Sower sports roundup, week of February 15

By Keith Siek

Concordia’s spring athletics gave fans plenty of opportunities to cheer for their teams this week. Here are some of the games fans might have missed.

Men’s Tennis

Men’s Tennis hosted Nebraska Wesleyan University on Feb. 16 with a 7-0 win and defeated Ottawa University on the road 6-1 on Feb. 21 to continue their undefeated season in seven games.

The Bulldogs went undefeated across both meets in singles competition, with many players extending personal winning streaks in singles play.

In singles action, freshman Leo Lopez shut out Nebraska Wesleyan’s Gleen McChristian 6-0, 6-0 and took down Ottawa’s Lillian Wessels 6-1, 6-0. Lopez has won all four singles matches this season, joining undefeated seniors Nick Velders and Santiago Abadia with the same record against their singles competition on the year.

Velders reached his fourth win in singles action against Ashton Rames of Nebraska Wesleyan, 6-1, 6-4, and Ottawa University’s Dan Sanchez Rojas, 6-1, 6-2.

Abadia continued his undefeated season in singles play with wins over Nebraska Wesleyan’s Riley Voss, 6-1, 6-2, and Ottawa’s Matias Mazierez, 6-1, 6-1.

In doubles action, the team of Velders and sophomore Ben Chisholm defeated both teams from Wesleyan and Ottawa. Concordia’s Abadia and junior Daniel Caballeros also went undefeated against Wesleyan and Ottawa over two meets.

Women’s Tennis

Concordia faced Ottawa University on Feb. 21 and took the meet with a 6-1 win. The following day, women’s tennis added two more wins to their record against Baker University and the University of Saint Mary, both with the score of 4-1.

During singles play on Saturday, senior Alana Lopez Pagan took down Ottawa’s Meriam Alli-Balogun 6-1, 6-2. Sophomore Nina Milic won her singles match against Te’a Newcomb 6-3, 6-4.

Milic and Lopez Pagan then paired up in doubles competition to defeat Ottawa’s doubles team, Paula Persson/Newcomb, 7-5.

On Sunday, senior Mariana Molano notched two points for Concordia, beating both her opponents in singles action. In Molano’s first singles match of the day, she defeated Baker University’s Arizbe Espinosa 6-2, 5-7,10-7. Molano followed up with a 6-2, 6-3 win against University of St. Mary’s Shannon Finn.

The Bulldogs move to 7-1 on the season and play their next meet in Fremont, Nebraska, against McPherson College Feb. 27.

Baseball

No. 16 Bulldog’s baseball faced Clarke University and No. 25 Central Methodist University this week, going 1-1 in two games. Bulldogs took down Clarke 9-8 in eleven innings on Feb. 19 and fell to ranked competition Central Methodist University 1-0 on Feb. 19.

Junior Alex Draper and freshman Andrew Fetty led the offensive attack against Clarke, each tallying three hit days. Draper showed off power in his three hits with a pair of doubles and a third-inning home run.

In the later innings, junior Jack Hirchert and senior Jimmy Blumberg contributed timely offense to help deliver the win. Hirchert hit a solo home run to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning, 6-6, after Clarke had taken their first lead of the contest. Blumberg hit a two-RBI double in the eleventh inning to retake the lead for Concordia.

Concordia’s bullpen pitched five innings against Clarke, and graduate student Caden Bugarske earned the win for his performance in the tenth and eleventh innings.

Against Central Methodist University, the Bulldog pitchers struck out twelve and surrendered a single run, but Central Methodist bested both marks by racking up fourteen strikeouts without giving up a single run.

Seniors Bronx Lewis and Jaeden Jordahl got on base with singles, the only two hits that Concordia could muster against Central Methodist.

With the loss, Concordia moves to 7-3 on the season and looks ahead to a four-game series against Graceland University in Fort Scott, Kansas, beginning on Feb. 27.