April 13, 2013 - The Concordia-Chicago softball team extended its winning streak to four games with an 8-4, 18-1 sweep of host Rockford College this afternoon. The wins let the Cougars even their Northern Athletics Conference record at 6-6 (9-16 overall).
Freshman pitcher
Alicia Salata (Bartlett, IL/H.S.) was the story in game one. She improved her pitching record to 3-1 with five innings of work, allowing three earned runs on seven hits. Salata helped her own cause at the plate with 3-4 including her first homerun of the season. That blast came leading off the third inning and tied the game at 2-2. Moments later, Concordia took a 3-2 lead as
Allie Bochat's (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South) single scored
Andrea Kelly (Elk Grove, CA/Laguna Creek).
The lead grew to 5-2 the following inning
. Sami DeFord (South Bend, IN/Marian) doubled and scored on a single by
Hannah Solyom (Lombard, IL/Walther Lutheran). Solyom later scored on a wild throw by the Rockford third baseman.
Rockford scored twice in the fifth to draw within a run. However, DeFord came in to pitch in the sixth inning and shut down the Regents over the final two innings to earn the save. Concordia added an insurance run in the sixth on
Olivia Hires' (Denver, CO/Bear Creek) base hit. Two more crossed the plate in the seventh, one scoring on DeFord's double and the second on Soloym's triple and Salata's single.
In game two, Concordia amassed a season-high 23 hits in running away to the easy victory. The fireworks began immediately as Jensen's triple scpred a pair of runs. In turn, Jensen scored on Solyom's base hit.
The Cougars kept rolling with two runs in the second and four in the third. Rockford scored its lone run in the third, but Concordia put the game out of reach with a nine-run fourth.
Meghan Johnson (Glendale Heights, IL/Glenbard West) singled to score two runs, and Solyom later added a two-run triple.
Johnson, Jensen and Salata all finished the game with four hits, with Johnson and Jensen collecting four RBIs each. Every member of the Cougars' starting nine score at least one run and record at least one hit. Johnson earned the pitching win, her third of the season. The freshman allowed just the one run on four hits in five innings while striking out eight.
Concordia returns to action on Tuesday afternoon when they host Benedictine University.
