April 21, 2015 – The Cougars hosted Aurora University in a makeup game on Tuesday after Sunday's weather-related postponement. The teams played in very windy conditions and the game ended 11-9 to Aurora.
The hits came quickly in the game as Aurora got on in the top of the first. CUC came back in the bottom of the inning as
Joe Silva (Arlington Heights, IL/Hersey) singled in
Brendan Klein (St. Charles, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) after his leadoff single and stolen base.
Doug Mathews (Crest Hill, IL/Lockport Township) singled in
Brent Spohr (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) for a 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately, the runs kept coming for the opposition. Aurora got five in the top of the second, three coming unearned after a two-out error kept the inning alive. The Spartans added three more in the top of the third for a 9-2 lead. However, the Cougars got two back in the bottom of the inning as
Carlos Olavarria (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) doubled in Silva and Spohr singled in Olavarria to make it 9-4.
In the top of the fourth, another run made it 10-4 before the Cougars got backto work.
Mitch Wilson (Oswego, IL/Oswego) led off being hit by a pitch and
Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) doubled to put runners on second and third.
Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) walked to load the bases with no outs. A sacrifice fly scored one run, and a Klein single scored a second. Silva doubled to score a third and a fielder's choice brought in the fourth run. After four complete innings, the score was 10-8, advantage Aurora, with none of the hits being homers despite the wind.
While the first four innings contained 18 combined runs on a day where the wind was blowing out to right, the defense and pitching took root from the fifth through eighth innings.and no runs were scored. Going into the ninth with a two-run advantage, Aurora added an insurance run to make it 11-8. In the bottom of the ninth, Randerson singled in Matthews with one out. With two on, one out, and the winning run at the plate, the Spartans turned a 6-3 game-ending double play off of a sharply hit ball to shortstop, making for a frustrating finish to the Cougars' day.
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Concordia (19-12, 11-3 NACC) returns to the field on Saturday to host Lakeland in a doubleheader. The games are at 12 noon and 3 p.m.
