OMAHA, Neb. – On the regular season’s final day (April 26), Megan Eurich starred with the pitching arm and Aubriana Krieser shined at the plate as the Concordia University, Nebraska Softball team improved its positioning for postseason play. The exploits of Eurich and Krieser combined with stellar defensive play helped pave the way for the Bulldogs to win at College of Saint Mary by scores of 6-3 and 4-0. Krieser collected five hits and five RBIs for the day.
Head Coach Brock Culler’s squad is now locked into the No. 5 seed for the upcoming conference tournament. Concordia concluded the regular season with a league mark of 12-10 (27-18 overall).
“That’s our biggest takeaway – the execution of the game plan was so big,” Culler said. “Pitching was really good and we had no errors on defense. The execution at the plate was good. We got runners on, we moved them and we got timely hits. We put together two really good softball games, offensively and defensively, and the pitching was really good.”
Pitching and defense were a major strength on Saturday as Kaylei Denison and Eurich earned wins and the Bulldogs played error-free ball behind them. A week after making a critical diving catch in the left center gap in the 4-3 win over Mount Marty, center fielder Jennifer Katz put forth another doozy. In the bottom of the fourth of game two, Katz raced all the way from center to make a sprawling catch in shallow left field to rob CSM’s Amber Kosmicki of a hit. It was one of six flyballs Katz tracked down on Saturday.
In game one in Omaha, the Bulldogs overcame a 3-2 deficit thanks to a breakout fifth inning. Keira Farritor got Concordia within a run with an RBI single that scored Aubrey Bruning. The hitting star of the day, Krieser then chased home Tobi Topp and Taryn Ganstrom with a base hit to center. The 4-3 lead grew to a three-run advantage in the sixth when Laycee Josoff knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Ganstrom singled home another.
The late offensive production allowed Denison to push her season record to 12-5. She surrendered three runs in the fourth before tightening the screws and recording zeroes in the fifth through seventh frames. Denison walked only two hitters. In game two, Eurich needed very little run support. The Gretna native spun a four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts (moving her career total to 467). In the bottom of the seventh, the Flames loaded the bases with two outs before Eurich ended the threat with strikeout No. 10.
The Lincoln North Star alum Krieser led an offense featuring seven Bulldogs with multiple hits in the doubleheader. The school record holder for triples in a single season, Ganstrom keeps raking – she went 3-for-6 with two walks, three runs, a double, one RBI and two stolen bases on Saturday. As a team, Concordia went 8-for-8 on stolen base attempts. Bruning added two steals to her career total (53 – third most in school history). Additionally, Josoff supplied a late two-run single to give Eurich extra cushion in game two.
The five-hit day for Krieser emerged as a major development. Said Culler of Krieser, “We’ve been working hard on some of her swing mechanics, and it’s starting to come together for her. To have a day like this with those results is really good to see … This was a great opportunity to grab some momentum and get some good positive energy. I feel like we did that. The energy in our dugout was great today. We competed well. This is a really good sign because our big performers are performing big again.”
The slate gets wiped clean now with the postseason scheduled to get underway this coming Wednesday. As the No. 5 seed, the Bulldogs will be headed to Orange City, Iowa, for pod play at the 2025 GPAC Tournament. Northwestern and Midland earned the right to host GPAC postseason play after locking in the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively.