Milwaukee, Wis. – After winning two hard fought games yesterday to advance to the semifinals, the Concordia University Chicago Cougar Softball team took to the field for a big showdown with Benedictine University today in the NACC Tournament. The Eagles grabbed an early 2-0 lead but CUC was able to fight back. Benedictine built their lead out to as many as six, and CUC looked to rally, but came up just short by a final score of 10-9.
Sydney Getz led the offense with two homers on the day and four RBI's.
Marita Van Dyke finished a perfect 4-4 with a homer herself. In total CUC combined for 13 hits as a team. Van Dyke took the loss inside the circle, allowing five earned runs over three innings.
Julianne Nation came in relief allowing four runs on six hits.
Benedictine opened the scoring on the night, picking up an unearned run in the first and a run on two hits in the second. The Cougars fought back though, getting singles by
Shania Phillips and
Melissa Balkema to put two on with one out for Van Dyke. She ripped a double to left field to tie the game at two in the third.
The Eagles broke the 2-2 tie in the fourth by putting up six runs on five hits in the bottom of the fourth to take an 8-2 lead. That score remained the same until the sixth. After Van Dyke and
Allison Kruk singles, Getz launched her first homer of the night deep to left to pull CUC back within three. A single by
Kristen Landon and back-to-back errors loaded the bases for Balkema. Balkema was able to work a full count walk to pull the Cougars back within 8-6.
Unfortunately for CUC, the Eagles were able to plate two important insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on four hits.
The Cougars tried to build one more rally in the seventh. Van Dyke led off the inning with a line drive homer to left. After a Kruk single, Getz launched a no-doubter over the left field wall to pull CUC back within 10-9 with no one out. The Cougars were able to get the tying run on base, but a nice running catch by the Benedictine center fielder ended CUC's hopes of a comeback for the second straight game.
The Cougars (26-14) will now take on the Aurora Spartans tomorrow with the winner moving on to take on Benedictine in the championship round. First pitch is set for 9:00am from Milwaukee.
