April 22, 2017- Concordia-Chicago honored three special seniors today after they took care of business by sweeping Alverno College today 8-0 and 5-2.  This is a special group of seniors with it being head coach Sarah O'Malley-Fisher's first recruiting class.  Michele Alexander, Emily Owens, and Courtney Pepper made it a memorable senior day as they contributed to two big wins to extend their winning streak to seven games, push them into sixth place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, and become the winningest class in program history.  

In game one, CUC jumped on the Inferno early in the first inning.  Melissa Balkema continued to be the catalyst atop of the Cougars lineup after drawing a leadoff walk.  After a stolen base and groundout that moved Balkema to third.  Reigning female athlete of the week Allison Kruk stayed hot in the four spot hitting a rocket to right to drive in Balkema that gave CUC a 1-0 lead.  

The Cougars opened up the game in the second inning with a little help from the seniors.  Junior Katie Sullivan, like most of the CUC lineup, continued her hot stick at the plate launching a solo home run to left center.  After a Pepper walk, Owens muscled one out to left center for her first home run of the season to give Concordia-Chicago a 4-0 lead after two.  

CUC added four more in the fifth inning on a Sullivan RBI single and Pepper two RBI double to eight-run rule Alverno and give the Cougars an 8-0 win.  Marita Van Dyke went the complete game for Concordia-Chicago giving up two hits, zero runs, walking two, and striking out one.  Van Dyke improved her record to 10-6 with the win.

Game two proved to be much more of a challenge for CUC.  The Inferno jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.  However, in the Cougars bottom half, they quickly put an end to any momentum Alverno thought they had by tying up the game on a Balkema home run to dead center.  

Like game one, Concordia-Chicago opened the game up in the third inning this time putting up a crooked number.  Owens started the third off with a nine pitch walk.  After a Balkema single and Stefanie D'Anna single, that brought up Alexander with the bases loaded.  Alexander did her job by getting a run home on a groundout to the right side to give the Cougars their first lead of the game at 2-1.  Kruk followed that up with a hot shot up the middle to score Balkema and D'Anna to extend the Cougars lead to 4-1.  CUC added another insurance run later in the inning on a Kristen Landon RBI groundout to give Concordia-Chicago a 5-1 lead after three innings.

Alverno added a run in the sixth to make it 5-2, but the Cougars held off the Inferno to give them the sweep on the day.  Pepper started the game going five innings, giving up four hits, two runs, walking three, and striking out four to push her record to 5-3 on the year, while Julianne Nation finished the game for CUC throwing two scoreless innings. 

The Cougars (20-12, 10-6 NACC) return to action tomorrow afternoon as they travel up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to take on Wisconsin Lutheran College.  First pitch is scheduled for 12:00pm.