(Rio Grande, OH) Concordia Baseball opened up their weekend slate on Friday afternoon in Ohio against the RedStorm. The Cardinals picked up a balanced 8-3 win in game one before winning 8-5 in an incredible come-from-behind victory in the nightcap.
Game 1: Concordia 8 – Rio Grande - 3
Trey Acker opened up the weekend on the bump for the Cardinals, throwing his first collegiate complete game and moving to 3-0 on the young season. He gave up two earned runs while compiling four strikeouts through the seven inning game, giving the CUAA offense what they needed to win the game.
The Cardinal bats got things started in the first inning when Justin Kozlowski singled in the first inning and Jake Kuhlman scored from first base. In the second inning Derek Hebner singled to bring home Josh Burke. Rio Grande responded in the bottom half of the inning with a run of their own thanks to a Waskar Martinez sac fly.
Another run was tacked on for CUAA in the third inning when Alex Piotrowski hit a sac fly to score Garrett Williams. Jake Kuhlman started off a fourth inning rally by singling to score Harrison Ryan. Kyle Hebner then laid down a squeeze bunt to score Gus Simon. Tyler Wressel followed that up with a walk with Kuhlman scoring on the wild pitch.
Brett Haskins helped Rio Grande respond in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI double before then scoring on his own due to an error. The score was 6-3 after four innings. Jake Kuhlman then hit a 2-out, 2-strike, 2-RBI home run over the right center fence to put the Cardinals up 8-3 in the fifth inning, and thanks to two 1-2-3 innings from Acker, CUAA started the series off with a win.
Game 2: Concordia 8 – Rio Grande 5
Evan Jasiak started game two on the mound for CUAA. He went three innings pitched giving up zero runs with two scattered hits. The Cardinal offense was also shutout for the first three innings of play, but were able to add an Alex Piotrowski sac fly in the top of the fourth scoring Derek Hebner which broke the tie. The RedStorm responded quickly with an RBI single to left field in the bottom half of the frame to knot the game up at 1.
The RedStorm were then able to take a commanding 5-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning after scoring four runs on two RBI walks and a 2-RBI single. The Cardinals refused to go down without a fight in the top half of the last inning. The bases were loaded by Josh Burke, Alex Piotrowski, and Kyle Hebner to begin the inning due to two hit by pitches and a walk. Harrison Ryan then came through with a single up the middle to make the score 5-3. Later in the inning Derek Hebner walked to bring home pinch runner Garrett Williams. Justin Kozlowski then singled with two strikes to bring home Kuhlman and Ryan to take the lead. The next batter, Tyler Wressel, brought home pinch runner Ty Schornak on a bunt for a hit. Kyle Hebner added an insurance run later in the inning to give the Cardinals an 8-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. Kenneth (Dave) Rozmys struck out the side in the bottom half to give the Cardinals an incredible come from behind victory to move to 8-2 on the season!
The Cardinals are back in action once again tomorrow at Rio Grande to wrap up their four game series beginning at 12pm.
