May 15, 2013 - In a season of consistently strong pitching performances, the Concordia Cougars came through with arguably the best of all in tonight's first-round game in the NCAA III Central Regional in Moline, Illinois. Junior Dan Kluss (Niles, IL/Niles West) fired a complete-game, 103-pitch gem as the Cougars shut out the third-seeded hosts of Augustana College (32-10) by a 2-0 final score.

The two teams got underway in beautiful 81 degree temperatures with Kluss opposing southpaw Seth Davis. The Cougars made Davis work through a 32-pitch top of the first with three of the first four batters working a full count. Joe Moran (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) led off with a walk. Shawn Miller (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) then went 3-2, fouled off a pitch and golfed Davis' next offering over the leftfield wall for a two-run homer and the early lead.

"It's everything when you can get an early lead like that," said head coach Adam Smith. "We had a lot of confidence after that and played great defense to go with Dan's great pitching. He was awesome."

By contrast to Davis' rough first inning, Kluss breezed through a 16-pitch 1-2-3 inning in the first. He fanned the leadoff batter Tyler Bernal and retired the next two batters on ground balls in the middle infield. Kluss needed just 10 more pitches to get through the second, striking out Mark Van Natta to end the frame. With two out in the third, the Vikings got their first runner as Jeremy Juhl's fly to right was misplayed into a double. But Kluss came back to slip a called third strike past Bernal, ending the threat and keeping Concordia's lead at two.

While Kluss was mowing down the Vikings, Davis came back to pitch an excellent game and keep the home team in the hunt. Following a leadoff single in the second by Dan LoDolce (Northlake, IL/Walther Lutheran), Davis retired 12 of the next 13 batters, the lone baserunner coming on a third strike that got away from the catcher. Derek Binninger (Pleasant Prairie, WI/Tremper) ended the hitless string with a one-out single in the sixth, but that would be Concordia's final hit of the night. That left it to Kluss to hold the line for the Cougars.

Kluss' battery mate, catcher Tony Barreto (Cicero, IL/Nazareth Academy) provided a big helping hand in the fifth. Mark Van Nata singled with one out, just the Vikings' second hit to that point. On the first pitch to Brandon Jasper, Van Natta took off for second but Barreto's pinpoint throw easily nailed the runner for the second out. Jasper subsequently reached base on an infield dribbler, but Barreto caught him straying too far off of first and fired a quick strike to Binninger for the inning-ending pickoff.

Following the two outs on the basepaths, Kluss was virtually untouchable. He posted 1-2-3 innings in the sixth, seventh and eighth. Kluss then took the mound for the bottom of the ninth, having thrown an economical 83 pitches to that point. He quickly got ahead of Kyle Lenihan 0-2 before coaxing a lazy fly to rightfield for out number one. Juhl then worked one of the few full counts off Kluss before swinging at a third strike, Kluss' eighth of the night.

Jacob Van Duyne kept the home team's hopes alive briefly as he ripped a 2-0 pitch to the leftfield corner for a double. That brought the tying run to the plate in Danny Fifer. The Vikings' leftfielder ran the count to 2-2 before lifting a high fly to right-center. Moran camped under it and made the game-ending grab as the Cougars' dugout stormed the field to congratulate Kluss on the four-hit shutout.

Concordia's 15th consecutive victory was a milestone win, the first in five regional games in the program's history. But apart from that, Smith noted that "this was a great college baseball game. It was a great game to watch, and I was happy to be a part of it."

The Cougars (37-5) will now prepare to take on fifth-seeded Adrian College of Michigan (32-13) on Thursday night at 7:00. The Bulldogs went 11 innings today to upend second-seeded Wartburg College 5-4.