River Forest, Ill.- Concordia University Chicago (40-8; 21-1) faced off against Buena Vista (26-19; 15-9) in the second elimination game of the regional. CUC was coming off of a devastating 10-8 loss moments before the start of this game. The Cougars would play with a chip on their shoulder and took down Buena Vista 11-5.

Inside the Box Score: 
•    Both teams left double digit men on base. (CUC: 15, BV-10)
•    Brody Mariotti (3-4) and Bryan Vanduser (3-5) led the way for the CUC offense.
•    Vanduser, Brayden Benavides, and Connor Brandon all chipped in home runs. 


Vanduser did not waste any time getting involved. The monstrous solo shot handed the Cougars an early 1-0 lead. In the bottom half of the inning Bryce Rheault matched Vanduser and sent one over the fence to even the score up at 1-1. 
 

BB: THAT BALL'S OUTTA HERE! Bryan VanDuser cracks one over the left field fence to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead over Buena Vista in the 1st inning. #d3b pic.twitter.com/0AJpZolfiD

— CUC Athletics (@CUChicagoSports) May 19, 2019

A huge second inning was sparked by a Benavides double which scored Mateo Calle. Keegan Tyrell would do some more damage with a two-RBI single and by the end of the second inning Concordia-Chicago would lead 5-1. 

Buena Vista bounced back once again with three runs coming off of four hits and one error. After two innings of excessive hitting, the score stood at 5-4 in favor of CUC. 

Hitting stayed prominent to begin the third inning. Benavides built off of his last at-bat and crushed a solo home run over the left field fence to slightly increase the lead to 6-4. Concordia-Chicago would outscore BV 6-1 past the third inning in part to staying aggressive. In the fifth, Tyrell stayed hot with an RBI double which inched the score up to 7-4. One inning later in the top of the sixth, Connor Brandon hit the Cougars' third homerun of the day to extend the lead to 8-4. 
 

BB: WATCH OUT FOR YOUR WINDOWS! Connor Brandon knocks a solo homer across Division Street! Cougars lead the Beavers 8-4 heading into the bottom of the 6th. #d3b pic.twitter.com/6TNUSQmCMz

— CUC Athletics (@CUChicagoSports) May 19, 2019

Concordia-Chicago would tack on two more in the seventh, and one more in the ninth to make it 11-5. The scoring would conclude there, and the Cougars would earn their spot into the Regional Championship.

Concordia-Chicago will face off against Baldwin Wallace in the Regional Championship at 3:15 p.m. They will have to win two games in a row to advance to the Super-Regional being held next weekend.