BISMARCK, N.D. – A pair of exhilarating ballgames turned into two heartwrenching losses for the University of Mary on Military Appreciation Day. Twice U-Mary witnessed Concordia University, St. Paul score the winning runs in the final inning of each game as the Marauders dropped 4-2 and 5-4 Northern Sun decisions to the visiting Golden Bears.
 
GAME 1: Concordia – St. Paul 4 U-Mary 2
A pitching duel between U-Mary's McKeon Meyhoff and Concordia's Zach Rengel came down to the final inning of play. With both pitchers in command, it took a late break for the Golden Bears to escape with the win.
 
Trenten Hove opened the scoring with a solo home run to left for U-Mary (3-27 overall, 1-15 NSIC) with two outs in the third inning. After the Golden Bears (12-12, 10-6) tied the game in the fourth, the Marauders used speed and small ball to regain the lead in the fifth.
 
Cory Dixon led off the inning with a ground ball through the left side. Hustling out of the batter's box, Dixon sprinted all the way to second for a double when he noticed the Concordia left fielder slow play the ball. After moving to third on a Mason Schiff sacrifice, Dixon scored on Tom Imholte's suicide squeeze bunt on a two strike pitch, providing U-Mary a 2-1 lead.
 
Bad luck struck for the Marauders in the sixth. After a pair of two out singles put runners on first and second, David Henke hit a high chopper to third. As Ethan Meide came in to make the play, the ball took an ugly hop off the lip of the grass for a run-scoring single to even the game at 2-2.
 
Concordia won the game in the seventh on a two-out base hit by Conner Olson. CSP tacked on a second run on a U-Mary throwing error.
 
Refusing to fade away, Brett Doepker hit a leadoff single for the Marauders in the bottom of the seventh. Ben Hildestad reached on a one-out walk before Rengel ended the U-Mary threat by striking out the next two hitters to end the game.
 
Meyhoff posted a career-high eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings. The junior from Hazen, N.D., allowed three earned runs on ten hits and one walk.
 
Rengel was just as powerful, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out seven.
 
Doepker went 2-for-3 to lead the U-Mary offensive attack. Dalton, Andrew Shotwell and Olson all had two hits for Concordia.
 
GAME 2: Concordia-St. Paul 5 U-Mary 4
After defensive miscues allowed both teams early runs, the Marauders scored three times in the fifth inning to build a 4-1 lead. Tom Imholte reached on a walk and a botched Golden Bears pickoff throw allowed the freshman catcher reach third base. After staying close to the base on a Hove infield hit, Imholte scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Seth Meide. Ethan Meide followed with a hard hit double into the left field corner to put both Hove and Ethan Meide in scoring position. After a walk to Sean Hennen to load the bases, Drew Fueurbach laced a single through the right side to score Hove and Meide and build a three run lead for the Marauders.
 
The Golden Bears chipped away at the Marauders advantage with two runs in the sixth before tying the game on a solo home run by Eric Fasnacht leading off the eighth.
 
Another heads up play by Dixon in the eighth gave the Marauders a glimmer of hope of retaking the lead. With Fueurbach on third after a wild pitch and passed ball, Dixon walked and raced to second when the Golden Bears catcher slowly sauntered out to the mound with the ball to chat with his pitcher. No damage resulted when relief pitcher Yuji Suzuki retired the Marauders on a strikeout.
 
A bloop single behind first base for leadoff hitter Alex LaPorte and three straight walks gave Concordia the final run it would need. One batter latter, Steckler induced a pitcher to home to first double play to keep U-Mary within a run.
 
U-Mary made one last run for the win in the ninth. After Suzuki retired the first two batters, Seth Meide reached first on a fielding error on the Concordia first baseman and took second when the defender compounded his mistake by firing the ball into the Golden Bears dugout, automatically advancing Seth Meide. Ethan Meide then walked and the twin brothers moved into scoring position on a passed ball. Suzuki regained control of the situation by striking out pinch hitter Clay Bassingthwaite for the final out of the game.
 
Jake Johnson provided the Marauders 5.1 effective innings. Despite allowing seven walks, the freshman gave up just three runs, two earned runs and four hits. He struck out three. Kenny Slominski struck out three and allowed just two hits in 2.2 innings of relief.
 
Suzuki picked up the win with three innings of scoreless relief. He struck out five, walked two and allowed just one hit.
 
Dixon and Hove both had two hits to lead the U-Mary offense. LaPorte led Concordia with two hits.
 
The two teams conclude their four-game set with a doubleheader at 12 noon at Municipal Ballpark.
 
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