May 20, 2019 - The Concordia University Chicago baseball team is on a quest to make its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III World Series, but this year's journey is about to take a new twist. Fresh off of hosting - and winning - an NCAA III regional, the next step is winning one of the eight new super regionals instituted this season. Each of the super regionals pits two of the 16 regional winners against each other in a best-of-three series, with the winners of the super regionals advancing to the Division III World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (May 31-June 5). 

Shortly after CUC defeated Baldwin-Wallace University 5-3 to win the Concordia-Chicago regional, it was announced that the Cougars will stay at home to host one of these eight super-regionals. The opposition will be Webster University from St. Louis, MO, winners of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater regional. Game one will be played on Friday, May 24 at 12 noon, while game two is Saturday, May 25 at 11 a.m. If necessary, game three will follow 45 minutes after the conclusion of game two.

This particular super regional will feature several storylines, beginning with each team's head coach - Webster's Bill Kurich and CUC's Mike Stawski. Long-time CUC baseball fans may remember Kurich as the head assistant coach for the Cougars from 2000 to 2002. Kurich went on to serve as an assistant coach at St. Joseph's in Rensselaer, Indiana while Stawski was playing his college ball and, in 2006, when Kurich took the head coach's job at Webster, Stawski's first coaching job would come as Webster's pitching coach.

The two have remained friends over the years, and their teams are certainly familiar with each other. The Cougars and Gorloks have played 19 times since 2007, including three times this year. They first hooked up in Florida on March 14, with CUC scoring three runs in the eighth inning to take a 4-1 victory. The next two meetings came on May 3 in Carol Stream, IL, with CUC winning game one 1-0 behind a tidy, three-hit shutout by Adam Gregory. However, Webster took the nightcap 2-1 behind a two-run double by Ben Swords. 

All the super regional games this weekend will feature live stats and video stream. Links can be found at www.cucougars.com/coverage. 


 

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