April 1, 2012 - Two innings away from what would have been a very disappointing opening weekend of Northern Athletics Conference play, the Concordia Cougar bats came to life in the nick of time. A six-run eighth inning enabled the Cougars to defeat Rockford College 7-3 in Sunday's second of two games after the Regents had taken the opener by a 4-2 score.

Concordia's normally high-powered offense was held to a combined four runs and 12 hits in Saturday's split with Benedictine, and Sunday's first game saw the bats continue to struggle. The Cougars managed just two baserunners over the first four innings with six of the 12 outs coming on ground balls.

Brenden Schulz (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) blanked the Regents over the first three innings, but the home team hit the scoreboard in the fourth. Three singles loaded the bases with one out. Ryan Lesner then cued one off the end of the bat that got past first base into rightfield for a two-run single. Moments later, an error extended the inning for the Regents, and the next batter drew a bases-loaded walk for the third run of the inning.

The Cougars broke the ice in the fifth as Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) doubled with one out. Rob Fioravanti (Evergreen Park, IL/H.S.) followed with a single to left. Miller got the stop sign at third, but when the leftfielder briefly overran the ball, Miller came in to score. Robert Weis (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) and Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) singled to load the bases, still with only one out. Fioravanti came home on a wild pitch, but Daryn Streed bore down, struck out Schulz and got Dan Eichholzer (Elwood, IL/Joliet Township) on a ground ball to short, keeping Rockford's lead at 3-2.

The Regents got a run back in the bottom of the inning on an infield chopper, and Streed would take over from there. The Cougars had just one more good opportunity, that coming in the eighth when Nick Skala (Long Grove, IL/St. Viator) led off with a double and Cam Stephens (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) walked. But Streed retired the next three hitters, getting Fioravanti on a called third strike to end the inning. Streed went on to the complete-game victory, allowing the Cougars just seven hits.

Game two started out in much the same fashion as the Cougar bats were silent through three. Bobby Beelen (Wheeling, IL/H.S.) started on the mound for Concordia and got into trouble immediately as the first three batters reached base. However, Beelen induced Streed to hit into a 4-6-3 double play; a run scored on the play, but Beelen retired the next batter and limited the damage to one run.

Rockford scored again in the second by way of some alert baserunning. With runners on first and third and two out, Jake Gorsuch broke from first. The Cougars eventually tagged him in a rundown but not before Lesner crossed the plate with the Regents' second run.

Skala pulled one run back for the Cougars in the fourth. He led off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Stephens then hit a hot ground ball ticketed for right, but the ball hit the lip of the infield and came up right into the second baseman's glove. The bad luck cost Stephens a hit, but Skala did advance to third from where he scored on Anthony Even's (Franklin Park, IL/West Leyden) sacrifice fly.

Beelen shut out the Regents in the third, fourth and fifth innings but was touched for an unearned run in the sixth. Ryne Billesbach tripled and scored with two out as a throw from shortstop bounced in the dirt for an error.

Kevin Pawell (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) relieved Beelen to start the seventh and set down the Regents, sending the game to the eighth. Santarelli led off with a hit and, one out later, Miller reached on an infield single. Skala then came through with a double to the leftfield corner, scoring Santarelli and sending Miller to third. Rockford's Kaleb Rich worked ahead of Stephens 1-2 before hitting him with a pitch to load the bases. Even was next, and he hit Rich's first pitch into short rightfield. The ball fell in front of the diving rightfielder with Miller and Skala scoring as Concordia took its first lead of the day at 4-3.

Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a possible double play. The strategy appeared to pay off as Tony Barreto (Cicero, IL/Nazareth Academy) hit a hard two-hopper at shortstop Jimmy Dercks. Dercks bobbled the ball momentarily and, although he recovered to flip the ball to second for the force, it allowed pinch-runner Robert Frampton (North Riverside, IL/Riverside-Brookfield) to take out the second baseman. The relay to first went wild as two runs scored on the play. Following a walk to Weis, Santarelli cracked his second single of the inning and fifth hit of the doubleheader to score pinch-runner B.J. Weisflog (Grafton, WI/H.S.) for a 7-3 lead.

Pawell silenced the Regents over the final two frames, earning his second win of the season. The sophomore lefty finished with three strikeouts over three hitless innings, lowering his ERA to 0.86 in his 21 innings pitched.

Concordia (14-5, 2-2 NAC) returns to action on Tuesday with a non-conference game at the University of Chicago.