Erholtz' Homer Not Enough As Cobbers Split

CLERMONT, Fla. (3/03/20)--- Concordia is honoring the opening of the Moorhead Dairy Queen by showcasing splits. Unfortunately for the Cobbers they aren't the delicious "banana" split variety. For the third straight day Concordia ordered the less tasty "win one, lose one" split concoction.

Junior Megan Gavin iced the bats from Mitchell (Conn.) in the opener as she struck out 11 and only allowed a single soft serve hit in the Cobbers' 4-0 triple scoop win. Unfortunately, the hot Florida sun melted Concordia's hopes for a sweep and CC was left holding an empty cone in an 8-3 loss to Eastern Nazarene (Mass.).

The win/loss combo marks the third straight day Concordia has claimed the victory in the first game only to fall in the second. CC is now 3-3 on their spring training trip. They are now 5-3 in the 2020 season.

Concordia had four different players record a single multiple-hit game on the day. Maria Pake, Kate Wensloff and Hannah Wilke all had more than one base knock in Game 1 and Taylor Erholtz had two of the Cobbers' four hits in Game 2.

GAME 1
Gavin cranked up her "A" game against Mitchell. She blew threw the Mariners lineup, struck out the side in the second and third innings and had at least one K in five of the seven innings.

When the dust settled on her complete-game win, Gavin finished with 11 strikeouts and the only blemish on the stat sheet was a bloop, "seeing-eye" single with two outs in the sixth inning.

Gavin has now had at least six strikeouts in all four of her starts this season and the 11 K's marks the seventh time in her college career that she has had a double-digit strikeout total. Her career high for a single game came last year when she fanned 13 batters in the Cobbers' win over Rosemount in Florida.

Gavin also upped her career strikeout total to 256 which is fourth on the school's all-time K list.

The Cobbers got the game-winning run in the third inning when Pake led off with a double and then scored on an Elizabeth Asp RBI single.

The biggest hit of the game for Concordia came in the fourth inning when sophomore Valerie Kolstad led off the inning with a home run to left field. The long ball was Kolstad's second of her career.

CC gave Gavin two more insurance runs in the sixth when Wilke scored on an error and then Pake singled home Callie Ahlgren.

Concordia outhit Mitchell 10-1 in the game. CC had only two extra base knocks and came away with five stolen bases. Wilke led the charge by going 3-for-3 and swiped two bases. Pake was 2-for-4 from the leadoff spot and Wensloff went 2-for-3 at No.2 as the top 2 hitters in the Cobber order continue to do damage.

GAME 2
The second game was decided in the first two innings when Eastern Nazarene plated four runners in the first and two more in the second.  The Lions outhit the Cobbers 11-4 in the game.

Concordia scored a single run in the fourth and then tried to rally in the seventh but could only come up with two runs. Once again the long ball came in to play for the Cobbers. Erholtz went deep to start the scoring for CC in the fourth. It was the second HR of her career and second in the last 12 games she has played. She went yard in the second-to-last MIAC DH last year.

The Cobbers then scored two runs on two hits in the seventh. The big hit of the inning came from Emma Redlin who drove in both runs with a 1-out double to center field.

Freshman Amber Taylor went the first 5.2 innings in the circle and allowed two earned runs and struck out four. Wilke entered the game in the sixth and was saddled with the loss. Cassie Bohnsack finished off the final four outs for CC.

UP NEXT: Concordia is on the way down of their 10-game trek in Florida. The Cobbers will play Saint Vincent (Pa.) and Roanoke (Va.) on Wednesday, Mar. 4 at 9:45 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. (cst) and then finish off their trip with a pair of games on Thursday, Mar. 5.