MEQUON, Wis. – Kicking off the 2019 NACC Baseball Tournament, the No. 1 Concordia Chicago baseball team took on the host Concordia Wisconsin Falcons tonight in a quarterfinal matchup. Under the lights it was lefthander Adam Gregory that stole the show for CUC, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball to lead to Cougars to a 4-0 win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
- Gregory picked up his sixth win of the season. He allowed six hits and struck out five on 96 pitches.
- Noah Dressler picked up his first save of the season by working the final two innings.
- CUC pitching recorded their sixth shutout of the season tonight.
- The Cougars scored two of their four runs on suicide squeeze bunts.
- Brody Mariotti hit his NACC leading 12th homer of the year in the eighth.
Pitching controlled the game on both sides in the early innings. Gregory worked around hits in the first and second innings by getting double play ground balls. CUC got runners to third in both the first and second innings, but a groundout and a flyout kept the game scoreless.
Gregory continued to put zeros up by working through two on situations in the fourth and fifth innings.
His offense finally broke through in the fifth. Keegan Tyrell led things off with a single to right center. One out later Justin Rodriguez singled up the middle to put runners at the corners. Matt Fauth then laid down a squeeze bunt to score Tyrell. A CUW throwing error then allowed the Cougars to score another run in the inning to make it 2-0.
Gregory continued to deal, working a clean sixth and working around two hits in the seventh.
CUC added on an insurance run in the seventh. An error allowed Rodriguez to reach to open the inning. Fauth followed with a single to right. Rodriguez hustled around on the play to put runners at the corners. One out later Brayden Benavides laid down the second squeeze of the day to score Rodriguez which made it 3-0 Cougars.
The Cougars added on one more in the eighth. Mariotti led off the inning by driving his 12th homer of the year over the right field fence to make it 4-0.
Dressler worked two scoreless innings to put the finishing touches on the Cougars sixth shutout of the season and the 4-0 victory.
With the win, the Cougars will now face Aurora University for a spot in the championship. Opening pitch is set for 7:00pm from Kapco Park.