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Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Box Score

Apr. 24, 2010 - Clinching a fifth straight College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin series victory, the North Central College baseball team rode out an early deficit and a lengthy rain delay to hammer out a 23-14 win over the Wheaton College Thunder at Zimmerman Stadium on Saturday.

The Cardinals, now 23-5 overall and 11-3 within the CCIW, trailed after a four-run first inning and a one-hour, 46-minute rain delay before they were able to bat for the first time. Once play resumed, the hosts scored early and often, plating runs in every inning and being held to a single run just once.

After finally beginning to send batters to the plate more than two hours after play began, North Central drew four straight walks before a three-run double by Joe Turek tied the score at 4-4. An RBI single by Steve Hlavac gave the Cardinals their first lead of the day at 5-4.

Wheaton (20-11, 7-7 CCIW) scored an unearned run in the second inning to tie the contest at 5-5, but a sacrifice fly by Matt Abraham and an RBI double by Turek nudged the Cardinals back in front, 7-5. A sacrifice fly by Dan Scott, a run-scoring single by Michael Corrigan and a bases-loaded walk by Hlavac brought home three more runs in the third inning, building North Central's lead to 10-5.

After yielding a run in the top of the fourth, the Cardinals responded with another sacrifice fly, this time by Nick Robinson, then added two runs on Andrew Wulbecker's double in the fifth.

The Thunder tagged North Central for four hits and benefited from two Cardinal errors in the sixth, scoring six runs and threatening the home team's lead for the first time since the early going. Relief pitcher Keeler Otero was brought on and recorded the final two outs of the inning to keep North Central in front by a slim 13-12 margin.

A two-run double by Corrigan restored part of the Cardinals' advantage in the bottom of the sixth, though Wheaton scored twice on four hits in the top of the seventh and trailed by a 15-14 count when North Central embarked on what would be the game-defining rally in the home half of the inning.

Wulbecker and Peter Romanello were each hit by pitches to open the Cardinals' seventh, and Robinson drew a walk on a 3-2 count to load the bases. Scott followed with another walk, also on a 3-2 count, to score Wulbecker before Corrigan smacked a grand slam to right field on the second pitch of his at-bat with two outs, giving the hosts a 20-14 advantage. An RBI single by Wulbecker and run-scoring groundouts from Robinson and Scott in the eighth provided the final margin.

Corrigan went 4 for 4 with a career-high eight runs batted in and three runs scored in the contest. Turek finished with four RBI, while Scott scored four runs. The Cardinals drew 18 walks in the game while striking out just once. Micah Yarbrough pitched four innings of relief to get the win (3-0), allowing one earned run on five hits.

Drew Golz went 3 for 5 with a home run and three RBI for Wheaton, while Justin Zeller and Trey Martin each batted 3 for 5.

North Central will not play its originally-scheduled non-conference game against Fontbonne University on Sunday. The Cardinals will play the final game of their three-game series with Wheaton at Zimmerman Stadium on Monday at 3 p.m.