Box Score April 20, 2016 - The D3Baseball.com weekly poll, released this morning, listed the Concordia-Chicago Cougars as the 19th-ranked team in the nation and North Central College Cardinals as 22nd-ranked. The two teams met this afternoon at Zimmerman Stadium in Naperville for a single game non-conference tilt. At the outset, it appeared as if the two teams would score at will, but the host CArdinals eventually pulled away to a 13-6 victory.

The Cougars fired the first shot after the first two batters of the game had been retired. Andrew Massey (Chicago, IL/St. Rita) reached on an infield hit and promptly stole second. Brent Spohr (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) then smacked a single to rightfield, easily scoring Massey for the 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals wasted no time charging back into the game. Four hits, a walk and three stolen bases led to three runs off CUC starter Nick Barnhill (Normal, IL/Normal West) . North Central added three more in the second with the big blow coming on a two-run triple down the rightfield line.

Joe Silva (Arlington Heights, IL/Hersey) led off the third with a single as Concordia-Chicago regrouped and came back after the hosts. One out later, Mitch Wilson (Oswego, IL/H.S.) lined a shot to the alley that split the right and centerfielders. Silva raced home all the way from first while Wilson pulled into second with a double. Wilson was not at second base for long, as Doug Matthews (Crest Hill, IL/Lockport Township) went opposite field in his turn at bat, singling down the rightfield line while Wilson scored. The Cougars added a run in the fourth as Kevin Coppin (Lisle, IL/H.S.) hit a pitch to the deepest part of the yard. The ball caromed away, and Coppin did not stop before he motored into third base with a triple. Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) then hit the next pitch to centerfield, deep enough for Coppin to come home with the run that made the score NCC 6, CUC 4.

Unfortunately, two runs was as close as the Cougars would come. The Cardinals quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth and cashed in all three on a double to rightfield. North Central then put an exclamation point on the game with a four-spot in the sixth inning on four hits, two of them doubles. Concordia-Chicago scor3ed the final run of the game in the ninth on Brendan Klein's (St. Peters, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) single, a pair of wild pitches and Bryan VanDuser's (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield North) sacrifice fly.

Concordia-Chicago (22-8) will return to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play on Saturday when they host Rockford University. First pitch of game one will be thrown at noon. The games will be shown live over www.cuchicago.edu/live.