Gameday Game Recap

VALLEY CITY, N.D.-- One of the hallmarks of Cobber head coach Bucky Burgau's tenure at Concordia has been his ability to develop young players and have them blossom into quality starting players in the latter half of their careers. Burgau used Thursday's non-conference doubleheader at Valley City State for such an opportunity. Concordia used 21 total player and had four freshman pitchers participate in their split with the Vikings.

Concordia won the first game 3-2 behind the shutout pitching of Nick Petro but then dropped the second game 9-8 in eight innings after Valley City rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 8-8.

The Cobbers missed an opportunity to bring their season record to the .500 mark. Concordia is now 10-12 on the year. The Vikings win for the third time in the past four games with their victory in the nightcap and move to 10-18 on the season.

Petro, making his collegiate debut for the Cobbers, pitched four innings and only allowed two hits. Although he issued five free passes, he was able to come up with clutch outs at the right time and avoid any damage. Fellow freshmen Darrin Carlson relieved Petro in the fifth and pitched two innings of scoreless baseball. He allowed two hits and gave up two walks while striking out one. Senior captain Brain Schumacher entered the game in the seventh and allowed two runs - one of which was unearned. He picked up his third save in the process by retiring the final batter on a ground out to third with runners at second and third.

The right side of the infield provided the offensive output in the first game. Second baseman Erick Sykora came up with a key two-run single in the second inning to stake the Cobbers to a 2-0 lead. First baseman Scott Halupczok scored on the single by Sykora and then knocked home the winning run for Concordia in the sixth inning when he singled to collect his second hit of the game.

Concordia outhit Valley City 6-5 in the opener but committed three errors.

In the second game, the teams traded six-run innings in the second inning. Valley City then took their first lead of the day when they scored a single run in the sixth inning. Trailing 7-6 in the seventh, junior slugger Chris Klabo came up with a crucial two-run, pinch-hit home run in the top of the seventh to stake the Cobbers to an 8-7 lead. Unfortunately they were unable to hold the lead in the bottom of the inning. Freshman hurler Matt Venturini was the victim of a pair of wild pitches which allowed the tying run to score.

The Vikings won the game in the bottom of the eight on a two-out double down the right field line.

Venturini was saddled with his third loss of the season after pitching the final 1.2 innings of play.

Concordia once again had more hits in the game than Valley City. The Cobbers belted out 10 hits on the game - only the seventh time this season they have recorded double-digit hit totals. Three of the ten hits in the game came off of the bat of sophomore outfielder Andrew Zimmerman. Zimmerman went 3-for-3 while scoring two runs and driving in a run. Zimmerman raised his average to .318 with his three-hit performance.

Besides Venturini, Concordia received five strong innings of work on the mound from a pair of inexperienced hurlers. Charlie Schoeck, like Petro in the first game making his collegiate debut, allowed only one hit in two innings of work. Freshman Scott Schumacher came on in the third inning and pitched three solid innings. He struck out two of the first three hitters he faced en route to allowing only one run in the three innings of work.

Concordia will return to MIAC action when they host St. Olaf on Saturday, Apr. 15 at 1:00pm at the Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex.