| Mt. Marty twice earns comeback victory to spurn Bulldogs |
The Concordia University baseball team's failure to hold a lead was never more evident than in the back-to-back losses Sunday afternoon to the Mount Marty College Lancers at Plum Creek Park in Seward, Neb. Mt. Marty earned a 13-10 comeback win in game one and then scored four runs in their final at bat for an 8-6 game two victory.
In game one Mount Marty started the scoring early with three runs in the top of the first, but Concordia responded with five runs on home runs by Jamie Dillard and Joe Becerra. The Bulldogs would hold a 9-3 lead heading into the top of the fifth inning, when the Lancers scored two runs, then added six in the sixth and another two in the seventh to take the 13-10 victory.
Dillard led the Bulldogs' offense going 4-for-4 with six RBI's. Morgan Blatnik, Zach Goodrich, and Joe Becerra all had multiple hits for the Concordia offense in game one.
Reliever Josh Anderson was tagged with the loss for the Bulldogs, coming in with the lead and giving it up after facing three batters and allowing earned three runs.
Concordia looked to be in control in game two leading 5-2 heading into the fifth when trouble struck again. Mt. Marty scored six unanswered runs to take an 8-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. Concordia pushed a run across after Mt. Marty short stop Jason Livermont's throw sailed wide of the bag, but the Lancers' Jason Schmidt struck out Zach Goodrich with runners on first and third to end the game.
Steven Ivanoff picked up the loss on the hill for Concordia,, surrendering eight runs (all earned) on 11 hits while striking out five. Ivanoff's pitching record now sits at 2-4 for the 2009 campaign.
With the loss Concordia falls to 4-18 overall and 0-4 in the GPAC, while Mt. Marty moves to 14-10 overall and 4-0 in the GPAC.
Next action for the Bulldogs comes March 24 as Concordia travels to Peru, Neb. to take on Peru State in one nine inning contest; first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.