The North Central College baseball team gave a large Opening Day crowd plenty to cheer for at Zimmerman Stadium on Sunday, overcoming early deficits in both ends of a double header against Beloit College and defeating the Buccaneers, 3-2 and 8-7.

The Cardinals (9-4) won their home opener for the fifth straight season and have now won 10 of their last 11 home games played in March.

Sunday's first game started as a pitchers' duel, as North Central's Kris Singh and Beloit's Alex Norman each shut out their counterparts for the first five innings. Singh worked his way out of trouble twice, included a bases-loaded jam in the first, but Beloit scored an unearned run in the sixth to inch its way ahead. Buccaneer center fielder Alex Mack struck out, but reached base safely due to a dropped third strike. Mack later advanced to second on an error and scored on catcher Emory Nelms' single.

North Central rallied to tie the game at 1-1 in the seventh, as Joe Paparone drew a one-out walk before advancing to third on Steve Hlavac's single. Paparone would later score on Kevin Hennessy's base hit.

Benefiting from a pair of hit batsmen, the Buccaneers were able to score the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, but the visitors stranded two baserunners. Paparone also kicked off the Cardinals' game-winning rally in the ninth, leading off the inning with a triple to right-center field. Hlavac followed with an RBI double, and Hennessy came through with a run-scoring single down the left-field line to bring home pinch runner Andrew Highland.

Singh allowed four hits while striking out five and walking three for the Cardinals, who won despite not recording a hit before the sixth inning. Reliever Jimmy Hermle pitched the ninth inning and was credited with the win (2-0).

Beloit (4-8) also got on the board first in the nightcap, plating a run in the third. Cardinal starting pitcher Ben Krusen issued a walk and hit two batters in the inning, leading to an RBI single by Buccaneer designated hitter Andrew Lawrence. Krusen, however, was able to strand three baserunners by striking out outfielder Alex Jennings to end the inning.

The Buccaneers took advantage of three walks and two more hit batters and wound up scoring five more runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-0 lead. Once again, however, Beloit left the bases loaded, as the Cardinals' Keeler Otero took the mound with two away and induced an inning-ending groundout.

North Central started down the comeback trail with a four-run sixth inning. Joe Turek and Zac Pacanowski singled and Peter Romanello was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Turek scored on a fielder's choice before Alex Khoury delivered a two-run triple and Tom Ross delivered an RBI single to narrow the gap to 6-4.

Beloit tacked on a run in the eighth, as Jordan Jaenicke singled and stole second before scoring on Jake Tresemer's base hit. 

The Cardinals opened their second ninth-inning surge of the day with Ross' leadoff walk and Frank Sutphin's double. Paparone singled to plate the first run of the inning, and Hennessy collected his 10th double of the season to bring Sutphin home and close the deficit to 7-6.

Turek was intentionally walked, which loaded the bases, and Pacanowski followed with a sacrifice fly to score Paparone and tie the game at 7-7. Nick Daniels was brought on as a pinch-hitter and smacked the first pitch he saw through the left side for the game-winning RBI single.

Turek and Pacanowski both went 3 for 4 from the plate in the day's second game. Relief pitcher John King got the win (1-1), pitching the final 1 2/3 innings without incident.

The Cardinals open College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) play on Saturday, hosting Carthage College (5-5) in a double header at noon.