May 6, 2014 – One season down, another ready to commence for the Concordia University Chicago baseball team.

The Cougars ended their regular season last night in Bloomington, IL with a 33-5 record after a 5-0 win over host Illinois Wesleyan University. But moments after the game had ended, fourth-year head coach Adam Smith, his coaching staff and players were already turning their attention to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament, which will begin this Thursday at Kapco Park on the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin. The Cougars (17-3 NACC) will enter the tournament as the number one seed with a number four national ranking in the D3baseball.com weekly poll and a number seven ranking in the American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA) poll (both polls through games of May 4).

Concordia-Chicago has competed in all but one of the NACC tournaments since the inaugural one in 2007. The Cougars won the tournaments in 2009 and 2013, preceding their NCAA III regional appearances those years in Adrian, MI and Rock Island, IL respectively. Concordia-Chicago's other four appearances in the NACC tournament have resulted in second-place finishes, and the Cougars received an at-large bid to the Whitewater, WI regional in 2012 after finishing second to Aurora University. Interestingly, CUC and Aurora were both placed in the Whitewater regional but did not meet on the field.

The Cougars are 18-8 all-time at the NACC tournament. Their first-round opponent this Thursday morning at 10 a.m. will be Rockford University, the number six seed. In tournament play, the Cougars are 3-4 against Rockford but have beaten the Regents in each of the past two years. The previous five meetings took place in 2007 and 2008 when the Regents won the conference's first two automatic bids.

In tournament games involving the rest of the field, Concordia-Chicago is 6-2 against #2 Benedictine University, 1-0 against #3 Concordia University Wisconsin, 2-0 against #4 Edgewood College and 1-0 against #5 Dominican University.

Fans travelling to Mequon for the tournament are advised to check the official tournament page at http://cuwfalcons.com/sports/bsb/2013-14/2014naccbaseballtournament for links to ticket prices, parking, game schedule and other pertinent information. Links to live stats and video of each game can also be found on CUC athletics' website at CUCougars.com.  
           
The official D3baseball.com rankings can be viewed at http://d3baseball.com/top25/2014/2014-week-11. The official ABCA poll can be viewed at www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_050614.pdf.