May 6, 2011 - The Concordia Cougars took three steps closer to winning the 2011 Northern Athletics Conference regular-season championship this afternoon in Milwaukee. Concordia's 13-3 and 7-5 wins over Wisconsin Lutheran College, combined with an Aurora loss to Concordia Wisconsin, put the Cougars' magic number at one with two home games awaiting this Sunday against the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Senior Anthony Collaro (Melrose Park, IL/Walther Lutheran) won his seventh straight game in game one, turning in a complete-game, seven-inning effort. He was staked to an early lead by the Cougars' red-hot tandem of Nick Skala (Long Grove, IL/St. Viator) and Cam Stephens (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden). Skala singled with two out in the first, stole second and scored on Stephens' two-out single to right.
The lead became 3-0 in the third. Brenden Schulz (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) drew a one-out walk and scored on Eric Ignatowski's (Carol Stream, IL/Glenbard North) triple. Skala was retired for the second out, but Stephens came through with another two-out single to score Ignatowski.
Each team scored a run in the fifth, Concordia's coming on Thomas Gier's (Fox Lake, IL/Grant) base hit.The Cougars then opened up some breathing room with five in the sixth. Stephens' two-run single highlighted the inning, giving him four RBIs for the game. Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) and Schulz contributed RBI singles, and Joe Romano (Norridge, IL/Notre Dame) walked with the bases loaded to drive in the fifth run.
The Warriors scored twice in the sixth, but the Cougars closed the game one scoring with four in the seventh. Run-scoring hits in the inning went to Skala with a double and Derek Binninger (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) with a single.
Concordia struck in the first inning of game two as Schulz and Ignatowski reached base. Schulz scored on a 3-1 groundout by Stephens, and Ignatowski crossed the plate on Gier's single. However, the hosts fought back as they scored two runs on three hits in the first and two unearned runs in the second against Cougar starter Dan Kluss (Niles, IL/Niles West) to take a 4-2 lead.
The Cougars came back right away as Schulz led off the third with a triple. Ignatowski's sacrifice fly brought Schulz home to make it a one-run game. Stephens doubled with two out, and Gier followed with a ground single to left, bringing Stephens around to tie the game at 4-4.
Schulz reached base on an erfror to start the fifth, and that was the impetus for a three-run inning. Ignatowski followed with a single, and both runners scored when Stephens doubled to left-center for his sixth and seventh RBIs of the day. Gier added his third RBI of the game with a base hit to score Stephens and put Concordia up 7-4.
That would be all the scoring for the Cougars, but the pitchers made sure that the lead was secure. Kluss pitched into the seventh inning before giving way to Pat Conlin (Arlington Heights, IL/Rolling Meadows) who struck out a batter for the third out. Conlin allowed a lead-off homer to Ethan Geis in the eighth but went on to retire the side in the eighth and ninth for his fifth save of the season. Kluss improved to 3-0 with the victory.
The Cougars will celebrate Senior Day on Sunday before first pitch at 1:00 for their doubleheader against Milwaukee Engineering.
