Gameday Recap

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (4/19/08)--Concordia junior catcher Kyle "Big Papi" Johnson had the best day of his career as he carried the Cobbers to a 6-1, 9-6 sweep over St. John's in Collegeville on Saturday. Johnson went 6-for-8 on the day and hit three home runs, drove in six runs and totaled 18 bases in Concordia's critical conference series sweep over the Johnnies.

With the two wins the Cobbers even their MIAC record at 5-5 on the year and move to 12-10 overall. The 12 overall wins is one more than they had in all of last season. With their .500 record in league play, the Cobbers move into sixth place as they begin to jockey for position in the four-team playoff race. St. John's drops to 3-7 in the conference and 9-14 in all games.

Kyle Johnson received a lot of help from Adam Johnson (no relation) in the first game against the Johnnies. Adam Johnson pitched his first complete game of the season and held St. John's to only one run on four hits. He gave up the lone run in the first inning and then allowed only one more hit in the final six innings of play. He retired 18 of the final 19 batters he faced in the game. Johnson's outing helped him lower his team-leading ERA to 1.93 on the year. He also earned his third win of the year and is now 3-0 in 2008.

Despite Adam Johson's mastery on the mound in the opener, the game was still tied at 1-1 heading into the top sixth inning. That is when the Cobbers seized control of the series. They would score twice in the sixth and add three more runs in the seventh to open up the first game and cruise to the 6-1 win. The Cobbers scratched out the pair of runs in the sixth on one hit, two bunts and a wild pitch. While CC played small ball for their runs in the sixth, they went long ball for the trio of runs in the seventh. Kyle Johnson hit the first of his three home runs on the day and helped post the three insurance runs in the inning.

Concordia outhit St. John's 7-4 in the opener. Besides Kyle Johnson's two hits, Michael Carlson was the only other CC player to get more than one base hit. Carlson went 2-for-4 batting from the leadoff spot.

In the nightcap, Concordia scored runs in all but the first and seventh innings and had a pair of three-run frames. The Cobbers took eventually took a 9-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning before the Johnnies scored twice in the sixth and three more times in the seventh to get to within three at 9-6. Junior pitcher Nick Petro entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and retired three of the five batters he face to pick up his second save of the year.

The second game was all Kyle Johnson as his hitting line read like a fantasy game. He doubled in the second inning, tripled in the third and then finished off the day by hitting home runs in the fifth and sixth innings. It was his 10th multiple-hit game of the season and extended his hitting streak to 15 games. Johnson also has 10 multiple-RBI games this year.

The Cobbers were outhit 16-12 in the finale. In addition to the four hits from Kyle Johnson - Nick Lewis, Fred Weiss and Erick Sykora all had two-hit games each. Lewis and Sykora went 2-for-3 while Weiss was 2-for-4.

Junior pitcher Scott Schumacher earned his team-leading fourth win of the year by going the first five innings. He allowed three earned runs and struck out three. Petro was credited with the final inning and struck out two batters.

Concordia will return home to finish off their back-to-back conference doubleheader weekend. The Cobbers will host St. Olaf on Sunday, Apr. 20 at 1 p.m.