Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 May 6, 2016 - Pitching to the Concordia-Chicago hitters is not only a difficult task, but it can be downright scary sometimes. The latter was the case this afternoon in River Forest as the Cougars shelled the Lakeland College pitching staff for 39 runs on 44 hits. The offensive barrage led CUC to a 28-5, 11-7 sweep of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader.

The Cougars started early today after Eric Palmer (Melrose Park, IL/West Leyden) shut down the Muskies in the top of the first. Bryan VanDuser (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield North) singled and Joe Silva (Arlington Heights, IL/Hersey) doubled to get things rolling. Andrew Massey (Chicago, IL/St. Rita) then grounded to short; VanDuser scored easily, and CUC got a bonus when the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag. Brent Spohr (Ingleside, IL/Grant Community) then singled and Mitch Wilson (Oswego, IL/H.S.) doubled, and the Cougars had a 3-0 lead just five batters ino the game. Later in the inning, the Cougars had the bases loaded when catcher Kevin Coppin (Lisle, IL/H.S.) launched his first career homer, a liner to right that put CUC in front by a 7-0 margin. The Cougars added another run in the first as the third baseman misplayed a pop-up.

Concordia-Chicago kept rolling as they scored twice in the second on Andrew Kroncke's (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North) two-run single. Three more runs came across in the third on RBI doubles by Massey and Spohr and an RBI single by Grant Davis (Morris, IL/Morris Community). Three more scored in the bottom of the fourth as CUC head coach Mike Stawski began to utilize many of his younger players. Justin Rodriguez (Wood Dale, IL/Fenwick) and Jacob Frank (Chicago, IL/Loyola Academy) drovr in runs with base hits, and another scored on an error to make the score 16-0.

While the Cougars were amassing all their runs, Palmer was on cruise control on the mound. He faced the minimum 12 batters through the first four innings. His only blemish in that span was a one-out single in the second, but that was quickly erased on a 6-4-3 double play. Palmer allowed a leadoff single in the fifth; the runner eventually made it as far as second base, but Palmer escaped the mini-jam by striking out the final batter of the inning. The senior exited the game after that, striking out six batters and earning his fifth win of the season.

The Cougars put the game away with an 11-run attack in the fifth. The first 10 batters safely reached base, capped by Frank's first career homerun, like Coppin's blast also a grand slam. Joey Anderson's (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield East) two-run double capped the inning as CUC led by 27.

A couple of firsts gave CUC its final run in the sixth. Singles by Anthony Fundukian (Schererville, IN/Bishop Noll) and Jack Glosson (McHenry, IL/McHenry West) set the stage for the first career at-bat by pitcher Rob Lock (Chicago, IL/St. Ignatius). Lock fell behind 0-2 but then lifted a fly to rightfield, deep enough to bring home Fundukian.

Lakeland averted the shutout in the seventh with a five-run rally. Four of the runs came on Travis Regalado's grand slam, the third bases-loaded blast of the game which is believed to be a first in CUC baseball history.

To the Muskies' credit, they fought back in game two and had the Cougars on the ropes for much of the game. Lakeland took an early lead with a second-inning tally, but Spohr got the run back in their half of the frame with a solo shot to left, his third round-tripper of the season. However, Lakeland batted around in the third, scoring three times and loading the bases before reliever Matt McTague (Skokie, IL/Niles North) came in to strike out the first batter he faced to escape the inning. The Muskies added a run in the sixth and were looking good with a 5-1 lead as starting pitcher Connor Hilburn was confounding the CUC hitters with an arsenal of off-speed pitches. Hilburn was also helped out by an unusual double play in the fourth. The Cougars had the bases loaded with no out, but a ground ball to third was thrown home for a force out at the plate. A mix-up with the base runners led to a second out being recorded by the catcher as he ran down to third base and tagged the bag for the force.

Finally, to the relief of the CUC fans in the crowd who were enjoying the bright, 77-degree day, the Cougar bats roared back to life in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Kroncke and Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) reached base on singles. Van Duser then doubled to the base of the leftfield fence,bringing home Kroncke. Silva followed with a blast deep to right that one-hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double, Bethran and VanDuser scoring. Massey was up next, and he hit a deep fly to leftfield. The outfielder leaped for the ball and got his glove on the ball, but his contact with the fence caused the ball to pop loose, and the tying run came home to tie the game at 5-5.  Spohr's single moved Massey to third, and the Muskies' head coach went to the bullpen.

Wilson greeted the reliever with a blast to left-center and did not stop until he reached third base with a two-run triple; Wilson's triple was his seventh of the year, tying a season record set by Jim Paduch. The lead became 8-5 when a ground ball to third base was thrown home. The throw appeared in plenty of time, but the catcher dropped the ball as Wilson slid home safely.

The Cougars appeared to put the game on ice with three runs in the eighth. Bethran doubled home a run and VanDuser singled home Bethran after the first run of the inning scored on a balk. The Muskies made a final charge with two runs in the ninth. They got the tying run to the on-deck circle when Spohr saved possible trouble, jumping to spear a high throw on a grounder to third for the final out.

Brian Musielak (Chicago, IL/Brother Rice) improved to 5-0 on the season with another strong relief outing. Musielak pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing no hits or runs while fainning three.

Concordia-Chicago, ranked #14 in both the ABCA and D3Baseball.com polls, improved to 29-9 on the season and 16-2 in NACC play. They will make up last Saturday's rained-out doubleheader at Benedictine University tomorrow with first pitch of game one scheduled for 3 p.m.