May 8, 2011 - The Concordia Cougar baseball team earned its second regular-season championship in the five years of the Northern Athletics Conference with this afternoon's 8-3, 8-5 sweep over the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The Cougars' 20-2 NAC record locks up the top seed in next weekend's conference tournament at Riverhawks Stadium in Rockford.
Emery Hull's homer gave MSOE the early 1-0 lead in game one, but Concordia did not waste any time in retaliating.
Brenden Schulz (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) drew a lead-off walk and stole second with two out. Schulz came home on
Cam Stephens' (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) double to right-center.
Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant) then singled to center as Stephens scampered home for a 2-1 Concordia lead.
Steve Brown (Naperville, IL/Naperville North) bunted for a base hit to start the Cougars' attack in the second.
Dan Eichholzer (Elwood, IL/Joliet Township) fell behind 0-2 but got hold of an outside pitch and laced it to right-center for a run-scoring double. Eichholzer came home moments later on
Shawn Miller's (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) base hit to left, and the Cougars led 4-1 after two.
The Raiders put single runs on the board in the fourth and fifth, although a couple of errors allowed the Cougars to score a run in the fourth and offset one of the tallies. Schulz would settle down after the fifth, allowing the visitors no hits over the final 3 1/3 innings. Concordia put the game on ice with three runs in the bottom of the eighth. Eichholzer's double brought home two of the runs, and an RBI single by
Nick Skala (Long Grove, IL/St. Viator) accounted for the final tally.
In game two, Concordia got on the board in the first as
Eric Ignatowski (Carol Stream, IL/Glenbard North) led with a double. Ignatowski moved into third on Brown's sacrifice fly and scored on Skala's line drive to center.
The Raiders took a 2-1 lead briefly on Hull's two-run blast in the top of the third. However, the home team answered again in their next opportunity. They took advantage of some wildness by the MSOE pitcher to draw three walks and load the bases
. Derek Binninger (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) greeted the new reliever with a fly to deep center, scoring Ignatowski and moving Brown to third. Singles by Eichholzer and
Kevin Rush (Fort Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) followed, putting the Cougars ahead 4-2 after three.
The score remained that way until the seventh when Derek Jordan's two-run double tied the game at 4-4. Strong throws by Miller and Brown cut down Jordan at third base to avert further damage. The Cougars then came up in the bottom of the inning and went to work. Skala singled to lead off the frame, and Stephens followed with a shot to the gap in left-center. Skala motored around to score the go-ahead run. Binninger's grounder to second moved Stephens up 90 feet to third base, and Eichholzer batted in his fifth run of the doubleheader with a line drive to rightfield that went as a sacrifice fly and gave Concordia a 6-4 lead.
Milwaukee Engineering cut into the lead with a run in the eighth, but Concordia opened up some room with two in their half of the inning. With two runners on base and two out, Skala sliced a double down the rightfield line for the final tallies of the game.
Micah Buss (Columbus, IN/Columbus North) pitched the first five innings for the Cougars, but it was senior
Garett Balind (Bonfield, IL/Herscher) that was credited with the win for his two innings of work.
Brian Schwarz (Fort Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) pitched the eighth inning, and
Tim Milroy (Batavia, IL/Marmion Academy) shut down the Raiders in the ninth to record his second save.
The Cougars (31-7) will close the regular season on Monday night when they battle the defending Division III champion Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.
