Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

May 8, 2017 – Ending the season winners of the last six games, the North Central College baseball team clinched outright possession of their third-consecutive College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season championship and the right to host the CCIW Tournament with a 5-2 win over Wheaton College on Monday.

North Central (21-15, 16-8) will host the CCIW Tournament for the second time in the last three seasons, beginning on Thursday, May 11 with the winner receiving the conference's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Division III Tournament.

The Cardinals forced Wheaton's hand early, jumping on starter Alex Hanvey for a pair of first inning runs, as Michael Mateja lined a single the other way to lead off the frame.  Jeremy Quade followed with a four-pitch walk while the pair proceeded to pull off a double steal to put runners on second and third with nobody out.

After a sharp groundout, Chris Hill drove home Mateja with a RBI-groundout to shortstop, while John Carmody came through with a two-out single up the middle the following batter, scoring Quade while increasing the lead 2-0.

The scoring continued in the bottom of the third for North Central, as Mateja started the action once again, this time lining a leadoff double to left.  Quade quickly followed suit on the first pitch he saw, lining a two-bagger to the gap and scoring Mateja to increase the advantage 3-0.

A Nick Sotiros walk on four pitches forced a Wheaton pitching change, but the Thunder reliever struggled finding the zone early, walking Hill on the first four pitches he saw to load the bases.  On the first pitch to Carmody the ball sailed past the Thunder catcher allowing Quade to trot home, while Carmody drew the third straight walk of the inning to pack the bags yet again.

Sing Fong stepped to the plate with the bases full of Cardinals and lofted a fly ball to center field, deep enough for Sotiros to score on the sacrifice fly to give North Central a 5-0 lead after three innings of play.

Those five runs held up for the Cardinal staff despite the Thunder rallying for a pair of runs in the top of the second, one unearned on a Cardinal error, snapping Evan Blunk's scoreless innings pitched streak at 18 1/3 innings.

Blunk did earn the win on the mound however, allowing the two runs, only one earned, over his five innings, striking out five and walking none.  Blunk has walked just two batters over his last four starts and 26 innings pitched.

The Cardinal bullpen consisting of Anthony Serafini, Lucas Tevyaw and Nick Rogalski came in to shut the door in relief of Blunk, combining to allow just two hits over the final four innings.  Rogalski earned his sixth save of the season, moving into third on the program's single-season top-10.

Carmody finished a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate with a walk and RBI, while Mateja finished 2-for-4 with a stolen base and two runs scored while extending his reached-base streak to 31 games.  Fong added a 1-for-2 performance with a walk, sacrifice fly and RBI, while Quade went 1-for-3 with a walk, stolen base, two runs scored and RBI.

North Central will host the CCIW Tournament beginning on Thursday, May 11 against Illinois Wesleyan University while Wheaton and Augustana College square off in the other matchup, game times still TBA.