May 18, 2017 – Hoping that three would be the charm, the Concordia University Chicago baseball team opened play this evening at the Midwest Regional at Prucha Field on the campus of the University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Cougars had played on UWW's field at this time of year in 2012 and 2014, and were making this their sixth straight regional appearance and seventh since 2009. Conversely, their opponents – the Scots of Macalester College – were making their first-ever appearance in a Division III regional. In the end, the Cougars were up to tonight's challenge as they held off a late rally to defeat the Scots by a score of 8-3.

The game began ominously for the Cougars as Jared Abelson bunted for a base hit and Alex Baretta was hit by a pitch. But Cody Caballero bore down, getting Quentin Stuart and Nick McMullen both swinging at strike three. Caballero then set down Collin Brantner on three pitches, the last one a called strike three. The southpaw kept on dealing, as he struck out two more batters in the second.

Macalester's Cole Chang quietly retired CUC's first five batters before Justin Rodriguez reached on an infield single. The next two batters, Doug Matthews and Kevin Garvey, both went first-pitch hunting and came up aces, Matthews singling to center and Garvey to the hole between third and short for the game's first run. Brendan Klein was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Bryan VanDuser singled in front of the centerfielder to score two and made it a 3-0 game after two innings.

For the next few innings, the lead might as well have been 20, as Caballero was locked into a groove after the first two innings. He made quick work of the Scots' batters, retiring 13 in a row until a one-out single by Ben Castagnetti in the fifth gave Macalester another base runner. However, after Caballero recorded his eighth strikeout of the game, catcher Kevin Coppin erased Castagnetti with a strong throw to second on a steal attempt, and the Cougars were halfway through the game, still leading by three.

As the bottom of the sixth began, the Cougars looked to put some distance between the Scots and themselves. Coppin and Rodriguez led off with singles. Matthews then laid down a bunt to advance the runners, and the play got an extra payoff as the ball was thrown into the runner. Matthews was safe as Coppin raced around to score. Rodriguez moved to third, and he was able to tag up and score as Garvey hit a humpback liner to the leftfielder for a sacrifice fly. The Cougars kept coming as Klein drew a walk and VanDuser was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Joe Silva then worked a walk to make it a 6-0 lead for the Cougars and end Chang's night.

A six-run lead for the Cougars seemed as it would be more than enough, but the Scots rallied in the seventh to make for some anxious moments for CUC fans. The inning began with a leadoff walk, Caballero's first after 10 strikeouts. An error then helped the Scots build some momentum. With one out, Graham Low recorded only the third Macalester hit of the game, but it was a two-run double to put the Scots back into the chase. Caballero came back to fan the next batter for a career-high 11 strikeouts, but a walk to Sam Goldberg brought CUC coach Mike Stawski to the mound and reliever Mike Formella into the game.  Carl Francalangia kept the rally alive by reaching out and hitting a 3-2 pitch to right for an RBI single, but Formella came back to retire the next batter on a fly to center to keep CUC in front by a 6-3 score.

Anyone who has followed the Cougars for a while could guess what happened next. For the 44^th time this season, CUC put up runs in their next at-bat after an opponent has scored. Mitch Wilson ripped a single to center on the first pitch he saw, and Coppin followed with a walk. Rodriguez then laced a single to left; he would be thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, but Wilson scored easily. Matthews followed with a deep fly to center to score Coppin. The Cougars had two of the three runs back and went to the eighth with a five-run lead.
Formella put the exclamation point on the game over the final two innings. The Scots put a man aboard in both the eighth and ninth, but Formella prevented any sustained rallies, retiring the final batter on a fly to center.

"The story of the day was Cody Caballero," said Stawski. "For him to do what he did the first seven innings and keep them off balance, that gave our offense a chance to get it going and get a lead." Stawski also acknowledged that CUC's edge in regional experience was a big factor. "I told our guys that this was Macalester's first regional game ever, while some of our guys have played twenty. They didn't feel the pressure but came in ready to get the job done, and certainly some of our more experienced guys really stepped up tonight."

The win was the Cougars' 11^th in a row overall. It was also the Cougars' 30^th of the season, making it 10 straight seasons that the team has won at least 30 games.
Concordia-Chicago will now prepare for the regional's third seed, the Bulldogs of Adrian College. Adrian won their game today, scoring five times in the eighth inning after St. Thomas (MN) had taken a 2-0 lead. The Cougars have faced the Bulldogs three times in regional play with CUC going 1-0 in 2013 at Augustana but 0-2 in 2014 at Whitewater.