March 7, 2017 - The newest D3Baseball poll was released this morning, prior to a meeting of two of the top 25 teams in Auburndale, FL. The Concordia-Chicago Cougars, now #25, were to clash with the Cardinals of St. John Fisher College who came in at #9. The teams played a fiercely-contested battle, but the Cougars' speed ultimately decided this contest. A six-run eighth inning broke a 5-5 tie, and the Cougars eventually won by an 11-6 score for their fifth consecutive victory.

The Cougars wasted no time in gaining the upper hand as they struck for four runs while fans were still making their way into Lake Myrtle Park. Bryan VanDuser hit the second pitch of the game for a solid base hit to left field. One out later, Joe Silva hit one that carried away from the centerfielder and one-hopped the wall, VanDuser motored all the way around on the double for the quick lead. Brent Spohr then laced a single to right, Silva holding at third. The key hit of the inning followed as Mitch Wilson hit one deep to center. The fielder tried to make a diving catch while going back, but the ball was tagged too hard as Wilson wound up with a two-run triple. Justin Rodriguez was next, hitting a bouncer to the second baseman. The throw came home, but Wilson was safe on a close play for the final run of the inning.

Adam Schmitt started for the Cougars and threw three shutout innings, despite the Cardinals threatening with two men aboard in each inning. St. John Fisher finally capitalized on a CUC error in the fourth, opening the door for five unearned runs. Four of the runs came with two out, capped off by a Nate Roethel two-run homer to tie the score and Scott Eisenmenger going back-to-back with a deep blast to left-center for the 5-4 lead.

As has happened many times in recent seasons, the Cougars responded to an opponent's scoring inning with runs of this own. They settled for one run in the fifth, but it came with two outs and nobody on base. Wilson grounded a single to right and promptly stole second. There was a brief injury delay, but when play resumed, Rodriguez slapped the first pitch back up the middle to score Wilson with the tying run. The Cougars threatened to take the lead as Doug Matthews singled to extend the inning and force SJFC to go to the bullpen. The reliever did his job, striking out the first batter he saw to keep the game knotted.

The bottom of the fifth saw Mike Formella on the mound for CUC, and the right hander made sure that the Cardinals did not regain any momentum  Formella retired the side 1-2-3 over the next three innings, with the sixth inning the most impressive as he needed just seven pitches to record the three outs.

The decisive eighth inning started identically to the first as VanDuser led off with a single and scored one out later on a double by Silva, this one to the left field corner. The SJFC reliever got the second out on a comebacker to the mound, but Wilson kept the inning alive with an infield single. Rodriguez then had the inning's second big hit as he hit the hole on the right side with Wilson breaking for second. Silva raced around third with the second run of the inning for the 7-5 lead. 

The Cougars were not even close to done with their smart base running. Pinch-runner Kevin Garvey and Wilson executed a double steal for a third run. and Matthews shortly brought home Garvey with a single up the middle. A couple more steals in the inning led to the final two runs, as a bouncer to second base was thrown wild to first. Matthews and Kevin Coppin (walk) crossed home plate for an 11-5 lead.

The Cardinals finally got to Formella for a run in the bottom of the inning. With two out, The number eight batter drew a walk to snap Formella's string of 11 consecutive batters retired. A pinch-batter then laced a base hit to right-center for a single, but the speedy runner was hustling all the way and wound up scoring. Undaunter, Formella struck out the next batter to keep the damage at just one run. Armando Cornejo pitched the ninth, hitting the lead-off man but then getting the next three hitters on fly balls to center to put a big victory in the Cougars' pocket.   

"Hats off to our offense, but that eighth inning was all about our base runners. We stole five bases in that inning, and all of them scored," said CUC head coach Mike Stawski  The second-year manager also praised his leadoff hitter VanDuser who went 4-4 with a walk and sacrifice. "The thing about Bryan is that there's nothing you can really beat him with. Even when he makes outs, they're loud outs, never a rollover or pop fly. When VanDuser's really good, you can see our offense click. There's no coincidence there." .

Concordia (5-2) will enjoy an off day on Wednesday before taking on Montclair State University on Thursday morning.