May 14, 2021 – The North Central College baseball team clinched its record-breaking sixth-consecutive College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season championship outright on Friday with a 10-4 win over North Park University, becoming the first team in conference history to achieve the feat.

Crowned regular season champions every season since 2015, Head coach Ed Mathey also ties Carthage College's Augie Schmidt IV for most conference titles among active CCIW coaches with his ninth overall conference championship (1994, 1996, 1998, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021).

North Central earns the No. 1 seed in next week's CCIW Tournament, hosted at Zimmerman Stadium and Wheaton College's Lee Pfund Stadium, as the 32 wins this season are third-most in a single season in program history.

The Cardinals (32-6, 26-4 CCIW) had to dig themselves out of an early 3-0 hole, as a pair of solo homeruns off Luke Lamm, the first two allowed this season, highlighted a strong first two innings for the Vikings.

Heading to the bottom of the third trailing by three, the North Central bats came alive as Michael Stoltz started the rally with a leadoff bunt single while Luke Lehnen lined a single of his own to left center.

Two batters later, Rob Marinec singled sharply to center, plating Stoltz from second, while advancing to second on the throw in from the outfield.  After Justin Rios walked to load the bases, Kobe Shutter blooped a RBI-base hit the other way before Joe Rizzo delivered a big two-out, two-RBI base knock through the left side to overtake the lead 4-3.

North Central blew the game wide open with another four spot in the bottom of the fourth, once again started by back-to-back singles from Stoltz and Lehnen, while Marinec walked to load the bags with one away.

With the bases chalked full of Cardinals, Rios drove in the first run on a fielder's choice in which the Vikings failed to record an out.  Shutter then drew a bases loaded walk to drive in Lehnen, ahead of Paul Beverly who pulled a base-hit through the right side, scoring a pair while increasing the lead 8-3.

Lamm then settled in to shut down the Vikings over the next three innings, while Tyler Jones finished off the final four frames, allowing just one unearned run the rest of the way to earn the save. 

Lamm allowed three runs over his five innings with five strikeouts and no walks to earn the victory. With the win, Lamm breaks the program's single-season wins record, improving to a perfect 10-0 on the season while his 76 strikeouts this season rank fourth. 

The top three batters in the Cardinal lineup combined for six of the 12 hits on the afternoon, as Lehnen was 2-for-5 with two runs scored, while Dom Listi finished 2-for-4 with a hit by pitch, run scored and RBI.

Marinec also finished 2-for-4, adding a walk, RBI and two runs scored, while Stoltz was 2-for-4 from the nine hole with three runs scored. Shutter reached base on four occasions, going 1-for-2 with three walks and two RBI, while Rios scored twice and Rizzo drove in three.

North Central finishes up the regular season on Saturday, May 15 with a twin bill at North Park, as game one is slated for 1 p.m. at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.