May 16, 2017 - The Concordia-Chicago Cougars come into the Midwest Regional as the number two seed and riding a 10- game winning streak. To get to the NCAA regionals, the Cougars took care of business at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament. In round one, CUC handled Benedictine University with ease, beating them 13-3 in seven innings. The next two games were against rival Concordia-Wisconsin where the Cougars faced adversity in each game, trailing 4-1 before coming back to win both games and giving Concordia-Chicago their fifth straight NACC championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA playoffs.

In their first game, the Cougars will go up against the seventh-seeded Macalester College Scots. The Scots are the part of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and were the fourth seed in their conference tournament. The Scots got hot at the right time as they rattled off three straight wins in the tournament to advance into the NCAA playoffs with a record of 26-15. Two of their wins in the MIAC tournament came against top-seed Bethel University and the other against the University of St. Thomas, who received an at-large bid to the Midwest Regional. The Scots come in hitting .318 as a team, led by Alex Baretta's .407, and have hit 33 home runs with Quentin Stuart's nine topping the list. Macalester isn't a huge threat on the base paths, but when they do, they have only gotten caught stealing 14 times on the year.Nick McMullen is the stolen base leader, successful on 12 of 14. Meanwhile, opponents have tried to steal on Macalester just 43 times, being successful on 24.  

First pitch between the Cougars and the Scots will be Thursday evening at 7:45 p.m.from Prucha Field on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Information on the regional can be found on the tournament website at 
http://uwwsports.com/sports/2017/4/26/2017-ncaa-division-iii-baseball-championship-midwest-regional.aspx?id=1005.