RIVER FOREST, ILL. — A cold front made its way through River Forest today as the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) softball team took to the field. Playing a non-conference opponent that was rescheduled from earlier in the season, the Cougars battled the North Park University (NPU) Vikings. In this double header matchup, the Cougars swept the Vikings with scores of 10-2 and 8-7.
Game One
Inside The Box Score:
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Jaidyn Harris (Jurupa Valley, Calif.) was lights out in the circle as she picked up her first complete game and win as a Cougar. The junior pitched all six innings and gave up four hits with four strikeouts.
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Leading the way offensively was Arissa Santos (Moreno Valley, Calif.) who went 2-for-2 with two walks, two runs, and one RBI
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Following right behind her was Becky Pieroni (Montgomery, Ill.) who went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, one run, and two RBIs
As the wind picked up at Cougar Field this afternoon, the Cougars and Vikings were heating up for some competition. In the first two innings of play, the Vikings would strike first as they would score off of a ground out and double to make it 2-0 for NPU. It would not be until the bottom of the third when the Cougars would get the bats going. With bases loaded, Melisa Hadzic (Westchester, Ill.) would send a ball through the left side to score Pieroni and Gina Westphal (Elmhurst, Ill.) and tie the game up 2-2.
Santos would then grab herself a walk and allow another Cougar to cross the plate and take the lead 3-2. Kallie Tierney (Corona, Calif.) would then get a ball in play to score Hailey Howard (Machesney Park, Ill.) and CUC took their lead to 4-2. The battle would stay locked between these competitors until the Cougars came back up to bat in the bottom of the fifth. With the bases full of Cougars, Annabella Archuletta (Pueblo, Colo.) would single through the right side to allow Hadzic to score and make it 5-2 CUC.
The action would not stop there as Jessica Geng (Phoenix, Ariz.) would beat out a hit to the shortstop and score Howard to drive it to 6-2. To finish off the action in the fifth, Pieroni would scorch a double off of the wall to score two more Cougars in Archuletta and Santos to truly get away to 8-2.
While the Cougar bats were hot, multiple defensive plays were made and Harris found herself in the zone as she picked up a handful of strikeouts. The bottom of the sixth is when CUC would finish off NPU. This was thanks to an Archuletta single to right center and Santos's expert base running to allow the Cougars to take game one with a score of 10-2 in six innings.
Game Two
Inside The Box Score:
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This game was led by both Hadzic and Geng who both went 3-for-4
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Santos picked up another 2-for-2 game and two walks
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Taking control in the circle, Tierney picked up her first win of the season and Harris grabbed her first save as a Cougar
Coming off of a huge run-rule victory, CUC was ready to take advantage of their momentum. Tierney started it off by getting the Vikings on their heels and allowing Santos to cross the plate and go up 1-0. Right after, Geng would single to left field and Archuletta would score off some heads up baserunning and take the lead to 2-0.
However, the Vikings were not going to be silenced that easily as they had a three-run blast in the top of the third to take the lead 3-2. This was the first time in the afternoon that a huge shift of energy was placed into NPU's hands. The score would stay motionless until the bottom of the fourth, this is when the Cougars would juice up the bases. Hadzic would have another liner up the middle to score Pieroni and Haley Gulsby (Englewood, Fla.) to take the lead 4-3 CUC. Alexis Hilgert (Naperville, Ill.) came in to pinch hit and hit a huge gap shot to score Hadzic and Nikita Robbins (Lafayette, Ind.), making it 6-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, the game seemed to be in CUC's hands as Santos and Archuletta both singled up the middle. This would score the final two runs of the game and bring the Cougar lead to 8-3. The Vikings were not done yet, as they slowly started to chip away at the CUC lead. In the top of the seventh, a Viking pinch hitter would hit a two-run shot to bring the score to 8-5. Then, back-to-back singles would bring the Vikings one run away from tying up the game 8-7. But with Harris back in the circle, she took care of business and secured the sweep with a score of 8-7 in game two.
The Cougars will be back in action on Saturday as they host Lakeland College at 12 and 2 p.m. Coverage for all of our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
