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Box Score

MOLINE, Ill. (May 19, 2010) - The road to the NCAA Division III Central Region Championship got a little longer for the North Central College baseball team on Wednesday, as the Cardinals lost a 5-4, 11-inning decision to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the first round at Augustana College's Swanson Stadium.

The Cardinals (31-10), who entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed, will move on to an elimination game against top-seeded Buena Vista University (29-12) to attempt to preserve its bid for a regional title.

The fifth-seeded Engineers (30-12) jumped ahead with a three-run second inning, as the heart of the Rose-Hulman order produced four hits in five at-bats. The Engineers made use of a single and a double to tack on another run in the fifth.

North Central got on the board with its first run in the bottom of the fifth, as Matt Burke led off with an infield single and stole second base before advancing on Peter Romanello's sacrifice bunt and scoring on a groundout by Nick Robinson. Dan Scott singled and stole second and Matt Abraham drew a walk, but Rose-Hulman starting pitcher Derek Eitel was able to induce a groundout with two away to deny any further damage.

The second-seeded Cardinals closed the gap to 4-2 in the eighth, when Joe Turek clubbed his eighth home run of the season over the left-field fence. North Central still trailed in the bottom of the ninth, but took advantage of a window of opportunity provided by the RHIT pitching staff to force extra innings.

Romanello and Scott each drew walks, and both advanced on a wild pitch before Romanello scored on a groundout by Matt Abraham. With two outs, Michael Corrigan came through with his first hit of the game, an RBI single through the left side that knotted the score at 4-4.

The Engineers set up what would be the winning run by leading off the 11th inning with two singles. A sacrifice fly by RHIT's Michael Kovacs was enough to bring home catcher Keenan Long, and the Cardinals went down in order in the home half of the inning.

Steve Hlavac went 2 for 3 with a pair of walks and a stolen base for the Cardinals, while Turek was 2 for 5 and Robinson went 2 for 6. Robinson now shares the North Central record for at-bats in a single season (174) with Rick Ochenkowski '05.

Mike Kloss pitched the first 5 1/3 innings, allowing nine hits and striking out four batters to become just the second pitcher in school history to top 200 career strikeouts (202). Ricky Foytik pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, permitting just two hits. Kevin Krajewski was on the mound in the 11th and took the loss (2-2).

North Central will take on Buena Vista at noon on Thursday. The Beavers (29-12) lost, 2-1, to sixth-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University in Wednesday's first round.