Sower sports roundup, May 1

By Maddy Peters, Sports Editor

The Concordia men’s golf team played in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Golf Championships from April 29-30 in Beatrice and finished their season with a ninth-place finish in the tournament with a three-round score of 303-314-314–931 (+67).

Senior Drew D’Ercole continued to shine through his final college competition by finishing with the best conference record in school history. He tied for fourth alongside Morningside University’s Braden Bernaldo with a score of 69-77-75–221 (+5). The previous best placement belonged to former teammate Ivan Yabut who earned that distinction in 2022.

Alongside D’Ercole was junior Jake Hagerbaumer (T28) with a 76-79-80–235 (+19), freshman Jacob Dowd (T36) with a 79-75-84–238 (+22), junior Justin Webert (44) with a 79-83-79–241 (+25) and a tag-team effort between sophomore Brock Rogers and senior Gavin McWhorter. Rogers played the first two rounds 79-88 and McWhorter took over for the third round with an 80.

The Concordia softball team finished up their season as well in the GPAC Softball Pod Play in Sioux City, Iowa losing 3-1 to the Morningside University Mustangs and 6-3 to the Mount Marty University Lancers. The team ended with a 23-25 record.

Concordia took an early lead against Morningside with an unearned run by freshman Aubriana Krieser from a distraction by senior Taylor Glause who reached base off an error by the Mustang’s second baseman. Morningside tied the game up in the top of the sixth with a double. The game went to extra innings, but the team was unable to come out ahead after two more points for Morningside in the eighth.

Junior Megan Eurich was the losing pitcher for the game going eight hits for three runs, eight strikeouts and recording three errors.

The Bulldogs went down early with Mount Marty scoring all six of their runs in the top of the first inning. Krieser responded with a home run in the bottom of the first, and Glause and senior Julia Van Wey hit in the last two runs for the season. Van Wey hit a triple that sent Krieser running home and Glause had a sacrifice groundout.

Sophomore Taryn Ganstrom was the pitcher credited with the loss, going four hits for five runs, no strikeouts and recording four errors. Eurich quickly took over for Ganstrom and went two hits for one run and 10 strikeouts. Eurich also eclipsed the season strikeout record during the game with 194. The previous record was held by Nicole Sempek who had 193 in the 2010 season.

The Concordia esports team played Robert Morris University on May 1 in Overwatch 2 in national semifinals after beating teams from several big universities such as Kansas State. The team lost 3-0 on three separate maps losing 2-0 on the control map, 5-4 on the escort map and 3-1 on the flashpoint map. The team is now finished for the school year.

The control map in Overwatch involves teams fighting to take and keep control of a point on a map for a certain amount of time. The escort map involves a team moving a “payload” throughout the map and making checkpoints along the way. If the attacking team is on the payload, it moves forward, but if the defending team is on it, it moves backwards towards the nearest checkpoint. The flashpoint map is similar to the control map but is a much faster charge.