April 22, 2017 - The Concordia-Chicago baseball team began this weekend looking to put some distance between themselves and their closest pursuers in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. However, they hit a pothole in game one of their doubleheader today at Rockford University as some missed scoring opportunities led to a 3-2 loss. However, some early offense in game two helped CUC salvage a split with a 9-2 win.

Game one started as a pitchers' duel between Keaton Conner and Joseph Valdez. The Regents drew first blood as Cole Logemann blasted a solo homer in the third for a 1-0 lead. Valdez held the lead as he shut down CUC in order in the fourth and then stranded a runner on tthird in the fifth to keep his team holding onto the slim lead.

A leadoff walk to Joe Silva in the sixth spelled the end of the day for Valdez. Brent Spohr greeted the new RU pitcher with an RBI double to left. A few batters later, Kevin Coppin drew a walk. Coppin would coax a pickoff throw to first which went errant, and the throw would bring Spohr all the way around to score the go-ahead run.

Undaunted, the Regents regained the lead in the seventh off Conner and Mike Formella. Logemann and Bryce Hinkelmann reached on singles, and they would be in scoring position with two out when Mitchell Gorsuch's single scored both runners for a 3-2 lead.

The Cougars had two glorious chances to tie or take the lead. In the eighth, Silva walked and Spohr doubled, and the Cougars were set up for a big inning. That backfired, however, when a bunt was fielded by the pitcher who made a nice flip to the plate to catch Silva. In the ninth, Connor Brandon led off with a double. He would be on third with one out, but two fly balls would leave him there as the Cougars went down to just their second defeat in conference play.

Fortunately for CUC, the big story of game two would be pitcher Brian Musielak?. The converted reliever pitched his first complete game as he improved to 4-1. Musielak scattered nine hits and allowed just the two runs after CUC had built a 7-0 lead. He struck out four and, more importantly, did not walk a batter.

The Cougars gave Musielak early support. In the first inning, Bryan VanDuser led off with a hit and eventually came around to score on ?Spohr's sacrifice fly. Mitch Wilson followed with a hit, and he would come around to score on Justin Rodriguez's single.?????.The lead became 3-0 in the second when Brendan Klein reached on an error and scored on VanDuser's double., 

Concordia-Chicago began to pull away in the fourth, as two RU errors led to a pair of unearned runs. In the fifth, Kevin Garcia's two-run single made it a 7-0 lead for the visitors.

Rockford put up single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but CUC had an answer for each one. Klein's single drove in a run in the seventh, and Spohr's fourth double of the day drove in the final run in the eighth.

Concordia-Chicago (20-11, 12-2) will return to the home field on Sunday afternoon to host Dominican University. In addition to its conference implications, the games will also decide which school will win the River Forest Rivalry Cup for 2016-17.