May 9, 2015 - The old adage claims that baseball championships are won on pitching and defense, and rarely has that been more clearly demonstrated than this morning's third-round game in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament. The Concordia-Chicago Cougars rode the two-hit pitching of junior Eric Palmer (Melrose Park, IL/West Leyden) and some excellent defense behind him to an 8-0 win over fifth-seeded Benedictine University and an advancement into the championship round.

"Eric has come a long way from last year, going back to the injury he suffered in the first game he pitched in Arizona," said CUC head coach Adam Smith. "To see him work his way back this season and pitch the way he did today is very special." 

Palmer threw 110 pitches, 65 for strikes over his eight innings of work, striking out two and walking two. He allowed just two singles, one of them a checked-swing roller down the third base line. Palmer retired 18 of 19 batters faced during one stretch and faced just three batters over the minimum before giving way to Matt McTague (Skokie, IL/Niles North) in the ninth inning.

Smith's praise also extended to the defense, particularly the infield which was responsible for 17 ground ball outs in the game. "The way our defense played would give any of our pitchers all the confidence in the world. I thought Jeff Von Moser (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) at shortstop especially was at his best today, but all of them were solid and made it easy for Eric to take command of this game."

By contrast, Benedictine was guilty of nine errors in the game which allowed Concordia-Chicago to get the upper hand early. Von Moser singled in the first and went to third as a throw on Carlos Olavarria's (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) bunt sailed past first base. Von Moser scored the first run moments later on Brent Spohr's (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) grounder to shortstop. 

The Cougars then took advantage of some misplays in the top of the second to put three more runs on the board. Two errors and a single by Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) loaded the bases for Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly). Randerson's grounder to short was thrown to second base for the force, but Santarelli's hard, clean slide disrupted the relay throw to first which went wide, allowing Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) to follow Doug Matthews (Crest Hill, IL/Lockport Township) across home plate. An infield single by Joe Silva (Arlington Heights, IL/Hersey) and a squeeze by Von Moser scored Randerson for a 4-0 lead after 1 1/2 innings.   

Concordia-Chicago added single unearned runs in the fifth and sixth, the latter scoring on Von Moser's single for his second RBI of the game. The Cougars then scored two in the eighth, beginning with Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) reaching base when he was hit by a pitch. Bethran would score on Olavarria's single to right, and Olavarria would score after stealing second and third bases and coming home on a wild pitch.

The Cougars (29-13) will now wait out the result of the Benedictine-Concordia Wisconsin game to determine their poponent in the championship round. If Concordia Wisconsin wins, the Cougars will play the Falcons at 4:00 this afternoon. If Benedictine wins, the teams must wait until Sunday morning at 10:00 to play since no team can play three games in one day. In either case, the Cougars must win just once while their opponent must win twice to claim the tournament title.