May 2, 2013 - A wet and chilly afternoon at Alverno Field in Milwaukee provided the backdrop for the Concordia-Chicago softball team's first round Northern Athletics Conference tournament game against Concordia University Wisconsin. The game was a tough competitive one between the two longtime rivals but, in the end, the Cougars stranded too many runners on base in losing 5-4 to the Falcons.
Both teams stranded runners in scoring position in the first, but the Falcons pushed across an unearned run in the second off of Cougar starter Alicia Salata (Bartlett, IL/H.S.). An error and passed ball led to the run scoring on Holly Zinnecker's ground ball to second.
The Cougars evened the score in the third. With one out, Andrea Kelly (Elk Grove, CA/Laguna Creek) doubled to leftfield, just missing a homer by about a foot. Kelly advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Meghan Johnson's (Glendale Heights, IL/Glenbard West) ground single to right. The Cougars went on to load the bases, but Falcons' pitcher Jamie Schuh fanned the next two batters to escape further damage.
The Falcons went back on the attack in the bottom of the inning. With two outs and two runners aboard on walks, Abbie Goetsch looped a single to leftfield just out of reach of Jenni Jensen (Chicago, IL/Luther North) as the runner on second came around to score. Mariah Giesseman was next up, and she drilled the first pitch over the fence in right-center for a three-run homer and a 5-1 Falcons' lead.
The Cougars began to chip away at the lead in the fifth. Kelly led off with a single, and Johnson drew a walk. a Force play at third notched the first out of the inning, but Jensen slapped a single up the middle to score Johnson from second. An error on the relay throw moved the runners to third and second. Once again, however, Schuh reached back and retired the next two batters on strikes to keep the score at 5-2.
Undaunted, the Cougar batters went back on the attack in the sixth. Pinch-runner Haley Kalinichenko (Phoenix, AZ/Horizon) drew a walk to lead it off. One out later, Olivia Hires (Denver, CO/Bear Creek) drilled a double to rightfield to score Hannah Solyom (Lombard, IL/Walther Lutheran) and make it a two-run game. Hires took third on an error, and the intensity got higher when Kelly worked a walk on a nine-pitch at-bat. Johnson's grounder up the middle was backhanded by the second baseman whose flip to the shortstop just nipped Kelly at second while Hires crossed the plate.
Allie Bochat (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South) timed a changeup and hit it to centerfield for a double. However, the fielders got to the ball quickly and Johnson was forced to hold up at third base. Schuh then retired Jensen on a bounce back to the circle, and the Cougars' rally was halted still a run short.
The Falcons threatened to open the lead up again as a pair of errors put runners on third and second with no out. But Kelly did a masterful job of holding the Falcons scoreless with a pop-up, fly to short center and a grounder to second. Kelly blanked the Falcons over the final three innings on two hits with two strikeouts and a walk.
Sarah James (Riverside, IL/Riverside-Brookfield) represented one final chance for the Cougars in the seventh as she was hit by a pitch with one out. But Schuh escaped one final time as she got Solyom on a liner to second and Caitlin Richards (Chicago, IL/Mother McAuley) on a grounder to second.
The Cougars (19-21) will look to keep their tournament hopes and season alive on Friday morning at 11:00 when they play either Benedictine University or Dominican University.
