Cougars Sweep Stars, Showdown with Spartans Looming

April 13, 2013 - With an important four-game weekend of Northern Athletics Conference play at hand, the Concordia Cougars got Saturday's mission accomplished with a 10-0, 6-1 sweep of local rival Dominican University. The Cougars moved to 8-2 in the NAC (18-3 overall) ahead of tomorrow's first-place showdown with the Aurora University Spartans.

Concordia rode the left-handed pitching of sophomores Kurt Kempema (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) and C.J. Selner (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran) to victory. Kempema improved to 3-0 on the season with a complete-game five-hit shutout in game one. He threw just 95 pitches, 64 for strikes in striking out seven hitters while walking just one.

Kempema was backed by an 11-hit Cougar attack that included three homeruns. Already leading 4-0 in the third, William Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) connected on a 3-2 pitch off of Brian Costello and lined it over the fence for his second round-tripper of the season.

Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) made the score 7-0 in the fourth as he drilled a 1-2 pitch to rightfield for his first career homer. The blast scored Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) who had reached base on an error to lead off the inning.

Gier added a third RBI the following inning when his single up the middle scored Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) who reached on a one-out double.

Kyle Huber (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech) walked to lead off the sixth, and the Cougars made it 6-6 in innings scored just moments later. Randerson swung at the first pitch and tagged his second homer of the game to rightfield. The blast put the score at 10-0 Cougars, and Kempema retired the side in the seventh to end the game on the slaughter rule.

The game two scoring started in the bottom of the second as Robert Weis (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) led off with a single. Weis would make it to third with two out, and Zubrzycki brought him home with a single. Zubrzycki stole second and scored moments later as Joe Moran (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) legged out a double to the gap in right-center.

Concordia stretched the lead to five in the fourth inning. Tony Barreto (Cicero, IL/Nazareth Academy) and Zubrzycki singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Moran then singled down the rightfield to score Barreto and move Zubrzycki to third. Miller followed with a double to the rightfield corner to bring both runners across the plate.

Barreto's double and Rich Santarelli's (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) single scored Concordia's final run of the game in the fifth. The Cougars went to the ninth inning with a 6-0 lead as Kevin Pawell (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) and Louis Foss (Warner Robins, GA/Houston County) followed Selner's six shutout innings with one scoreless frame each. However, the Stars would make things tense in the ninth inning.

A walk and hit-by-pitch opened the inning, and Richie Green followed with a single to left. The ball momentarily got away in left, allowing the runner from third to come home. However, Foss got Quinlan Milne Rojek to ground into a 4-6-3 double play and Kevin Schwer to fly to right to close out the nightcap.

Concordia will face Aurora Sunday afternoon at 1:00. The games will be played at Solfisburg Park in Aurora.