Gameday Recap

MOORHEAD, Minn. (4/13/08)--Call it the curse of the home opener, or just a bunch of cobwebs from having to sit around and wait until the snow was finally clear from the diamond. However you want to spin it, Concordia dropped their first two games at home by falling to Gustavus 9-8 and 3-1 on Sunday. CC is now 0-6 in their past three home-opening doubleheaders.

The two losses snap the Cobbers' seven-game winning streak and evens up their conference mark at 2-2. CC is now 9-6 overall. The Gusties remain unbeaten in conference play. They are now 4-0 in the MIAC and 12-8 overall.

Concordia showed the effects of having only played three games in the past 22 days as they committed, an uncharacteristic, eight errors in the two games. The Cobbers had only made 14 errors in their first 13 games of the year.

The defensive miscues would cost Concordia dearly in the first game as they committed six errors and gave up five unearned runs.

The series started out well for the Cobbers. They scored four runs in the bottom of the second inning in the opener and watched as MIAC Pitcher of the Week Adam Johnson cruised through the first four innings of play.

The game started to go south for CC in the fifth inning when they conceded a single unearned run. That set the stage for the biggest frame of the day as the Gusties scored five times in the sixth inning. They followed that up with two more in the seventh.

Despite giving up the most runs in a single game this season, Concordia showed their mettle by climbing back into the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with a two-out rally and then almost tying the game in the bottom of the sevnth.

The Cobbers scored a pair of runs in the sixth on a two-out single by Scott Schumacher. They scored two more with two out in the seventh and had the game-tying run on third base before Kyle Johnson flew out to center field to end the game.

Johnson once again carried the load for the Cobbers at the plate in game one. He went 3-for-5 and drove in one run. Senior Drew Zimmerman also had three hits in the game, going 3-for-3. He also scored two of the team's eight runs.

The second game was more of a pitcher's dual but still had the theme of costly defensive errors.

Cobber pitcher Scott Schumacher locked up with Gustie righthander Adam Bren. Bren entered the game with an 18.00 ERA and proceeded to handcuff the Cobbers by allowing only two hits as he pitched the first complete game of his collegiate career.

Concordia's only run in the second game came in the third inning when Erick Sykora led off the frame with a double and then came around to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Michael Carlson.

Schumacher lasted until the seventh inning on the mound for CC. He went 6.1 innings and did not allow an earned run. All three runs Gustavus scored in the game were unearned bringing the day's total to eight unearned runs.

Kyle Johnson claimed one of the two Concordia hits in the finale to extend his hitting streak to nine games. He went 4-for-8 on the day and bumped his season average to .462.

Concordia will start to catch up on all the postponements from the past couple of weeks. After taking Monday off, CC will play back-to-back conference series on Tuesday and Wednesday. They will play at Macalester on Tuesday and then return home to face Hamline on Wednesday.