BELOIT, Wis. - For the third time in school history, Beloit College will be playing in the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Buccaneers earned that distinction after a marathon of games on the second and final day of the 2023 MWC Tournament. The MWC regular season champions eclipsed the 30-win plateau for the first time in program history in the process, which is just the seventh time that has happened in conference history. Their 31 wins this season are just three shy of the conference record.

Beloit (31-12) defeated University of Chicago 11-6 Saturday morning in a continuation of Friday's suspended game to advance to the MWC Tournament Championship Game where the Bucs would face Ripon College, who didn't make things easy. Ripon narrowly won the first championship game 4-3, forcing a second championship game in the double elimination tournament, in a winner--take-all scenario. Beloit rose to the occasion, defeating the Red Hawks 4-1 in that final game to claim the MWC Tournament championship for the third time in school history and advance to next week's NCAA Division-III Regional Tournament.

The day's first game picked up where it left off, with Beloit leading 11-5 in the sixth inning, but the Chicago only scored one run after the continuation of the suspended game, which advanced Beloit to the championship game. The Buccaneers built an early lead in that game, taking an 8-1 lead after three innings.

Three of Beloit's hits came off the bat of Evan Zenger, who also drove in three runs. Matt O'Leary, Brett Kiger, and Jack Alport each finished with two hits, while Garrison Ferone scored three runs, while driving in three more, including a two-run homer to deep center field, his seventh of the season. Ferone now has 220 career hits, which is just 11 shy of the conference record. Deven Irwin also homered for the Bucs, who saw Eamon Burke (5-2) earn the win on the mound, striking out three batters in five innings. Chicago (25-17) finished the game with nine hits, including a pair of homers of their own.

After waiting to see who won the elimination game between Ripon and Chicago, the Buccaneers squared off with the Red Hawks, who took an early lead in the first game on a two-run homer by Kyler Hickman in the bottom of the first. Beloit cut that lead in half in the second on an RBI single by Irwin, and they'd take the lead in the top of the fifth on a two-run single off the bat of Alport. Ripon (25-18) would tie the game in the bottom of that inning on an RBI double by Evan Olson, before scoring the go-ahead run one inning later on an RBI single by Kaleb Burns. The Bucs nearly tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, but a diving catch by Ripon right fielder Cormac Madigan ended the game with a runner on base.

That forced a second championship game for all the marbles. In that final game, Beloit got off to a great start, as four of their first five batters reached base, with the big blow coming off the bat of Kiger, who sent the ball into orbit for a three-run homer. That extends his school records to 15 long-balls this season and 28 for his career.

Ripon tried to make things interesting, getting on the board in the fourth on an Alex Pankratz RBI single back to the pitcher, but that is the only run the Red Hawks would score in the game. Miles Souza tacked on a solo homer to left field in the sixth, which marked his second homer of the season, both of which came during this weekend's tournament.

With that lead, Beloit employed ace pitcher Aiden Phipps to secure the championship, as the sophomore fired 4.2 innings of relief, while allowing just two hits and striking out a pair of batters to earn the victory. That moves Phipps to 11-0 on the season, which is just two wins shy of the single season conference record. Thomas Kosakowski started and pitched well, allowing just one run on one hit and striking out two in 4.1 innings of work. Beloit finished with seven hits in the game, with two apiece coming from Souza and Connor Vogel.

The Buccaneers will now play the waiting game, as they'll find out when, who, and where they'll play on Monday morning with the NCAA Division-III selection show at 11 a.m. A link to the show will be on the front page of NCAA.com on Monday. Please continue to visit beloitcollegeathletics.com for further information on the Bucs run in the postseason.