Gameday Series Recap

(recap by Mike Larson - Concordia SID assistant)

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.-- An exciting finish to a closely contested game saw the Concordia College Cobbers fall to Franklin College (Ind.) 7-6 Monday morning in Port Charlotte, Fla. Concordia was up 6-5 with two outs in the ninth inning and the bases loaded, when Joel Chrobak’s ground ball rolled just passed the outstretched gloves of the middle infielders on its way to centerfield. Two Franklin runners scored to make Franklin a walk-off winner.

Concordia’s bats were stymied all morning by a pair of freshman lefthanders. Jared Applegate started the game for the Grizzlies, throwing six innings and allowing one run while striking out four. Sophmore Tony Flack relieved Applegate in the seventh inning and was given and unfriendly greeting by the Cobbers. Billy DeNet’s bases loaded two-run double highlighted a five-run inning. Flack gave up four runs without recording an out. Freshman lefty Cody Besselman relieved Flack and was eventually able to end the inning with only one run allowed, courtesy of Matt Youngquist’s RBI double.

Bucky Burgau saw another one of his starting pitchers put up a solid performance as Tieg Herman entered the 8th inning with only one earned run allowed and four strikeouts. Herman gave up back-to-back doubles to start the eighth and was pulled. Freshman Dustin Carlson made his Cobber debut as Burgau went for a lefty-lefty match-up. Carlson seemed nervous as his first pitch bounced half-way between the mound and the plate, allowing the runner on second to advance to third. Carlson settled down and eventually got the Franklin hitter to fly out, but resulted in a sac fly. Also making his Concordia debut, Matt Venturini was brought in to finish off the inning.

Venturini stayed in for the ninth inning with a 6-4 lead and looking for the save. After getting the leadoff hitter to pop up, Venturini hit #9-hitter Tim Rooze. Rooze was then forced out on Lance LaBonte’s groundball. David Federoff followed with a hard double to the wall that scored LaBonte from first. Venturini hit the next batter, then walked the next hitter on a 3-2 count to load the bases. With the bases loaded, two outs, and down by one run, Chroback had a chance to be the hero. Chroback took full advantage of that chance and grounded a ball back up the middle that eluded the outstretched gloves of shortstop Billy DeNet and secondbaseman Erick Sykora and into centerfield. Nathan Roberts came home from second base on the play to score the winning run.

DeNet was the only Cobber to have a multi-hit game, going 2-4 with 2 RBI, 1 R, and a walk.

Concordia’s next game is Tuesday at 2:30 ET against Catholic of Washington, D.C.