March 31, 2014 – On the final day of three consecutive doubleheaders, the Cougars hosted North Central College in their home opener on CUC's campus in River Forest. The Cougars lost the first game 3-0 and the second 10-2.
Head Coach
Sarah O'Malley-Fisher said after the sixth game in three days that, "The scores today don't reflect our improvement as a team. The margins were the result of extensive play over the weekend. Our hitting was more aggressive and defensively it was great to get back to our home field with particular note to the defensive work by
Amber Mescall (Norridge, IL/Ridgewood) at third base being impressive."
In the first game of the day pitcher
Meghan Johnson (Glendale Heights, IL/Glenbard West) was on the mound and had a strong outing despite taking the loss. The only three runs for the Cardinals came in the second inning as they had four hits after two outs and tallied all three runs.
The rest of the game, all the bats were quiet for both teams. North Central pitcher Vlasta Mangia had a no-hitter going iwnto the seventh inning when
Alicia Salata (Bartlett, IL/Bartlett) singled to rightfield to break it up. But the Cougars couldn't close on the Cardinals, and the final was 3-0.
Salata started on the mound in the second game. The Cougars were in the hunt until the top of the fifth inning when the Cardinals got four unearned runs after two outs to break the game open at 8-0.
The Cougars showed their fighting spirit in the bottom of the fifth as
Michele Alexander (Tinley Park, IL/Andrew) singled to rightfield to lead off the inning, and
Emily Owens (Naperville, IL/Neuqua Valley) entered as a pinch-runner. One out later,
Andrea Kelly (Elk Grove, CA/Laguna Creek) singled to left field. Owens and Kellly moved up to third and second respectively on a wild pitch.
Haley Kalinichenko (Scottsdale, AZ/Horizon) fought through a nine-pitch at-bat to single to center and drive in two runs. Johnson followed that up by earning a trip to first base the hard way after being hit by a pitch. But with only one out, CUC couldn't take advantage to bring in any more runs.
Concordia returns to the diamond on Saturday, April 5 for a doubleheader at Alverno College in Milwaukee. Their next home game is a doubleheader on Sunday, April 6 versus Wisconsin Lutheran College with the first game at noon.
