienberger (Waconia, Minn. / Waconia) tallied the team's first hit in the bottom of the second and Raven Vanden Langenberg (Seymour, Wis. / Seymour) reached in the third after getting hit by a pitch.

St. Cloud State ran into problems in the top of the fourth, as a dropped third strike resulted in a runner on second with zero outs. Junker pitched her way out of the jam, recording three strikeouts in the inning to preserve the 0-0 tie. The Huskies, then, went ahead and scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the inning, going up 1-0 on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Sophie Culhane (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove). After Sydney Trees (Prior Lake, Minn. / Prior Lake) and Jasmin Estrada (Litchfield, Minn. / Litchfield) opened the inning with back-to-back singles, head coach Mitch Roberts opted to use small ball to gain an advantage for St. Cloud State. First, he had Weinberger bunt before pinch hitting Culhane for Maggie Fitzgerald (Oak Lawn, Ill. / Richards). With Trees on third, Culhane laid down a perfect bunt to no man's land, giving the HUskies a 1-0 advantage in the fourth.

Concordia-St. Paul answered with runs of its own in the top of the fifth, taking a 2-1 lead on its own squeeze play. That lead held for the remainder of the game, as St. Cloud State was unable to answer in the fifth, sixth or seventh innings, resulting in the 2-1 loss.

GAME TWO: St. Cloud State (1) vs. Concordia-St. Paul (2)

The Huskies found themselves in an early hole in game two, as the Golden Bears wasted no time jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. A lead off double, followed by a wild pitch and sacrifice fly resulted in the early lead for the visitors, whose bats were hot after the game one win. St. Cloud State answered in the best way possible, evening the score 1-1 in the bottom of the second. Alexandra Pinkowski (Prior Lake, Minn. / Prior Lake) took advantage of a Golden Bears error, reaching base with two outs and advancing to a second on a pass ball. She later scored the game-tying run on an RBI double by Lydia Krueger (Appleton, Wis. / North), making it 1-1 after two.

Neither team was done scoring, as Concordia-St. Paul took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third thanks to two more hits by the Golden Bears. The Huskies responded, taking a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth thanks to clutch hitting by Krueger and an RBI walk by Vanden Langenberg, before Concordia-St. Paul tied it again, resulting in a 3-3 lead after six. Unfortunately, the Golden Bears scored in the top of the seventh and St. Cloud State was unable to answer, resulting in the 4-3 win for Concordia-St. Paul.

TOP HUSKIES

Holly Weinberger (Waconia, Minn. / Waconia) went 2-2 at the plate in game one, while Sophie Culhane (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) was 1-1 with an RBI.
Trinity Junker (Lindstrom, Minn. / Chisago Lakes) struck out nine in game one, including a three-strikeout inning in the third.
Raven Vanden Langenberg (Seymour, Wis. / Seymour) and Lydia Krueger (Appleton, Wis. / North) were both 2-3 at the plate in game two and accounted for all three RBIs.

UP NEXT
St. Cloud State will face #18 Minnesota State on Sunday, April 10. As of now, the Huskies will host the Mavericks at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. at Selke Field in St. Cloud, Minnesota.