April 28, 2013 - The Concordia-Chicago baseball team polished off a 4-0 weekend with today's 7-3 and 5-3 sweep of Concordia University Wisconsin. The wins put the Cougars at 27-5 overall and 16-4 in the Northern Athletics Conference. Coupled with a Benedictine University loss to Wisconsin Lutheran College, the Cougars can win at least a share of the NAC regular-season championship simply by winning their two remaining conference games next Saturday against the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

In today's games against the Falcons, the visitors took a 2-0 lead in the first against Ryan Thorsen (Lake Villa, IL/Grant Community) who was making his first start since April 7. The Falcons strung together four hits with Joel Sharon and Nick Yenter driving home the runs.

The Cougars made their charge in the third. Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) singled with one out, and everyone was safe when Robert Weis' (Oak Creek, WI/H.S.) grounder was mishandled by the second baseman. With two outs, Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) gave Concordia the lead when he unloaded for his third homer of the season and a 3-2 lead.

Singles by Kyle Huber (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech) and Derek Binninger (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) continued the rally. Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) then knocked Falcons' starter Tyler Adams from the game as his double tallied both runners, putting the Cougars up 5-2.

With Thorsen on a pitch count, Kurt Kempema (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) came in to open the fourth. He would shut out the Falcons over the next five innings, getting double plays in the fifth and seventh innings to escape jams and keep the lead at three runs. The Cougars then added to their lead in the seventh as Huber doubled home Weis and Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper).

The Falcons finished the scoring with a lone run in the ninth, but Kempema retired Buster Hebda on a ground ball to third to close out game one. Kempema improved to 4-0 on the season, allowing one run on eight hits during his six innings of work.

In game two, C.J. Selner (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran) took the mound and used a double play to erase a leadoff hit. The Cougars then gave their sophomore hurler a nice cushion with a five-run first. Singles by Weis and Gier got things underway, and Binninger's single back up the middle put the Cougars on top. A few batters later, Tony Barreto (Cicero, IL/Nazareth Academy) singled off the second baseman's glove, and two runners came in to score. Before the inning was over, Dan Lo Dolce (Northlake, IL/Walther Lutheran) and Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) added RBI hits as the Cougars batted around.

The Falcons got on the board in the second as Sharon led off with a triple to the right-center gap. Taylor Devenport's grounder to short produced the run, but the out began a string in which Selner would retire 13 of the next 14 Falcons' batters.

The visitors made it close in the seventh as Brock Bateman's double down the rightfield line scored a pair of runners. But Selner finished off a strong outing by getting Jay Kuczynski on a grounder to third, keeping the lead at 5-3.

Paul Kukulka (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) held the Falcons scoreless in the eighth. Steve Cox (Villa Park, IL/Willowbrook) came on for the ninth, but the first two batters singled. A sacrifice moved the runners up 90 feet, putting the tying run at second. Cox bore down, striking out Yenter and Hebda to record his ninth save of the season.

The Cougars return to action on Tuesday afternoon with a single nine-inning game at Elmhurst College