BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (May 1, 2018) – For the first time in school history, the North Central College baseball team clinched at least a share of its fourth-consecutive College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season title and the right to host to the CCIW Tournament with a pair of wins over Illinois Wesleyan University on Tuesday.
 
Head coach Ed Mathey has now led his squad to a conference title in each of his first four seasons back at the helm and is his seventh CCIW title of his career.
 
The Cardinals will host the CCIW Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons and can clinch the outright regular season title with a win or a Carthage loss in the final series of the season.
 
Holding a 8-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning in a game suspended due to darkness on Apr. 10 in Naperville, the Cardinals added a run in the bottom of the frame, playing as the home team.  Mike Wiszand John Carmody each singled to start the inning, while Rob Marinec doubled home Wisz two batters later.
 
The Cardinal offense continued to steamroll conference pitching, posting a six-run bottom of the eighth to finish the game 15-5.  Taking advantage of a Titan error that extended the inning, Carmody singled home Michael Mateja, before Ryan Scott doubled home a pair to deep left center field. 
 
Marinec then followed with a RBI-single on the infield, before pulling off a double steal with Scott who swiped home on the throw down to second.  Holding a 13-5 lead, Foster Heise sent the Cardinals home winners with his first long ball of the season, a two-run blast over the right field fence.
 
Carmody and Marinec were each 3-for-5 with two runs scored, while Carmody drove in three and Marinec a pair.  Heise finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored, while Wisz, Scott and Matt Sutherlandeach added a pair of hits.
 
The North Central offense continued to roll in the rubber match of the season series, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning as Marinec and Colin Weilbacher were both hit by a pitch to start the frame.
 
After Scott walked to load the bases, Sutherland shot a singled through the left side to score Marinec, while Jeremy Quade plated Weilbacher with a sacrifice fly to center.  The Titan defense handed the Cardinal the third run of the inning, throwing the ball away on a ground ball to shortstop.
 
North Central increased the lead to 8-0 in the top of the fifth, as Mateja led off with his third homerun of the season over the left field fence.  Wisz followed with a double before Marinec launched his team-leading fifth homerun over the left center field fence.
 
Following a Titan pitching change, Weilbacher got in on the long ball spree with a solo shot to left, the third homerun of the inning.  Scott then doubled and came around to score on a single off the bat of Quade two batters later, capping the scoring.
 
Starter Russell Hoh made those eight runs hold up, allowing just one earned run over his five innings, pitching around 11 hits to improve to 5-0 on the season.  Patrick Schaefer earned the save in relief, tossing the final three innings, allowing just one run on three hits, striking out three while the duo combined for zero walks over the nine innings.
 
Weilbacher and Scott were each 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Mateja also finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI.  Wisz also added a pair of hits, while Quade and Marinec each drove in two runs.
 
North Central closes out the home portion of the regular season schedule on Friday, May 4, hosting North Park University at 3 p.m. at Zimmerman Stadium.