March 10, 2013 - During the three-year tenure of Concordia-Chicago head baseball coach Adam Smith, the season-opening Spring Break trip has provided a springboard for a successful season. Collectively, the Cougars are 21-5 in Arizona since 2011 after a 7-1 trip closed out today with a 6-2 win over Bethany Lutheran College.
"We're very happy to close the trip with what was probably our best game of the week today," said Smith. "Our pitching and defense were outstanding, and we're confident in our hitting as always."
Ryan Thorsen (Lake Villa, IL/Grant Community) keyed today's Getaway Day win with a typically quick-paced performance. The lefthander allowed just two runs on four hits in seven innings of work to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Concordia opened the scoring in the top of the third.
Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic), whom Smith cited as "playing a great third base for us this week," led off with a single up the middle. Zubrzycki was at second base with two out when
Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) lined a single to right. Gier headed to second base as the throw home was too late to catch Zubrzycki, and Gier was able to move to third when the throw ended up in the dugout
. Kyle Huber (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech) then lined the first pitch to rightfield, and Gier scored to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.
The lead grew to 4-0 in the fourth.
Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly), who went 4-4 at the plate today, singled between first and second. Vikings' starter Garrett Benson retired the next two batters but then hit Zubrzycki and
Robert Weis (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) to load the bases.
Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) followed with a clutch two-run single to put the Cougars in control.
Bethany Lutheran fought back with single runs in the fifth and sixth, but Thorsen stopped the Vikings' momentum by fanning Clint Aretz with the tying runs aboard in the sixth. Thorsen then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to close out another fine performance.
The Cougars added a run in the eighth as
Rich Santarelli's (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) sacrifice fly scored Randerson. Another sacrifice fly in the ninth off the bat of
Derek Binninger (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) pushed across the final run in the ninth.
Kurt Kempema (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.), who earned the win in Wednesday's 4-1 victory over Simpson College, pitched the final two innings and earned his first save. The sophomore retired all six batters he faced, getting Aretz on a foul out to the catcher to wrap up the victory.
The Cougars will return to action next weekend when they play four games in Indiana against DePauw University and Rose-Hulman Institute.
