CUC Baseball v. University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Day Three of Midwest Regional - Saturday at 11:00

Live stats - http://www.sidearmstats.com/css/baseball/
Live video - https://csssaints.com/watch/?Live=182&type=Live
Regional Page - https://csssaints.com/sports/2018/5/6/umacbase2015.aspx

CUC Baseball - https://www.cucougars.com/index.aspx?path=baseball
CUC Twitter - https://twitter.com/CUChicagoSports
CUC Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CUCAthletics/
CUC Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cucougars/

May 19, 2018 - Two teams have been eliminated, two are fighting to get back into the hunt, and two are looking to gain the inside track to Sunday's championship round. The Concordia-Chicago Cougars are in that final group, and they will play their fellow 2-0 team in the Midwest Regional, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

What's at stake in this morning's game? Only the difference between winning one more game in the regional versus having to win three more. The unsuccessful team on Saturday morning would have to come back at 7 p.m. this evening to play the winner of the Dubuque-North Central game in an elimination game. The winner of tonight's game would then play the undefeated team tomorrow and have to beat them twice in order to claim the crown and a spot in next week's Division III World Series in Appleton, WI.

This morning's game will pit the seventh and eighth-ranked teams in the country, according to D3Baseball.com. The Titans (33-8) were one of three teams to walk off on Thursday, edging Bethel University 4-3 in 12 innings. Friday's game was a different matter as UWO took control early and routed North Central by a score of 11-1.

The Titans are hitting .326 and are averaging just over eight runs per game. They are led by first baseman Andy Brahier at .423 and designated hitter Logan Reickert at .414. while catcher Taylor Grimm has some gaudy production numbers at .364, seven homers and 54 RBIs. The UWO pitching staff has an ERA of 3/14 in 358 innings with 300 strikeouts and 104 walks. It is not known who will be on the hill for the Titans, but the best guess is senior right-hander Jesse Sustachek(4-2, 3.65 in 40 innings, 37 Ks, 11 BBs).

The big question today is, will the Cougars have to pull off some late heroics again, or will they be able to grab the lead early and pressure the Titans that way? One goal of UWO has to be stopping Jose Mercado. The shortstop has been on base nine times in these first two games, and his final two at-bats yesterday were huge with a game-tying squeeze bunt in the eighth and a two-run double in the ninth for some insurance.

Use the links above to follow the game and then go to www.cucougars.com afterwards for the game recap and the post-game press conference.