May 10, 2018 – The quest for a sixth consecutive Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference title began tonight for the Concordia-Chicago baseball team. The top-seeded Cougars were at Kapco Field in Mequon, WI to take on the fourth-seeded Aurora University Spartans. While Concordia-Chicago won twice at Aurora two weeks ago, the Cougar bats were silenced by AU's Will King this evening, and the result was an 8-3 loss and the Cougars' first loss in their last 19 games in the conference tournament, going back to 2012.

Keaton Conner was on the mound for the Cougars, and he quickly dispatched of the Spartans in the first, thanks in part to a nifty play behind second base by Jose Mercado. Conner added another 1-2-3 inning in the second before the Cougars threatened to dent the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning. Andrew Massey was hit by a pitch, and Mitch Wilson reached on an infield single.  For Wilson, it was the 235^th hit of his career, tying Jack Walker for the CUC career lead. The rally derailed, however, as a double play and a fly out brought a swift end to the inning.

Conner was well in control over the first three innings before problems arose in the fourth. Aurora lead-off man Jett Wedekind reached on an infield hit for AU's first base runner. A walk, an error on a sacrifice and a hit-by-pitch soon scored the game's first run. A second walk forced in another run before a 5-4-3 double play gave CUC an opportunity to get out of the inning. However, the second hit of the inning drove in the final run of the inning, and the Cougars found themselves in a 4-0 hole.

Spartans' starter King was sailing through the first part of the game, despite the brief hiccup in the second. King had CUC hitters beating the ball into the ground, with nine of the first 12 outs coming in the infield. Meanwhile, Aurora threatened to open up a big lead in the sixth when they put their first two runners aboard via a single and double. Conner was up to the challenge, however, as he struck out a batter and then got ground outs to third and second, stranding the runners and keeping the deficit at four.

Alex Meyers relieved Conner in the seventh, but Meyers was touched for a run. Colin Rivard led off with a double and was at third with two out when Meyers' pitch sailed to the backstop. The ball took a hard bounce off the backstop, and it appeared as if the Cougars might have a play at the plate. However, the Cougars could not get off a clean throw to the plate, and the Spartans had their fifth run.

In the bottom of the inning, Concordia-Chicago threatened for the first time since the two men reached in the second. Joe Silva led off with an infield hit, the 234^th of his career. One out later, Wilson doubled to left-center for the new CUC career record in hits and, more urgently, two runners in scoring position. However, King recorded his first strikeout of the night by fanning Keegan Tyrell and then getting Brady Roberts on a fly to right and deny CUC its best opportunity.
Aurora then put the icing on its cake with two in the eighth. A walk and a base hit put the pressure on CUC right away, with a single scoring the sixth run and a perfect suicide squeeze plating run number seven.

The Cougars averted their first shutout since March of 2017 when Connor Brandon led off with a double. Kevin Coppin's shot up the middle was knocked down by the shortstop, but the Cougars had runners on the corners. King managed to come back and retire the next three batters, although Brandon scored on Mercado's fielder's choice grounder. Both teams then scored in the ninth, Aurora scoring a single run and CUC two on Roberts' RBI single and Brandon's sacrifice fly.

The tournament is double elimination, so the Cougars will start the road back tomorrow, although Friday's forecast calls for rain most of the day. As of now, Concordia-Chicago (29-11) is scheduled to play Marian University at 1:00, with elimination looming for one of the top two seeds.