March 24, 2017- The Concordia University Chicago Cougars enjoyed a two-week break following the opening 10 game Florida trip. The weather early in game one today against the North Park Vikings felt like Florida with the temperatures nearly touching 80 in Chicago. With a change of the wind though everyone in attendance was reminded that it is still spring in the Midwest, with the thermometer quickly dropping during the game. The Cougars though would get hotter as the temperature fell, winning a three hour, nine inning game 7-5 in game one, before putting the gas pedal down, leading to the 12-1 game two win and sweep over host North Park.
 
"14 days off has its pluses and minuses," said head coach Sarah O'Malley-Fisher." The girls got some much-needed rest, and we were able to break some of our flaws down that came out in Florida. The girls were definitely ready though to get back out on the field tonight."
 
In game one, North Park would work out of a one out jam to begin the game. They then built some momentum in the bottom of the first, scoring three runs on three hits including a two out two RBI double. The two teams then went quietly in the second and third innings, before the Cougars clawed back, doing all of their damage with two outs in the fourth.
 
Michele Alexander would lead off the fourth inning with a frozen rope of a line drive for a double to left field. She would be standing on third with two outs when CUC would rally. Elizabeth Foxley singled home Alexander with a single down the right field line. She promptly stole second with a nice slide on the outside of the bag avoiding the tag. Megan Strong then singled moving Foxley to third. After a Vikings' pitching change Stefanie D'Anna drew a walk to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Foxley to score, and a single by Kristen Landon brought home the tying run. The go-ahead run at the time for CUC would be gunned out trying to score on a nice North Park relay.
 
After a shutdown bottom of the fourth, CUC took the lead momentarily in the fifth. A leadoff walk drawn by Melissa Balkema would be worked around to score on an RBI ground out by Sydney Getz making it 4-3 CUC. Unfortunately, North Park would bring home the tying run with a double to center field with two outs, a ball just out of the reach of Foxley.
 
The two teams plate appearances in the sixth and seventh came up dry resulting in free softball in game one. The two teams would both fail to score in the first extra frame, but CUC would not allow the 4-4 score to stand in the ninth. Again, with two outs, CUC would do their damage. With Strong on third and Allison Kruk on first, it would be the sophomore shortstop Balkema with the big tape measure blast over the left-center field wall for the big three runs to make it 7-4 CUC. Julianne Nation then closed the door on the game one win in the ninth inside the circle. Nation went the distance for the Cougars, picking up her first win of the year in the process.
 
"Julianne battled today, "remarked O'Malley-Fisher. "She kept making pitches, and after that first inning did a fantastic job giving our offense time to heat up and fight back."
 
In game two there would be no fighting back for the Cougars. CUC plated six runs in the first and 12 in total, leading to the 12-1 sweep of North Park.
 
The Cougars batted through the order in the first inning of game two, with the first six batters reaching base. RBI's by Alexander, Marita Van Dyke, Landon and Getz helped to power the CUC offensive attack. The Cougars added another run in the second with Alexander's second hit of the game which brought Balkema around to score who was hit by a pitch to begin the inning, making it 7-0 CUC.
 
After North Park brought one across in the bottom of the third, CUC answered with three more runs. With Van Dyke and Landon on base, Getz launched her first long ball of 2017 over the right-center field fence, an opposite field homerun to push the Cougar lead to 10-1.

After an extensive lightning delay, CUC added on two more runs in the fifth. Emily Owens singled, bring home both Alexander and Balkema to push the lead to 12-1. From there Van Dyke closed the book on the Vikings, wrapping up a complete game one run outing where she allowed just five hits. For Van Dyke tonight marked her fifth win of the season inside the circle for CUC.
 
"The girls stepped up," said O'Malley-Fisher after the sweep. "I challenged the girls to put the game together from start to finish and they did in game two. Our bats came alive and we put the pressure on them with our aggressive base running. We got great pitching tonight as we have all season long. Now the challenge will be to play consistent with the high energy that we had tonight."
 
The Cougars (7-5) will now get ready to hit the road again on Sunday. They are set to take on the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Elmhurst College at the Ballpark at Rosemont with game times set for 10:00am and 2:00pm.