March 19, 2016 - The Concordia-Chicago baseball team's four-game weekend in the Lone Star State featured a doubleheader of sorts today with mixed results. Game one saw the Cougars endure a 13-0 thumping at the hands of host Concordia Universtiy Texas. However, the Cougars did not have to sit on that loss for long as they met another Texas school, Howard Payne University, one hour later. The Cougar bats got back on track in game two as they took down the Yellow Jackets by a score of 11-5.

Concordia-Chicago drew first blood against HPU in their initial at-bat. Joe Sliva (Arlington Heights, IL/Hersey) walked and stole second base. He was there with two outs when Brent Spohr (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) shot a single to the opposite field to give CUC the 1-0 lead.

The Yellow Jackets matched the opening tally with a run in the bottom of the first off Alex Meyers (Edwardsville, IL/H.S.), but the Cougars found the scoreboard again in the third. Bryan VanDuser (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield North) led off with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and to third on a wild pitch. VanDuser came home on Mitch Wilson's (Oswego, IL/H.S.) grounder to the second baseman. That lead lasted until the bottom of the fourth when HPU plated a run to tie the game again.

The Cougars regained the lead for good in the fifth inning. Once again, VanDuser started the uprising with a leadoff single and then stole second. Silva drew a walk, bringing Wilson to the plate. Wilson smacked a single up the middle, scoring VanDuser and sending Silva to third. Moments later, Wilson took off for second, drawing a throw from the catcher. When the throw sailed into center field, Silva trotter home with the second run of the inning. Concordia-Chicago then added a run in the sixth when Grant Davis (Morris, IL/Morris Community) doubled and scored with two out on VanDuser's third hit of the game.

The score remained 5-2 until the eighth when each team scored a run (CUC's coming as Garvey scored on a wild pitch). Concordia-Chicago then put the game away with five runs in the top of the ninth. Two walks and an infield single loaded the bases for Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) who reached on a base hit as Silva scored. The next two runs scored on wild pitches, and the final two came across on a throwing error by the HPU pitcher. The Yellow Jackets competed the scoring with two unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Meyers earned his third win of the season with seven innings of work. The right hander allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts. Brian Musielak (Chicago, IL/Brother Rice) finished up with two innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on three hits and one walk against two strikeouts.

The win was a satisfying bounce-back for CUC after a seven-inning loss to Concordia-Texas. Tornados pitcher Lane Hobbs shut down the Cougars on five hits over 6 1/3 innings. The Tornados scored six times in the first two innings to take early control and never look back.

The two Concordias will play the rubber game of the series on Sunday morning at 11 a.m.