Box Score River Forest, Ill.- Concordia University Chicago (38-7; 21-1 NACC) took the field against Buena Vista University (25-17; 15-9 ARC) to open up the NCAA Regional Tournament. This marked the eighth time in a row the Cougars reached the tournament. Coming into the tournament CUC would try and avenge their loss in the conference championship. On the other hand, Buena Vista came into the matchup riding a seven-game win streak which included an ARC conference championship where they beat Coe College 4-0.
Inside the Box Score:
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Adam Gregory threw 120 pitches through eight innings and gave up zero runs.
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Brody Mariotti and
Connor Brandon added the lone RBI's for the Cougars.
• Buena Vista ended 2-14 with runners on base, resulting in the shutout.
Gregory (6-0) took the mound for Concordia-Chicago in the opener. Two early errors scared the CUC faithful, but Gregory worked out of trouble and the Beavers failed to plate any runs. Both pitchers worked through a clean three innings and Buena Vista's Egan Bonde (6-1) did so in just 23 pitches.
Mistakes would end up plaguing the Beavers in the fourth inning. After a
Keegan Tyrell single Bonde would balk, and then Mariotti would reach on an error by the shortstop. With runners at first and third, Buena Vista was a double play away from ending the inning. They got the ground ball they needed but Brandon hustled his way down the first base line and beat the throw to negate the double play and score Tyrell from third. Concordia-Chicago ended the inning up 1-0.
As Gregory passed 100 pitches there was trouble brewing. Noah Paper, and Bryce Rheault collected a pair of two-out singles to put the Cougars in danger. Then Gregory opened up with two straight balls to the next hitter but would find his groove and deliver three straight strikes to shut down any chance of a momentum change. CUC would go down quietly in the bottom half of the inning and through seven innings they still led 1-0.
Going into the bottom of the eighth inning the Cougars looked to add on some insurance runs.
Jose Mercado led off the inning by being plunked and made his way to first. In the next at-bat Tyrell's sacrifice bunt would force a pitching change for the Beavers. Bryan Vanduser followed the pitching change with a walk. Both he and Mercado advanced on stolen bases with Mariotti stepping up to the plate. He sent one out to deep center and scored Mercado to add on an insurance run. CUC would go into the final frame up 2-0.
Mike Tobin looked to close out the ninth inning after taking over for the dominant Gregory. Buena Vista would go down in order, and Concordia-Chicago took home game one of the regionals 2-0.
The Cougars will await the winner of game two between Saint John's (MN) and Baldwin Wallace to see who they will play on Saturday at noon.
