MORRIS, Minn. (4/05/10)-- The 2010 season was supposed to be one where the Cobber pitching staff would carry the team and Concordia would have to win games 2-1 and 3-2. Fortunately, no one told the CC offense that story and they have been tearing the cover off the ball for the past three games. On Monday, Concordia put up 17 runs and 18 hits and breezed past UM-Morris 17-1 in Morris.

The Cobbers have now scored 42 runs and recorded 50 hits in the past three games combined. So much for relying on the pitching staff.

Concordia has now won three straight games and four of their last five. CC is now 10-6 on the year and has posted their best record in the first 16 games of the year since the 1998 season when they were also 10-6 to start the year.

With the win on Monday Cobber head coach Bucky Burgau
moves closer to the 600-win plateau. Burgau now has 598 career wins and needs only two more to become the 20th active DIII coach to reach 600 wins and the 32nd in the history of DIII baseball.

The Cobbers scored multiple runs in each of first four innings. By the time Concordia finished their half of the fourth inning, they held a 10-1 lead and had put the game out of reach. CC then tacked on three runs in the seventh, two more in the eighth and a pair in the ninth.

Concordia starting pitcher Andy Erickson went the first six innings and allowed one earned run and only five hits. He also struck out two batters. Burgau then sent three different pitchers to the mound in the final three innings and each pitched one full inning. Clem Dupuis pitched the seventh frame and faced the minimum three batters. Andrew Skow-Anderson threw in the eighth and continued his scoreless inning streak. He gave up one hit and has now pitched 3.1 innings without giving up a run. Zach Weller finished off the game by pitching a 1-2-3 ninth and struck out the final batter of the game.

The Cobbers had at 10 players collect at least one hit in the game. Jake Krause continued his hot hitting streak. He was 4-for-7 against the Cougars and upped his team-leading batting average to .424. He has now hit safely in the last five games and has had eight multiple-hit games this season. Three other CC players also extended hitting streaks to five games. Dan Wackler was 1-for-5 and scored three runs, Michael Carlson went 3-for-4 and had two RBI and scored four runs and Nick Lewis was 1-for-3 and drove in two runs.

Nathan Haase, Jan-Erik Lindberg and Jordan Doschadis also had multiple-hit games. All three players had two hits in the game.

Concordia also extended their stolen base streak. CC swiped 11 bases against Morris and now has 53 for the season. The Cobbers have stolen at least one base in all 16 games this year. They are now 11 steals shy of the single-season team record of 64 set in 1984.

The Cobbers will continue their stretch of three straight non-conference games when they host Valley City State on Tuesday, Apr. 6 at 4 p.m.