March 10, 2011 - One of the early-season defining characteristics of the Concordia Cougars has been to put runs on the board immediately after the opposition has scored. That trait occurred two more times today in the Cougars' 9-6 win over the College of New Jersey. The Cougars defeated the Lions for the second time this week and improved to 5-0 on the trip with four games remaining.
Freshman southpaw
Brenden Schulz (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) took the mound for the Cougars and battled through a rough first inning. The first two batters singled, and Schulz then hit Jimmy Ruzich with a pitch to load the bases. Schulz retired the cleanup hitter on a pop-up but walked Andrew Priece to force in the game's first run. The next batter hit a fly to right that was caught in foul territory, allowing the runner from third to come home. Schulz held the damage at two runs as he got a grounder to second to end the inning.
The Cougars got to work against Lions' starter Eric Lewis right away. With one out,
Robert Weis (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) and
Nick Skala (Long Grove, IL/St. Viator) singled
. Ryan Pacyga (Forest Park, IL/Nazareth Academy) was next up, and he picked on Lewis' first pitch and drove it deep to left. The ball hit off the fence as both runners raced around to score. Pacyga would score moments later when
Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant) singled between third and short to put Concordia up 3-2.
Cam Stephens (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) and
Kevin Rush (Fort Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) singled to load the bases, and
Joe Romano (Norridge, IL/Notre Dame) followed with a hard-hit line drive to leftfield that was deep enough to score Gier for a two-run lead. A walk to
Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) reloaded the bases, putting the Cougars back at the top of the lineup.
Eric Ignatowski (Carol Stream, IL/Glenbard North) hit a ground ball to first, but Lewis could not find the bag as he accepted the first baseman's flip, and two runs crossed the plate to cap the outburst and make the score Cougars 6, Lions 2 after one.
Schulz settled down and blanked TCNJ over the next two innings, but the Lions nudged closer in the fourth. With two on and two out, James Zegarski singled to left to score one run. The ball got past Stephens and rolled to the wall, allowing the runner on first to score and trim the Cougars' lead to two.
Once again, the Cougars responded with runs of their own. Miller led off with a single and, two outs later, Skala singled him to third. Pacyga again hit the pitcher's first delivery, poking the ball past the third-base line for a double. The RBI was Pacyga's third of the game and eighth in the last two days. Gier followed with a two-run smash single to center to put Concordia's lead at 9-4 after four innings.
No more scoring occurred until the top of the eighth. Michael Murphy's one-out single spelled the end of Schulz's day and a call to the bullpen for
Garett Balind (Bonfield, IL/Herscher)
. Balind hit the first batter he faced but retired the next hitter by knocking down a comeback liner and getting the force play at second. Alex Palmiotto followed with a dribbler in the infield, and the throw to first was too late and off-target as the runner on third scored
. Pat Conlin (Arlington Heights, IL/Rolling Meadows) entered the game and plunked Scott Kelly to load the bases, but he retired Zegarski on a grounder to second to keep the lead at 9-5.
The Lions scored a two-out run in the ninth on Andrew Priece's triple and Murphy's single, but Conlin caught Ed Zakrzewski looking at a third strike to end the game. Conlin earned his first save to go with his victory in Monday's game against New Jersey. Schulz allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits in his 7 1/3 innings while striking out six.
Concordia (5-0) will face Macalester College of Minnesota on Friday afternoon at 4:00.
