May 22, 2017 – History was made today for Concordia University Chicago and its baseball program. The Cougars have qualified for the NCAA Division III World Series by way of winning the Midwest Regional. Win number four came this afternoon with a loud boom as CUC pummeled the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse for a second straight day, winning today's game by a score of 17-3.
The Cougars marched through the regional, outscoring their opponents by a composite score of 46-8. Today's outpouring of runs was led by Doug Matthews and Kevin Coppin, each one homering (Matthews twice) and driving in four runs as part of the 17-hit attack.
Adam Schmitt made the start on the mound today for the Cougars. He retired the first two UWL batters before they loaded the bases on a walk and two singles. However, Schmitt came back to get Nate Roethle to ground to short. The force at second kept the Eagles off the board.
The Cougars came to bat against Eagles' ace Caleb Boushley, whom they had faced in Florida earlier this season. Boushley also retired the first two batters before Brent Spohr reached base when his high chopper was thrown past the third baseman. However, the Cougars could not follow with the key hit, and Spohr was stranded.
Both pitchers continued to work quickly, and Schmitt worked a brisk 1-2-3 second, getting two grounders and a foul pop. The Cougars came to bat, and Coppin hit the first pitch high to center. The outfielder looked to track it down but ran out of room as Coppin circled the bases with his fourth homer of the year. Two batters and two pitches later, it was Matthews who went opposite field for his seventh of the year, his fly just barely eluding the leap of the rightfielder.
The Eagles got on the board in the third as the first two men reached on singles. A force at second allowed the run to score. UWL went on to load the bases, but Schmitt snuck a third strike past Alex Brown to keep the CUC lead at 2-1. They threatened again in the fourth when they put runners on third and second with one out. Schmitt was up to the challenge again, retiring the next two batters on a pop-up to short rightfield and a grounder to short.
Smart, hustling baseball created a run for CUC in the fourth. Mitch Wilson led with a ground single to right and moved up 90 feet when a pickoff throw sailed into the spacious foul territory at Prucha Field. Coppin smartly advanced Wilson with a grounder to second base. Justin Rodriguez them hit a high chopper toward third base. Wilson had an excellent break towards the plate, and the only play was at first as the run scored.
Once again, the Eagles pulled back to within one as they batted in the fifth. This rally also began with two out as a walk and two singles accounted for the tally. A wild pitch then moved both runners into scoring position, but Bryan VanDuser made a strong throw to first base on a grounder in the hole, and the Cougars remained in the lead at 3-2.
For the 46th time this season and third in the regional, the Cougars answered an opponent's score with some of their own. Brendan Klein and VanDuser began the rally with singles. Boushley came back to retire the next two batters, but Wilson extended the rally with a walk to load the bases. With Coppin at bat, Boushley unleashed a wild pitch. Klein scored, and VanDuser followed when the throw back towards the plate by the catcher was wild. Wilson went to third on all of this, and he scored when Coppin lined a double to the fence in right-center for a 6-2 lead.
Mike Formella entered the game for the Cougars and retired the side in order in the sixth. The offense then gave him another run to work with when they batted. A throwing error in the infield allowed Kevin Garvey to reach second, and CUC made that error a costly one as VanDuser singled Garvey home with two out.
The Eagles put their final run on the board in the seventh, but when Formella fanned pinch-hitter Alex Robson to end the threat, the Cougars answered with two more scoring innings that put this one in the win column. The Cougars scored four in the seventh, with Coppin singling home his third run of the day ahead of Matthews' second homer of the day, a three-run shot. Matthews' blast, his team-leading eighth of the year, cleared the leftfield fence by between 30-40 feet.
Six more runs put a huge exclamation point on the win. Coppin added his fourth RBI with a bases-loaded walk. Two late-game subs, Kevin Garcia and Joey Anderson, contributed to the uprising as Garcia drilled a two-run single and Anderson an RBI ground-rule double, narrowly missing a homer by just a few feet.
Formella came back to the mound to wrap up a four-inning save. He struck out Brown for his fifth strikeout and then retired a pair of pinch-hitters, getting Alex Barnard on a grounder to third and JJ Belknapp on a grounder to short.
After the trophy presentation, the All-Tournament team was announced. VanDuser and Matthews were honored, along with the tournament MVP, Formella. The junior pitched in three games of the regional with three saves to his credit. Formella struck out 12 in his 9 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run.
Head coach Mike Stawski praised the teams in the tournament and especially UW-LaCrosse, whom he called "a class act" and "the face of our region for the last few years." He repeated an earlier comment that "it wasn't anything our opponents did or didn't do, but it was our executing what we needed to do. I am very proud of every one of our guys for their role in our program, and I am very happy that we were able to knock down this door."
The Cougars will now wait for the announcement for the World Series bracket, with the team's first game expected to be on Friday, May 26. All information will be made available on the website at www.cucougars.com