Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Apr. 17, 2016) – The North Central College baseball team was unable to secure the season sweep over Illinois Wesleyan University on Sunday afternoon, falling 10-2 in College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) action at Horenberger Stadium.
 
North Central (19-5, 8-4 CCIW) racked up 12 hits, including a hit in all but two innings, but mustered only two runs off Titan starter Nick Brune.
 
Illinois Wesleyan (16-12, 8-4 CCIW) took an early 1-0 lead after the first inning, as Cardinal starter Russell Hoh retired the first two batters with ease but three straight Titan hits plated a run, while the Titans would go on to hold the lead the rest of the way.
 
The Titans plated another two-out run in the bottom of the third on a Tim Smyk RBI single, while Smyk drove home another run two innings later on yet another RBI single, increasing the Titan lead 3-0.
 
North Central got on the board with an unearned run in the top of the fifth, as Dan Sotiros reached on an error to lead off the inning, while Bobby Smith drove him home three batters later.
 
The flood gates opened in the bottom of the sixth for Illinois Wesleyan, as the Titans batted around and plated four runs on four hits, while taking advantage of two Cardinal errors in the inning to increase their advantage 7-1.
 
Another run in the seventh, followed by two more in the eighth from Illinois Wesleyan put the game out of reach.  North Central plated a run in the top of the ninth on a Kyle Piotrowski RBI single, but it was too little too late for the Cardinals as Brune finished what he started on the mound for the Titans.
 
Brune scattered 12 hits but only allowed one earned run, striking out seven Cardinal batters while walking just one over his nine innings.
 
Hoh suffered his first loss of the season, allowing three earned over 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits while striking out four.
 
Smith led the Cardinal offense with a 3-for-4 performance with a RBI from the dish, while Michael Mateja and Nick Sotiros each finished 2-for-4.
 
Smyk led all batters finishing 4-for-5 from the plate with four RBI and a run scored, while John Bosco was 3-for-6 with two runs scored and one RBI.
 
North Central plays host to Concordia University Chicago on Tuesday in a midweek non-conference contest slated for 3 p.m. at Zimmerman Stadium.  Links to live in-game coverage are available HERE.