After 52 games and countless hours of hard work on the practice field and in the weight room, the 2010 baseball season is over for the Concordia University Golden Bears. We finished 23-29 overall, 15-16 in the NSIC. We played a game on every day of the week going:

0-2 on Mondays

0-3 on Tuesdays

4-8 on Wednesdays

4-3 on Thursdays

0-1 on Fridays

7-6 on Saturdays

8-6 on Sundays

We played teams representing nine different states:

Iowa 1-1

Indiana 0-1

Kansas 1-1

Minnesota 13-16

Michigan 0-1

Nebraska 3-3

South Dakota 3-5

Wisconsin 1-1

West Virginia 1-0

We went 7-10 in one run games, but 5-2 in games that were decided by a walk-off.

We had 19 players combine for 1664 at bats, 15 players and 1250 at bats of experience will return next year with a solid nucleus of .300 hitters coming back in Bryan Lippincott (Des Moines, IA) .410, Jon Stockton (Oakdale, MN) .348, J.T. Schneider (Oak Creek, WI) .319, Troy DuBay (Urbandale, IA) .307, and Logan Bouts (Hopkins, MN) .302 all returning to the lineup.

We had 12 pitchers account for 384.2 innings, and every one of them is coming back.

While we were disappointed with the outcome of the season, and not making it to the conference tournament, we saw many great things from the year. So many people got valuable experience that will go along way over the next couple years as we try and build into a championship caliber team. The 2010 season saw a run through the record books like never before. Brenden Furrow (Johnston, IA) etched his name into the top of every major Concordia offensive record. He now owns:

Career Games Played: 183

Career At Bats: 663

Career Hits: 262

Career Runs Scored: 154

Career RBIs: 186

Career Homeruns: 36

Career Doubles: 55

Single Season RBIs: 70

Single Season Homeruns: 18

Furrow and Bryan Lippincott tied on two more school records:

Single Season At Bats: 205

Single Season Hits: 84

The season didn’t end the way we had hoped, but it was still a great year. Brenden Furrow, Blake DeVries (Eden Prairie, MN), Steven King (Johnston, IA), and Ryan Iverson (Spring Lake Park, MN) will all be missed. Blake is one of the more intriguing stories in Concordia baseball history. Throughout his freshman and sophomore years Blake was one of the top pitching prospects in all of the upper Midwest. Even at a smaller division two school Blake was still projected to go as high as the fifth round of the major league baseball draft. Just a couple games into his junior year Blake suffered what would be a career ending elbow injury. Blake would never throw another pitch at Concordia, but dedicated to his team and baseball he redefined himself as a power hitter. Blake smashed a school record 17 homeruns this season, only to have that broken by Furrow. DeVries hit .335 for the season, and over .400 in league play. Call it CU’s version of the natural, but Blake made a major difference in the Golden Bear lineup this season. Steven King and Ryan Iverson both spent their CU careers as role players after transferring from different schools. King will continue his academic career at CU next fall as he finishes up his athletic eligibility handling the kicking duties on the Golden Bear football team.

Thank you to all the seniors, Brenden, Blake, Steven, and Ryan.

Furrow was named First–Team All-NSIC at first base, DeVries was named Second-Team All-NSIC in the outfield, and Lippincott was named Second-Team All-NSIC at shortstop. Lippincott and DeVries were also named to the Academic All-District second and third teams respectively.

Work starts for next year already as we move forward into summer ball. People will be travelling to different places to play ball in the summer. Many people will be playing in the competitive amateur league in Minnesota on some of the best teams. A couple players have aspirations of catching on with a team in the premiere Northwoods league, and I, myself will be heading to Honolulu, HI to play for seven weeks in the Hawaii Collegiate Baseball League against some of the best players in the country. Hopefully we can all improve over the summer and come back next fall rejuvenated and ready to dedicate ourselves to Concordia baseball and our dreams of conference, regional, and national championships. With such a large core of returning players we should be in a great position to surprise some people next year.

In-Season Notes:

Next Game: CU Alumni Game (Barnes Field), Saturday, October 2nd, 2010, 10:30am

2010 Overall Team Record: 23-29

2010 Central Region Record: 19-23

2010 Conference Record: 15-16

Conference Standing: 8^th (Final Standings)

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-