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

Box Score

CAROL STREAM, Ill. (Apr. 25, 2017) – Trailing by eight after six innings of play, the North Central College baseball team drew to within one late but the comeback attempt fell just short at Wheaton College on Tuesday, falling by a 10-8 margin at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
Wheaton (20-14, 10-8 CCIW) jumped out to a 9-1 lead after six innings of play, scoring in five of their first six innings at the plate, including double digit runs in four of those frames.
 
North Central (15-13, 10-6 CCIW) did not go down without a fight however, cutting the Wheaton lead in half with a five spot in the top of the seventh.  Adam Nelson doubled to lead off the inning, followed by a Robert Zebrauskas walk and a single off the bat of Jeremy Quade loaded the bases with nobody out.
 
Michael Mateja was then hit by a pitch on a 2-2 count to score Nelson, before Nick Sotiros drove home Zebrauskas with a RBI-groundout to second.  Chris Hill followed with a double to the left center field gap, scoring Quade and Mateja, while Sing Fong reached on a two-out error, allowing Hill to score in the process while trimming the Wheaton lead 9-6.
 
The Cardinals were not finished scoring either, as Quade singled to center with two outs in the top of the eighth to begin the Cardinal rally.  After Mateja was hit by a pitch yet again, Sotiros lined a 3-2 pitch for a triple, scoring the pair while drawing North Central to within one run of the lead 9-8.
 
 A groundout ended the top half of the Cardinals' eighth, while Wheaton was able to add an insurance run in the bottom of the inning and forced North Central to go 1-2-3 in the ninth, ending the Cardinal comeback try.
 
Quade finished a career-high 5-for-5 with two runs scored on the evening to increase his hitting streak to 11 games, while Hill was 2-for-3 including his fourth homerun of the season, a solo shot in the top of the second to put the Cardinals on the board, also finishing with two walks, three RBI and two runs scored.  Mateja finished 1-for-3 with two hit by pitches, two runs scored and a RBI, while increasing his on-base streak to 23 games.
 
Brett Albaugh and Johnny Peltz each belted a homerun and added three hits apiece to lead the Wheaton offense, while Albaugh drove in three and scored a pair.

North Central returns to play tomorrow, traveling to Wisconsin Lutheran College in a non-conference contest at 3:30 p.m. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.