River Forest, Ill.-Concordia-Chicago (41-8; 21-1) took on Baldwin-Wallace (27-16; 14-4) in the final game of the NCAA Regional. The winner of this matchup would become the 16th and final team to qualify for next weekend's NCAA III Super Regionals. Concordia-Chicago would come out on top 5-3 and complete the journey all the way back from the loser's bracket to win the championship.
Inside the Box Score:
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Brody Mariotti (3-5) ripped two doubles to pace the Cougar offense.
• CUC doubled BW's hit totals and won the hitting battle 13-6.
• Unlike the matchup yesterday, there were only four combined extra base hits.
Baldwin-Wallace once again was first to start the scoring after a Tony LoParo sacrifice fly in the second inning. After trailing 1-0, the Cougars broke into the scoring column in a big way in the third inning. Five consecutive hits, including a
Keegan Tyrell RBI double and gutsy base running, propelled CUC to a 5-1 lead.
The Yellow Jackets stole back two runs in the bottom of the third with a wild pitch and RBI single by Drew Wilson to cut the lead to 5-3. However, a pair of base running mistakes, both on fly balls to center field, would hold Baldwin-Wallace from capitalizing in two separate innings and keep them from scoring until the eighth inning.
From there, the pitching staffs for both teams - Jack Raines, Nick Smith and Danny Cody for the Yellow Jackets, and
Cole Carman for the Cougars, helped put zeroes on the scoreboard. Carman (5 2/3 innings) allowed just three hits and earned the win to improve to 9-2 on the season.The sophomore finished off a brilliant relief performance by retiring the side 1-2-3 in the ninth. getting the final out on a ground ball to VanDuser at third.
Shortly after the game was concluded, it was announced that CUC will host the Super Regional against Webster University. The format is a best-of-three series. Game one will be on Friday, May 24 at 12 noon, and game two on Saturday, May 25 at 11 a.m. If necessary, a deciding game three will follow 45 minutes after the conclusion of game two.
