April 14, 2013 - The top two teams in the Northern Athletics Conference standings went head to head Sunday afternoon at Solfisburg Park in Aurora. The Aurora University Spartans began the doubleheader in first place in the standings, but it was the Concordia Cougars that went home in the evening holding the top spot. The Cougar bats produced some late-inning heroics in both games to prevail by scores of 7-3 and 8-7.

The first game saw starting pitchers Bobby Beelen (Wheeling, IL/H.S.) and Drew Gay dominate the action. Aurora broke the ice in the fifth inning on doubles by Tim Brann and Carlos Olivarria.

Cocnordia did not wait long to answer. Joe Moran (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) singled to lead off the sixth, and Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) drew a walk. One out later, Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) golfed Gay's pitch deep to leftfield. The ball carried over the high wall for a three-run opposite-field homer, Randerson's third in the last two days.

The 3-1 lead held up until the seventh. Two runners were aboard with two out when Corey Landers lined a shot past third base and all the way to the leftfield corner. Both runners came around to score, but Beelen caught Tanner Oymaian looking at a third strike to keep the score tied at 3-3.

Undaunted, the Cougars regained the lead in the eighth. Miller doubled with one out, and Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) was hit by a pitch. Randerson then hit a grounder to shortstop, but the ball was bobbled in the haste to try and turn a double play and everyone was safe. Next up was Dan Lo Dolce (Northlake, IL/Walther Lutheran) who had entered the game an inning earlier as a defensive replacement. LoDolce took a strike and then lined the next pitch into left-center for a two-run single and a 5-3 lead. Another run scored moments later on an errant throw from the second baseman.

Beelen retired the first batter in the eighth, but back-to-back singles spelled the end of the southpaw's afternoon. Sophomore Paul Kukulka (Lake Villa, IL/Lakes Community) entered the game, and the level of drama heightened as he hit Brann with a pitch to load the bases. However, Kukulka got Jared Swain to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to escape the jam.

The Cougars added a run in the ninth as a fly ball was misplayed in centerfield, allowing Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) to cross the plate. Kukulka then shut down Aurora 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to wrap up his first save of the season. Beelen improved to 3-1 on the season with the win.

In game two, Concordia continued to feast on Aurora miscues in the field. With the bases loaded in the third, a shot to second base went between the fielder's legs, allowing two runs to score. However, the Spartans answered back in their half of the inning with three runs for a 3-2 lead.

The lead changed hands twice in the fifth inning. First, Concordia loaded the bases on singles by Miller, Gier and Kyle Huber (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech). With two out, Tony Barreto (Cicero, IL/Nazareth Academy) lined Eric Palmer's first pitch to the gap in right-center. All three runners motored around to put the visitors in the lead at 5-3.

Aurora then matched the three runs in their at-bat. Ryan McMahon hit a two-run homer to tie the score. Later in the inning, a double by Swain scored the go-ahead run, although an alert relay caught Swain too far rounding second base, and he was tagged out to end the inning.

Olivarria added to the hosts' lead in the sixth when he led off with a homer to left-centerfield. But the Cougars struck back with a two-out rally in the seventh. Robert Weis (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) beat out an infield single, and Barreto singled to left. Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) then picked on the first pitch and drove it deep over the centerfielder's head to the wall. Weis and pinch-runner B.J. Weisflog (Grafton, WI/H.S.) scored to forge a 7-7 tie.

Kukulka made his second appearance of the day to start the bottom of the seventh, and he retired the side with the help of a 5-4-3 double play. The Spartans put two runners on base in the eighth, but a fly to center and a nice play by Santarelli on a slow roller ended the threat and sent the game to the ninth inning.

The Spartans' Tom Ozlanski struck out the first batter in the ninth, but Huber looped one into short leftfield and hustled it into a double. Huber was replaced on the bases by pinch-runner Nick Contorno (Park Ridge, IL/Maine South). Contorno did not stay there long as Weis ripped a 1-0 pitch into center for the go-ahead RBI hit.

Steve Cox (Villa Park, IL/Willowbrook) took the mound for the bottom of the ninth. Oymaian reached him for a soft single, but Cox picked off the speedy runners seconds later to pick up the all-important first out. Cox then reached back for the fastballs, blowing third strikes by McMahon and Cory Walden to end an exciting day.

The victories put the Cougars' winning streak at ten and improved the overall record to 20-3. The 20 wins mark the 11th consecutive season that Concordia has reached that plateau.

Concordia will host Wheaton College in a single nine-inning game on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00.