May 13, 2016 - The Concordia-Chicago baseball team was ready to play ball against Aurora University this evening in the hopes of punching CUC's ticket to the championship round of the 2016 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference baseball tournament, but a hard rain came upon Kapco Park in Mequon, WI just 10 minutes before game time and told the Cougars, "not so fast." The rain postponed the game until Saturday morning at 10:00.

The three earlier games on Friday were completed, and three of the original six teams in the tournament were eliminated - in order, Concordia University Wisconsin, Benedictine University and Dominican University. The two teams left to challenge the top-seeded Cougars for this year's tournament title are the #3 Aurora Spartans and the #5 Milwaukee School of Engineering Raiders. 

After Saturday's first game, the winner will advance to the championship round at 4:00 while the losing team will play at 1:00 versus MSOE in an elimination game. The winner of the 1:00 game advances to the championship round to take on the undefeated team. If a second championship game is required, it will be played at 12:00 noon on Sunday with the winner gaining the automatic berth to an NCAA III regional tournament next week.

Barring any last-minute lineup changes Saturday morning, the Cougars will send Eric Palmer (Melrose Park, IL/West Leyden) to the mound against Aurora's Jacob Stockman. Palmer, just named the NACC Pitcher of the Year, is 5-0 with a 1.68 ERA in 59 innings this season while Stockman is 4-3 with a 4.50 ERA in 60 innings. Stockman has not pitched against CUC this year, but Palmer shut out the Spartans over six innings in game one back on April 11. Palmer allowed just two hits as CUC defeated AU 10-0.

The Cougars-Spartans game, along with the remaining games of the tournament, can be viewed at http://cuwfalcons.com/tournaments/bsb/2016/index.