North Central College Athletics

Long after his time as the pitching ace of some of the most successful baseball teams at North Central College, Matt Richards '87 remains a standard-bearer of success for current and future Cardinals to attempt to emulate.

In his four-year career, North Central won 111 games and three College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Championships and qualified for the program's first NCAA Division III College World Series. Richards, a two-time First Team All-CCIW selection who was named a Second Team All-American and the CCIW Player of the Year as a senior, was groomed for a prominent role on the staff from his earliest days on campus.

“I was pretty intimidated coming into a college program for the first time,” he said. “Some of the older guys instilled confidence in me, telling me how effective I could be. I got a chance to pitch early in my career so I could create confidence in myself. That fueled the off-season workouts, and I really took it seriously. It kind of fueled itself.”

The Cardinals won the CCIW regular-season championship in 1984, then added subsequent titles along with Division III Regional appearances in 1985 and 1986, all the while using the same main core of players as the program raised its profile among its peers.

“You could see this thing getting built,” Richards recalled. “First and foremost, it was the way we came together. The chemistry in that group was super. As time went on, we got to know each other better and better and it was a lot of fun.”

The 1987 season saw Richards post an overall record of 8-3 with a 2.78 earned-run average and eight complete games, striking out 74 batters in 77 2/3 innings. After winning the CCIW Tournament to earn their third straight bid to the Mideast Regional, the Cardinals took another step forward and defeated perennial Division III power Marietta College (Ohio), which had eliminated North Central the previous two postseasons.

The Cardinals cleared the final hurdle with a championship-game victory over Aurora University. Starting his second game in four days, Richards pitched 6 1/3 innings and North Central posted a 5-4 victory over the Spartans to make its first national championship appearance.

“We kept getting so close and getting knocked out at the end,” Richards said. “That win over Marietta gave us the belief that we had taken the next step. We played with a lot of confidence in the championship game.”

Richards graduated as the holder of several North Central pitching records and remains the Cardinals' all-time leader in career wins (23) and winning percentage (.793), while sharing records for career shutouts (3) and single-season starts (13).

“It's humbling,” he said. “When you're doing it you don't really notice it, but as you get older you start to appreciate it more. It's surprising, because records were made to be broken and a lot of excellent pitchers have come after me. It's also a tribute to my teammates who not only hit the ball, but caught it after I had thrown it. I absolutely could not have done it without them.”