The weekend against the University of Minnesota-Crookston was a successful one for the Golden Bears. Many parts of our game that have been struggling lately came through for us. Starting pitching has been up and down for us lately, with just one starter throwing more than four innings in the St. Cloud State series (Andy Fagely (Mahtomedi, MN) complete game victory). This weekend would be different for us. Fagely took the ball in game one and delivered five and a third innings of quality baseball in route to an 18 to 8 victory. Nick Anderson (Plymouth, MN) shut down the Golden Eagles in the final inning and two-thirds in his first appearance of the series. The relief appearance was Anderson’s 19^th on the season and he notched his fourth save of the year. Offensively for CU it was the men in the middle that came through again. Brenden Furrow (Johnston, IA) launched his 9^th and 10^th homeruns of the year, only to be out done by Blake DeVries (Eden Prairie, MN) who sent two baseballs of his own out of Bob Barnes Field. DeVries second homerun of the game, a three run shot to complete the ten-run rule was his 14^th of the season. That ties him for the Concordia single-season record for homeruns with Matt Borman (03-04, 07) who connected with 14 long balls in 2007. Furrow also tied a record in the game, the career record for most games played, his 168^th career game tying Dave Johnson (95-98).

In game two Chris Peterson (St. Anthony, MN) took that ball, and Furrow was in the lineup at first base locking up another career record. Peterson was the dominate pitcher we have seen time and time again delivering another quality start. He went the full seven innings scattering just four hits and allowing just two runs, only one of which was earned. The performance lowered Peterson’s ERA to 4.64, the best of the starting rotation. Furrow and shortstop Bryan Lippincott (Des Moines, IA) each put up 3 for 4 performances, and Jon Stockton (Oakdale, MN) hit his second homerun of the season in the bottom of the sixth to tally up the final score of 13 to 2.

On Sunday CU came out with the same intensity to take care of business. We were in position to win and even possibly sweep our first weekend series of the year. Ben Lemke (Rosemount, MN) took the ball in game three for his team leading 10^th start of the season. Lemke went six innings allowing three runs on six hits while striking out eight Golden Eagle hitters. Ty Hall (Spring Lake Park, MN) made his sixth appearance throwing a scoreless seventh after getting in trouble early and inducing a 5-4-3 double play to get out of a jam. Nick Anderson made his 20^th appearance of the season to get the final six outs, six up-six down. Five CU hitters had multi-hit performances in the game, including Stockton who drove his third homerun of the season over the right centerfield fence.

Game four sent Nick Anderson back out to the mound for his third appearance of the weekend and 21^st overall. Anderson stumped the Golden Eagle hitters the way he had all weekend with a complete game performance surrendering just one run. On the weekend Anderson had two save and a complete game victory. He logged 10 and 2/3rds innings giving up just the one run while striking out 10. For his efforts Anderson was named the NSIC pitcher of the week. On offense Furrow, Freshman J. T. Schneider (Oak Creek, WI), and Sophomore Troy DuBay (Urbandale, IA) all had two hit games. CU worked Golden Eagle pitching for nine runs and clearly that was all the Anderson needed.

The game four victory by Anderson completed the weekend sweep of UMC. It was CU’s 8^th victory in the last nine games. The weekend saw many milestones. Furrow captured his sixth record, DeVries tied the homerun record with 12 games to play, and Schneider extended his team best hitting streak to 19 games.

Today we travel to Mankato, MN for a pivotal mid-week double-header with Minnesota State-Mankato. The Mavericks had a bye week this weekend so the 27-9 (16-4 in NSIC, 2^nd) team should be rested and will provide a tough test to our hot streak. Conference play has been good to us with Bryan Lippincott being in the top 5 in most major categories, including second in batting average hitting .488 in conference. All eight starters are hitting over .300 in conference play, and Lippincott, Stockton, Furrow, DeVries, and Schneider are all over .400 against NSIC opponents. Pitching has been exceptional as of late against the NSIC teams. Hogan Jackson (Oakdale, MN) is 2-0 in conference play, and will get the ball in one of the games against MSU-Mankato today. CU heads south with a new and improved 18-22 record (10-9 in NSIC), and sits in 8^th place in the standings just .5 game back of Augustana, and 1.5 games back of Minnesota-Duluth and that sixth and final place in the NSIC tournament. These next two weeks will decide the postseason fates of all the bubble teams, and a successful day in Mankato would go a long way in propelling us up the standings.

In-Season Notes:

Next Game: Minnesota State University-Mankato (Mankato, MN), Double-header, Wednesday, April 21^st, 2010, 1:30pm

Overall Team Record: 18-22

Central Region Record: 13-16

Conference Record: 10-9

Conference Standing: 8^th (Week of April 19th)

If any readers have any feedback or questions that they would like answered please feel free to email SID@csp.edu, and I will answer them in future blogs or through email if they are better suited to be answered that way. Personal thoughts from readers are always appreciated.

-Go Golden Bears-