April 29, 2012 - The Concordia-Chicago softball team entered play today needing doubleheader wins at Edgewood College and Maranatha Baptist Bible College this weekend to have any chance of returning to next week's Northern Athletics Conference tournament. The Cougars' hopes gained some momentum through a 8-2 first-game win against Edgewood, but an 8-0 loss in the nightcap combined with Dominican University's sweep of Alverno College officially eliminated Concordia from tournament play.

The Cougars took a quick 2-0 lead in game one as Olivia Hires (Denver, CO/Bear Creek) and Jenni Jensen (Chicago, IL/Luther North) reached base on errors. The runs would later score on a wild pitch and an infield out by Clarissa Gieseke (Roselle, IL/Lake Park).

Sami DeFord (South Bend, IN/Marian) extended the lead to 3-0 when she led off the second inning with her forst homerun of the year. The Cougars added two more runs in inning as Hires and Jensen had RBI singles.

Edgewood got on the board with a run in the fourth, but Gieseke got that back in the fifth with her team-leading fourth homer of the year, a solo shot to left-center. Gieseke later doubled home a run in the seventh after the Cougars picked up another run on Sarah James' (Riverside, IL/Riverside-Brookfield) RBI infield grounder.

DeFord earned her seventh win of the year allowing just two unearned runs on five hits in seven innings. The junior struck out five while walking three.

Concordia was unable to get any offensive momentum rolling in game two. The Cougars' only hits over the five innings were leadoff singles by Hires in the first and DeFord in the fifth. The Eagles scored three times in the third, two coming on a double by Elizabeth Spitzer, and added their final five runs in the fifth to put an early end to the game.

The Cougars (13-25, 10-12 NAC) will conclude the season Monday afternoon when they play at Maranatha Baptist.