May 15, 2014 - One evening after the Concordia Cougars came out on top in a brilliant pitchers' duel, the roles were reversed in Thursday night's second-round matchup in the Division III Midwest Regional. The Cougars had no answer to Adrian College's Holden Branch, and they suffered a 4-1 loss to the fifth-seeded Bulldogs at Miller Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

Concordia-Chicago had faced Branch last year in a second-round game at the Central Regional at Augustana College and came out on top on that occasion by a 3-2 score. But this time, Branch kept the CUC hitters off balance all night, using a very effective curve ball among his weapons. The Cougars managed just three hits, all singles, and stranded seven runners on base.

The game started out as a battle of undefeated pitchers, Branch's 7-0 mark challenged by the 6-0 slate of CUC starter Kurt Kempema (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.). Kempema battled his control in the first few innings but settled down and retired nine straight batters from the fourth through sixth innings. However, a leadoff walk in the second inning led to trouble as Dan Heatherly followed it with the Bulldogs' first hit. An error in the outfield moved both runners up a base and put them in scoring position. Adrian efficiently got the runs home with a grounder to second base and a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 lead.

Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) led off the third with a single as the Cougars looked to come back. After a fielder's choice, Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) singled through the left side. Zubrzycki and pinch-runner Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) then advanced on a wild pitch, and the Cougars were one base hit away from tying the game. Will Randerson's (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) sacrifice fly to deep right scored Gier, but Zubrzycki would be stranded at third as Branch extinguished the threat with a pop-up to the catcher in foul territory. Zubrzycki's hit was the last one of the night for the Cougars and, although they would get five more base runners (three hit batsmen and two walks), they were unable to put the pressure on the Bulldogs' righthander.

Adrian got a run back in the bottom of the third after two were out. A walk and single brought Heatherly to the plate, and he delivered his second hit of the game, a single up the middle to make it a 3-1 game.

Kempema allowed a leadoff single in the fourth but then settled in and retired the next nine batters, six of them on infield grounders. He would give way to Kevin Pawell (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) in the seventh who worked around a leadoff double and kept the Bulldogs off the board.

Steve Cox (Villa Park, IL/Willowbrook) took over in the eighth, but an error opened the door for an unearned run to score on Dakota Cararo's double down the leftfield line. The run was the third against Cox this season, all unearned, and his streak continues of not having an earned run scored against him since 2012.

With the loss, CUC will face St. Norbert College on Thursday afternoon at 3:00 in an elimination game. If the Cougars defeat the Green Knights, they would come back immediately to play the loser of the 12:00 game between UW/Whitewater and Adrian. The winner of the last game would advance to Saturday's championship round against the remaining undefeated team.