The North Central College baseball team's improbable run continues to Appleton, Wisconsin and the 2017 NCAA Division III College World Series, as the Cardinals punched their ticket for just the second time in school history with a 3-2 win in 11 innings over sixth-ranked Birmingham Southern College, finishing a perfect 4-0 at the Central Regional.

With the victory, North Central qualifies for the Division III College World Series for the first time since 1987 and marks the first time since 2010 that the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) will be represented.

"I'm so proud of these guys," said head coach Ed Mathey.  "Somewhere in the last few weeks I've seen the term Cardiac Cards thrown around and it absolutely applies to this team.  We compete until the end and all it takes is a little momentum for these guys, they've gone through a lot in the last few weeks.  It's been really special how they've come together and what they've accomplished."

The Cardinals took a 2-2 tie into the bottom of the 11^th when Michael Mateja led off with an infield single, before Jeremy Quade layed down a sacrifice bunt, but on the attempt to cut down Mateja at second the Panthers threw the ball away allowing the winning run to take third with nobody out.

After intentionally walking Nick Sotiros to load the bases, Chris Hill stepped to the plate and after taking a first pitch strike drew three straight balls to take control of the count 3-1.  After fouling off a fastball to draw the count full, Hill trusted his plate discipline to take ball four and draw the walkoff base on balls to send the Cardinals home 3-2 winners.

"We knew they would walk Nick (Sotiros) with Chris (Hill) on deck," said Mathey.  "Chris had a disappointing at-bat the previous inning and everyone in that dugout told him he would come up again, and guess who comes up again.  He showed great discipline, worked the count full and ended up drawing the walk."

The Cardinal pitching staff held North Central in the game all afternoon as the offense struggled to get going early.  Nick Anderson turned in yet another outstanding performance for the Cardinal staff, making just one mistake all afternoon, as Birmingham Southern's Tyler Hamel rocketed a line drive, two-run homerun in the top of the second to give the Panthers an early 2-0 lead.

Anderson was dominant over his next six innings in perhaps the best start of his career, allowing just four hits the rest of the way, striking out four while walking none, receiving a no decision.

"Our pitching has been lights out, I'm honestly speechless," said Sotiros, "I haven't seen these guys throw this well as a group all season.  We always tell our pitchers that if they can keep it under five runs we always have a chance to win the game, they went out and battled and we are finally putting it all together here at the right time."

North Central was able to push across a run in the bottom of the sixth to cut the Panther lead in half, as Hill drilled a single off the left field wall, before John Carmody drew a one-out walk to put runners on first and second.  Sing Fong then dropped a perfectly placed base hit the other way, scoring Hill in the process.

Birmingham Southern took that 2-1 lead into the eighth but Sotiros quickly changed that with one swing of the bat, crushing the second pitch he saw over the left field fence, knotting the score 2-2, his second homerun of the regional, while breathing new life into the Cardinals.

"We just keep playing for each other," said Sotiros.  "We want this ride to keep going as long as possible and this group just kept fighting saying not today, the season doesn't end today."

Sotiros finished 1-for-5 with his lone hit proving to be the largest of the game, while Mateja finished 3-for-5 with a run scored, now reaching base in his last 40 games dating back to Mar. 20 while extending his hit streak to 16 games.

Quade and Fong were also 2-for-5, while Hill added a pair of hits to go along with the game-winning walk, a run scored and RBI.

Sotiros finished as one of just two players with multiple homeruns over the regional championship, batting .333 over the tournament to earn Most Valuable Player honors.  Starting pitchers Austin Polezoes and Russell Hoh were also named to the 2017 NCAA Division III Central Region All-Tournament team after each tossing complete game victories.

The Cardinals have now won 14 of the last 15 games heading into the College World Series, as the eight-team finals will be held May 26-31 at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis.  North Central's first game on May 26 will not be scheduled until all eight regionals wrap up play and all teams will be seeded into a pair of four-team pools.  More information is available at NCAA.com