April 19, 2025
Seniors Celebrate With a Walkoff Win And 100th Hit
Concordia hosted its annual Senior Celebration Day and came away with a walkoff win over St. Scholastica as well as a 100th career hit from Caiden Kjelstrom.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (4/19/20)---Concordia celebrated its 19 seniors by coming up with a walkoff win in Game 2 against St. Scholastica to gain a split in the conference doubleheader.
The Cobbers proved the adage, "it's not how you start, it's how you finish". Concordia had only seven hits in the first 14 innings, including three in a 5-0 loss in the opener of the 2-game series, but came up with four hits in the final two innings in the finale to rally from a 1-0 deficit and post a 2-1 win.
Senior Caiden Kjelstrom had a double celebration on the day as he recorded his 100th hit to open the ninth inning and came around to score the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly from Luke Van Erp. Kjelstrom becomes the 31st player in program history to reach the 100-hit milestone.
The split keeps Concordia in the middle of a 6-team playoff race for two spots in the 4-team conference playoffs. CC is now 8-6 in league play and in sixth place in the MIAC standings. The Cobbers are 16-14 overall.
St. Scholastica is also in the 6-team playoff race and is 5-8 in the conference and 14-15 in all games.
Game 1: Concordia 0, St. Scholastica 5
The Cobbers were never able to string baserunners together in the opener as they were shut out for only the second time in 2024.
Concordia only had three hits and seven baserunners in Game 1. The Saints won the game in the second inning when they scored three times on three hits.
The Cobbers' best chances to score came in the first and fourth innings when they had runners on first and second with only one out but couldn't get a clutch hit to open the scoring.
Luke Knudsen, Thomas Horan and Brayden Wolfgram had the hits for CC. Horan also had two walks as he went 1-for-1.
Dylan Inniger, Gavin Gast and Thad Lieser combined to pitch the 7.0 innings. Gast went the longest with 3.0 innings. He gave up one earned run on four hits. Lieser pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh innings.
Game 2: Concordia 2, St. Scholastica 1
The second game appeared to be headed in the same direction as the opener until good luck smiled on Concordia in the eighth inning.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the fifth inning, and it looked like starting pitcher Matt Forrest was going to make it hold up. He handcuffed the Cobber hitters for the first seven frames but got into trouble in the eighth.
The rally started with an Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe single up the middle. Mason Henry came in to pinch run and the move paid off as Henry advanced to second when Ben Shumansky got beaned and used his wheels to score on a single from Wyatt Gunkel that didn't get very far into center field.
The Cobbers nearly took the lead in the next at-bat when Knudsen singled, but Shumansky was thrown out at the plate.
The best play of the ninth inning came when Kjelstrom hustled from first to third on a sacrifice bunt to the third baseman from Horan. Kjelstrom saw that the third baseman had fielded the bunt and no one was covering third, so he used hit speed to take the extra base and set up the winning run.
Junior Brock Anderson put together his second stellar start. Anderson started the game, went the first 7.0 innings and only allowed two hits – both of which came in the fifth inning.
Anderson retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced and took a no-no into the fifth frame.
In his last two starts, Anderson has gone 14.0 innings and only allowed one earned run and has struck out 11.
Dylan Erholtz came on in the eighth inning on Saturday and got the win by pitching a pair of scoreless innings. He only conceded one hit and struck out two to record his third win of the year.
Concordia finished with eight hits in Game 2. Knudsen and Kjelstrom were both 2-for-4 while Henkemeyer-Howe went 2-for-3.
Concordia will host Crown in a non-conference, 9-inning game on Tuesday, Apr. 22 at 2 p.m.
