Traveling just up the road to play local rival Benedictine University, the North Central College baseball team used 11 punchouts from starter Jason Shanner and a base-clearing double off the bat of Dom Listi to propel them to a 7-3 win over the Eagles on Tuesday night.

Luke Lehnen led off the game with a double to right field and advanced to third on an Eagle error. Paul Beverly sent him home on a fielder's choice to open the scoring with a 1-0 lead for the Cardinals. Two North Central errors allowed Benedictine to tie the game at one in the bottom of the first inning.

The Eagles took a 2-1 advantage in the second on two hits and a sacrifice fly. After a scoreless third inning, Trey Roach singled to left field. He moved over to second on the next at bat and came around to score thanks to a Jack Oberli RBI single to knot the contest at 2-2.

Shanner settled in and held the Eagles to just one hit and no runs over the next three innings of play. In the top half of the seventh, Justin Rios, Oberli, and Lehnen reached to load the bases for the Cardinals. Dom Listi stepped to the plate and delivered a bases-clearing double before taking third base on a wild pitch and scoring on a passed ball to put North Central ahead 6-2.

Two straight walks from Shanner brought in Jaedin Kotecki who forced an Eagles double play to keep Benedictine off the board in the seventh inning.

Michael Patterson walked before Lehnen and Listi each singled to load the bases for the Cardinals. Beverly broke up a double play attempt by Benedictine to allow Patterson to score and extend the lead to five, 7-2. The Eagles added a run in the ninth but it wasn't enough as North Central won 7-2 and improved to 26-8 on the season.

Shanner picked up the win as he threw 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run and three hits. His 11 strikeouts are the most in a game by a Cardinal pitcher this season. Dom Listi extended his streak of reaching base safely to 23 with his two hits and three RBIs. Beverly (16 games) and Marinec (15 games) each also extended their hitting streaks in the game.

North Central hosts the University of Chicago on Thursday night in the first-ever night game at Zimmerman Stadium. The Cardinals and Maroons are set to begin at 6 PM