WINTER HAVEN, FL—Concordia-Moorhead took advantage of four multi-run innings to spoil the season opener for the Houghton Highlanders, 14-4.
 
Houghton got on the board first in the top of the second after Tage Johnson (Jamestown, NY, Frewsburg) walked and Bryan Hodge (Thornton, CO, Community Christian) ripped a double to the right-center gap to put runners at second and third with nobody out.  Garret Kirkpatrick (York, PA, Central York) plated one run with a groundout to third and the Cobber escaped with only one run on the board.
 
Concordia tied the game in the bottom of the second with an unearned run then exploded in the third and fourth, plating seven runs to go up 8-1. 
 
Houghton began to mount a comeback in the sixth when Timothy Leathersich (Lima, NY, Lima Christian) followed a Jens Omdal (Olympia, WA, River Ridge) single with a blistering line drive to left that skipped past the leftfielder.  Omdal would score and Leathersich ended up on third.  Leathersich would score on a deep sacrifice fly by Chris Welch (Denham Springs, LA, Denham Springs). 
 
After Houghton scored again in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 8-4 it looked like the Highlanders were back in the game, but the Cobbers took advantage of three walks and six hits over the next two innings to score six more runs, which is where the score would remain.
 
John Kopicky (Centerville, OH, Centerville) picked up the loss for the Highlanders in his first outing of the year. 
 
Michael Knapp (Brockport, NY, Brockport) and Leathersich each had two hits and Kirkpatrick added a hit and an RBI.
 
The Highlanders take on the Cobbers again tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Florida.