Apr. 8, 2018 – Guiding the North Central College baseball team to a 6-5 win over Carroll University on Sunday to complete the season sweep, head coach Ed Mathey becomes the winningest head coach in program history, passing legendary head coach and North Central Hall of Fame inductee Tom Purcell '74 with his 305^th career victory in a Cardinal uniform.

In his 13^th year at the helm of the Cardinals, Mathey is just the second coach in program history to eclipse 300 wins, while needing just one more win to reach 600 career victories over his 25-year career.

The Cardinals (12-6, 8-0 CCIW) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the top of the first, playing as the visiting team in a contest originally schedule at Carroll.  Eric Outlaw doubled to right center with one out in the frame, before Michael Mateja lined a RBI-triple to right field, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.  Mateja then came around to score on a fielder's choice off the bat of John Carmody, increasing the lead 2-0.

Carroll countered with three runs in the bottom half of the second, stringing together three hits while taking advantage of a Cardinal error to plate three runs in the inning, two of them unearned.

That lead quickly vanished in the top of the third however, as Jeremy Quade led off with a double down the left field line, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Mateja.

With two outs in the inning, Carmody drew a four-pitch walk and Mike Wisz made the Pioneers pay with a double off the center field fence, scoring Carmody while regaining the lead 4-3.

The Cardinals added to the lead with a run in each of the fourth and sixth innings, both on RBI-singles off the bat of Quade, giving the North Central pitching staff some much needed insurance.

Those two runs proved to be the difference as Carroll mounted a late comeback, scoring one in the seventh and one in the eighth to pull to within one heading to the ninth.

With Nick Rogalski on the hill looking to close out the win, the junior induced a fly out to right to begin the frame, but Zach Meyer then reached via error and advanced to second on the throw that went into the Cardinal dugout.  With the winning run at the plate and one out, Rogalksi settled in and induced back-to-back groundouts to shortstop to seal the win and earn his second save of the season. 

That save marks the 13^th career save of Rogalski's career, tying the program's all-time record, while moving into fifth place with his 55^th career appearance.

Quade led all hitters with a 4-for-5 showing from the plate, driving in a pair while scoring one.  Mateja finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, increasing his reached-base streak to 61 straight games.

Patrick Schaefer improves to 3-0 on the season, earning the victory after allowing just one earned run over his five innings, striking out a pair.

North Central closes out the current 11-game homestand on Tuesday, Apr. 10, playing host to Illinois Wesleyan University with game one of the doubleheader slated for 12 p.m.