Illinois Wesleyan earned a fifth straight appearance in the NCAA D-III playoffs. Illinois Wesleyan photo by Steve Woltmann

MOLINE, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan baseball team was forced to a final game with a 10-0 loss to North Central earlier in the day but came back to beat the Cardinals, 8-3, and claim the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament championship at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field in Moline, Ill., on Saturday, May 10.

By winning the tournament title this weekend, Illinois Wesleyan (24-18) earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. The full NCAA postseason field will be announced on Sunday night, May 11 via NCAA.com. 

It will be Illinois Wesleyan's fifth straight, 12th overall.and ninth appearance in the last 11 years in the national tournament. Illinois Wesleyan, the Division III national champions in 2010, has a record of 24-22 in NCAA tournament play and this year's seniors would follow last year's as the second class ever at IWU to have made the NCAA tournament in all of their college seasons.

The conference tournament title is the sixth for IWU and the first since 2010. Previous CCIW tourney titles were in 1989, 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2010 and the Titans have qualified for 28 of the 30 held since the first in 1985.

In game two, IWU had 13 hits and scored two runs in the second and six in the fourth for all their scoring. Junior Nick Hahn had two doubles and two singles with two runs batted in and sophomore Adam Glogovsky had two hits with a home run and three runs batted in. Freshman second baseman Jarrod Juskiewicz had two doubles and senior leftfielder Bobby Czarnowski also had two hits.

Freshman righthander Louis Acklin (1-0) pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Robert Romano to get the win, allowing four hits and one walk with one strikeout.

HOW IWU SCORED - GAME TWO
Illinois Wesleyan 2nd - Hahn, N. doubled to left center. Glogovsky,A. doubled down the lf line, RBI; Hahn, N. scored. Dropped foul ball, E3. Mardis, M. grounded out to ss; Glogovsky,A. advanced to third. Juskiewicz flied out to rf, SAC, RBI; Glogovsky,A. scored. Mollo, P. walked. Idstein, D. lined out to lf. 2 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 1 LOB.
Illinois Wesleyan 4th - Hahn, N. doubled to left field. Glogovsky,A. homered to left field, 2 RBI; Hahn, N. scored. Mardis, M. singled to right center. Juskiewicz doubled to right center; Mardis, M. advanced to third. Cahill to p for Sutton. Mollo, P. singled to center field, RBI; Juskiewicz advanced to third; Mardis, M. scored. Idstein, D. flied out to cf, SAC, RBI; Juskiewicz scored. Coonan, T. singled to shortstop; Mollo, P. advanced to second. Frericks, J. infield fly to c. Czarnowski reached on an error by 1b; Coonan, T. advanced to second; Mollo, P. advanced to third. Hahn, N. singled to center field, 2 RBI; Czarnowski advanced to second; Coonan, T. scored, unearned; Mollo, P. scored, unearned. Glogovsky,A. grounded out to 1b unassisted. 6 runs, 7 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB.