PHOTO GALLERY

BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Preseason All-America candidate Collin Janssen drove in three runs to spark an attempted rally, but the #10 Concordia University baseball team fell to Louisiana College by an 8-5 decision in an American Southwest Conference Championship Series first round game on Friday, Apr. 27 at Tornado Field. For the second straight season, the Wildcats took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series between the two schools.

After leaving a runner on base in each of the first two innings, Louisiana College (15-22) exploded offensively to plate seven runs in the top of the third. Jordan Marks hit an RBI single, but two runs came home as the result of a throwing error by a Tornado outfielder. A two-run double down the line in right by Matt Scott doubled the Wildcat lead, making it 4-0. Three batters later, Mark Riendeau went yard to deep left with two runners on to give the visitors a 7-0 cushion.

Concordia (31-9), however, started to claw back by scoring twice in the bottom half of the third. Quinn Guest belted an RBI triple to right to score Matt McManemin, who was hit by a pitch on the previous play. Guest then came home on a Collin Janssen groundout to short.

The Tornados continued to chip away at the deficit, tallying two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Collin Janssen sliced a one-out double down the left field line to score Brent Schaekel and Quinn Guest, who doubled and walked, respectively earlier in the frame.

After Louisiana College added a run in the sixth on an infield single, the Tornados grinded away some more and came within three thanks to consecutive doubles down the line in left by Schaekel and McManemin. But Cole Prejean got out of any further trouble by inducing a groundout and fanning two consecutive Tornado batters. The sophomore kept the hosts off the board the rest of the way.

Louisiana College's Cole Prejean picked up the victory and improved to 3-2 by allowing only one run, which was earned, and three hits over 4.2 frames. He finished with six strikeouts and issued just one walk. Scott Hays suffered the loss for Concordia after giving up five runs, including four earned, and three hits over 2.1 innings of work. He struck out two and issued four walks while dropping his record to 6-3 on the year.

The two teams will conclude the best-of-three series tomorrow beginning at 2 p.m. with the winner advancing to the championship round the following weekend on May 4-6. Concordia will host the double-elimination championship round if it advances.
-agate-
Louisiana College (14-22)     007     001     000     8     9     0
#10 Concordia (31-8)              002     020     100     5    10    2
     Louisiana College: Justin Reed, Cole Prejean (5) and Taylor Beavers.
     Concordia: Scott Hays, Austin Rupert (3), Sean Thompson (4), Bryant Hernandez (7) and Collin Janssen.