ST. PAUL, Minn. - This week's Concordia University Athletes of the Week were quite impressive, as Jake Schmidt (Baseball) and Anna Bjorlin (Softball) were recognized with the honor. Schmidt struck out a career high 16 batters and broke the career strikeout record while Bjorlin was 17-19 in the last five games and hit .773 for the week. Schmidt and Bjorlin led their respective teams to 6-0 weeks on the diamonds. Schmidt earns the nod for the fourth time while Bjorlin is a two-time CU Athlete of the Week selection.
Senior leadoff hitter and number one pitcher Jake Schmidt (Oakdale, Minn.) continues to do it all for the 30-11 Golden Bears. Last week, Schmidt helped Concordia extend their season long winning streak to seven games by posting a 6-0 week. On the mound, Schmidt was 1-0 with a save in two appearances including one complete game start while at the plate he hit .375 with two home runs, two steals and continued his perfect glove work on the season with a 1.000 fielding pct. Schmidt had a career-high 16 strikeouts while allowing two earned runs in a 6-3 win at Minnesota Crookston on Saturday. The performance allowed him to break the career strikeout record at CU as he now has 257 in his four seasons as a Golden Bear. Schmidt now has 87 strikeouts this season, second most in a single season in school history, 13 behind the 100 he had last year to set the record. Schmidt has been nationally ranked all season in K/9. On Wednesday, he earned his first save of the season in his only relief appearance by preserving a 13-10 win over Northern State. At the plate, Schmidt’s two homers extend his lead in the NSIC home run race with nine overall and seven in league play. He had two three hit performances, drove in six runs and scored seven. On the season, Schmidt is error free with 100 putouts and 18 assists playing centerfield, first base, pitcher and now second base. He’s batting .378, slugging .642 as a leadoff hitter and is 6-2 with a 3.96 ERA with 87 strikeouts in 61.1 innings. Schmidt was the NSIC Preseason Pitcher of the Year and a Preseason All-American.
Anna Bjorlin (2B, 5-4, Jr., Hermantown, Minn. / Hermantown HS) was virtually unstoppable through six NSIC games played last week, batting .773 with 17 hits in 22 at-bats. She had three doubles, a triple and a home run in her torrid streak, putting up a 1.136 slugging percentage and a .783 on-base percentage. On Sunday against the University of Mary, Bjorlin set a new Concordia single game record with five hits (5-5), including four singles and a three-run bomb. Further perfect batting performances came against Upper Iowa as she went 4-of-4 with three singles and a double and a 3-for-3 game against Northern State with two singles, a triple and a walk. Bjorlin put up multiple hits in each of the last five games played, helping the Golden Bears go 6-0 in league action and improve their standing in the NSIC. She also stole 5-of-5 bases and led the team with nine RBI.
