Bison baseball busts out against Concordia

North Dakota State continued to pile up the runs Tuesday at Newman Outdoor Field.

The Bison cracked a season-high 19 hits en route to a 19-4 victory against Concordia in nonconference baseball.

NDSU (17-23) has scored 44 runs over its past three games, winning all three.

"We just want to keep playing and we want to keep winning," Bison coach Tod Brown said. "We're starting to come around a little bit. We're starting to swing the bats a little bit. We don't care who we play, when we play, we just want to keep playing and keep hitting and keep scoring runs."

NDSU has raised its team batting average 11 points (from .287 to .298) over the last three games. The Bison had six different players with multiple hits against the Cobbers.

"We've just been persistent at the plate," said Bison senior center fielder Michael Riewer, who was 3-for-5 with three RBIs. "I think we're starting to get more aggressive and throwing it all out there. We have nothing to lose now."

Riewer was a double away from the cycle, finishing with a single, triple and home run.

The Bison took control in the first in scoring nine runs on five hits. NDSU scored six unearned runs that inning, cashing in on three Concordia errors.

The Cobbers could have been credited with a fourth error in the first inning when they let a pop up drop in foul ground off the third-base line.

"That was really disappointing," Cobbers coach Bucky Burgau said. "The strength of our team has been defense. Early in the game, we didn't catch a pop up at third (base), we didn't turn a double play. ... We didn't come out of the chute and play good defense."

The Cobbers finished the game with five errors, which led to nine unearned runs.

The Bison only scored runs 18 of their runs over three innings, including a four-run rally in the fourth and a five-run rally in the fifth.

"Like Casey Stengel said, though 'You can't knock in two and let in four.' And that's kind of what happened tonight," Burgau said.

The Bison start a four-game series against Summit League foe Oakland at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Newman.

NDSU has a 6-9 record in the Summit, one game behind Oakland for fourth place in the league.

"We're happy with how we played tonight," Brown said. "Hopefully, the momentum will carry over until this weekend."

The Cobbers host a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at noon Thursday.

Concordia (11-5 MIAC) is tied for first place in the MIAC with four conference games to play in the regular season.

"We're going take something good away from this, but I tip my hat to the Bison," Burgau said. "They made us pay for our mistakes."

CC 100 200 100- 4 10 5

NDSU 900 450 000-19 19 1

Moenkedick, Erickson (2), Weller (4), Sand (4), Frappier (6), Torrison (7), Johnson (8) and Hintz, Lindberg (6). L. Anderson, Tognetti (4), Schroeder (7), Dehler (8), Parker (9) and Steen. W-Tognetti (2-2). L-Moenkedick (0-1). HR-NDSU, Riewer (3), Jallen (3).

Readers can reach Forum reporter Eric Peterson at (701) 241-5513.