April 27, 2014 - Six days prior to a showdown with their closest competition in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference baseball standings, the Concordia-Chicago Cougars eliminated any suspense by clinching the regular-season championship and the number one seed in the conference tournament this afternoon. The Cougars beat the Milwaukee School of Engineering 1-0 and 11-0, reducing their magic number over Benedictine University to zero while improving to 31-3 overall and 17-1 in the NACC.

The game one win over MSOE took 10 innings and marked the second time this weekend that the Cougars played a 1-0 game. Today's sterling pitching effort came from senior Dan Kluss (Niles, IL/Niles West) who went the distance throwing 131 pitches. Kluss allowed just four hits, all singles, and struck out nine while walking one. Only one runners made it as far as third base; that came in the seventh as a leadoff single moved up on two infield outs. But Kluss came back to strike out Tyler Magyar to keep the game scoreless.

Concordia had the better scoring chances but could not capitalize against MSOE starter Ben Falls. The best chance came in the fourth when Dan Eichholzer (Elwood, IL/Joliet West) drew a leadoff walk. Brent Spohr (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) then hit a rocket to leftfield against the wind that hit the leftfield fence about halfway up. Spohr's double moved Eichholzer to third, and the Cougars were poised to score first. But Falls managed a great escape act, coming back to retire the side on three pop-ups and stranding the runners.

The great duel between Kluss and Falls, who threw 146 pitches in his complete-game effort, finally came to its conclusion in the tenth. Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) reached base on an error. Bethran promptly stole second and was then advanced to third on a sacrifice by Carlos Olavarria (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden). Bethran held his ground as the first baseman got enough of Kyle Huber's (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech) high chopper to get the second out of the inning, but Eichholzer brought the game to an end as he singled in the hole between third and short to score Bethran.

Ryan Thorsen (Lake Villa, IL/Grant Community) took the mound in game two and had the Raiders powerless in the early going. The southpaw retired the first 11 MSOE batters with only one ball reaching the outfield. Meanwhile, the Cougars gave Thorsen the early lead as Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) reached base on an error top open the first. He stole second and scored moments later on Olavarria's single.

The Cougars ' bats finally exploded in the third inning as they put up five runs. They quickly loaded the bases, and Will Polley's (River Forest, IL/Oak Park-River Forest) sacrifice fly scored Zubrzycki, Run-scoring singles followed from Huber and Eichholzer, and another run scored as the outfielder misplayed the ball. Rich Santarelli's (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) sacrifice fly capped the inning and gave CUC a 6-0 lead after three.

Concordia added to its lead against the MSOE bullpen. They put up two runs in the fourth, one coming home on Eichholzer's single. Eichholzer struck one more time in the fifth when he ripped a run-scoring double as part of a three-run burst.

Thorsen exited the game after a solid six-inning, 96-pitch effort in which he allowed just two hits and two walks. Thorsen struck out two while improving his record to 4-1. Mike Sweeney (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) took the mound to pitch the seventh. The leadoff man reached on an infield single but, after a fly to short leftfield, Sweeney got a game-ending 6-4-3 double play which touched off a celebration on the field.

The Cougars return to action on Tuesday afternoon with a single game at home against Elmhurt College.