BOX SCORE

Surprise, Ariz. - Scott Hays hurled seven scoreless frames and struck out seven in leading the Concordia University Texas baseball team to a 5-0 victory over California Lutheran on Friday, Feb. 17 at Surprise Stadium. The Tornados, who were playing at the Texas Rangers' Spring Training facility, improved their record to 8-1 this spring. Check back later for a box score.

Concordia (8-1) scored one run in the first and third innings to go up 2-0 after the early innings. Brent Schaekel scored the game's first run on a Collin Janssen single before Alec Carter plated Kyle Bieschke on a sacrifice fly.

Following three scoreless frames, the Tornados added one insurance run in the seventh and two in the eighth to produce the final outcome. Schaekel smashed an RBI single through the left side to give the Tornados a 3-0 cushion, and Gommert belted a two-run double to right in the top of the eighth. Reliever Austin Rupert only needed to face seven batters over the eighth and ninth frames to ice the shutout.

Hays picked up the victory for Concordia and improved to 2-0 by surrendering only four hits over seven innings. He fanned seven and walked only two before Rupert struck out three in the final two frames to pick up the save. Byron Minnich of California Lutheran (5-2) was tagged with the loss and fell to 1-1 after surrendering five hits, three runs, including two earned, while striking out five and walking two.

Concordia continues play at the Arizona Desert Classic when it faces George Fox tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. CST at Anthem's Boulder Creek High School.
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Concordia (8-1)                     101     000     120     5     7     2
California Lutheran (5-2)     000     000     000     0     5     1
     Concordia: Scott Hays, Austin Rupert (8) and Collin Janssen.
     California Lutheran: Byron Minnich, Jordan Cox (7), Spencer Trygg (8) and Mike Vinyard, Kevin Eto (8).