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

Box Score

APPLETON, Wis. (May 29, 2017) – In a contest that began on Sunday and ended in the early hours of Monday morning, the North Central College baseball team finally saw the most spectacular season in program history come to an end at the 2017 NCAA Division III College World Series as the Cardinals were one of four teams left standing when it was all said and done, the highest finish in school history.

In a season that featured the third-straight College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season championship, a CCIW Tournament Championship, Central Regional Championship and just the second trip to the College World Series in program history, the Cardinals finish 2-2 in Appleton and have plenty to hang their hats on.

"It's one of those bitter sweet days," said head coach Ed Mathey, "you never want to see a season end but this group has so much to celebrate.  I'm really proud of the work these guys put in, especially the seniors, they established a very important leadership role within this team this season."

The Cardiac Cards as they've come to be known over the course of the last few weeks fought back countless times over the course of this wild season but will go down in history for the way they came together at the latter part of this season.

"There was a time early this season when we really hit rock bottom," said Sing Fong, "and the way this team responded was amazing.  At one point in the season we were 2-6 and another point we were 15-15, to come back and finish the season like we did is just a testament to this team and how we play the game.

Coming to this stage for the first time in 30 years is something that will stick in our memories and the friendships will last forever."

North Central had to dig themselves out of an early hole for the second straight game against 15^th-ranked California Lutheran University, as the Kingsmen held an 8-3 lead after four innings of play, including a five-run bottom of the fourth.

"Tonight's ballgame was a battle," said Mathey, "both starting pitchers threw a lot of pitches.  I thought we had some opportunities early that we failed to take advantage of and hats off to Cal Lutheran.  Our kids never stopped fighting, they never stopped competing and we gave ourselves a chance to come back in this ballgame but we just ran out of innings."

The Cardinals did not go down without a fight, as the comeback attempt began in the top of the fifth, as John Carmody led off with a single up the middle.  Chris Hill stepped to the plate and quickly deposited a fastball over the left field fence, his first of the NCAA Tournament, to cut the Cal Lutheran lead 8-5.

The Kingsmen rebounded to get those runs right back however, as two Cardinal errors allowed a pair of unearned runs to come around and score, re-upping the Cal Lutheran lead 10-5 with just three frames remaining.

Following a scoreless seventh, North Central rallied for a three spot in the top of the eighth, as Robert Zebrauskas and Michael Mateja each singled to start the frame.  Two batters later, Nick Sotiros singled through the left side, plating Zebrauskas, while Sotiros and Mateja each moved up a base on a Cal Lutheran error to put runners on second and third with one away.

Carmody came through the following at-bat, stroking a two-RBI single to center, scoring Mateja and Sotiros while trimming the Kingsmen lead 10-8 in the process.

Cal Lutheran closer Miguel Salud induced three straight groundouts to shortstop to end the game however, completing his 13^th save of the season.

Colin Weilbacher finished 3-for-5 from the plate, while Hill was 2-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored.  Fong was also 2-for-5 with a RBI, while Carmody finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.  Mateja also added two hits, becoming the first player in program history to reach the 80-hit plateau, while also ending the season with a 44-game reached-base streak.

Sotiros finished 1-for-4 with a walk, RBI and run scored in his final game as a Cardinal, wrapping up his illustrious career ranked third all-time with 41 doubles and 10^th all-time with 107 runs batted in.  Additionally, Sotiros holds the top-two spots on the single-season doubles list while his 63 RBI this season rank sixth.

North Central closes the season with an overall record of 31-18, the second straight 31-win season, tying for the second most wins in a single-season.

"It was a wonderful experience," said Mathey, "to get here with this group is a special thing that I will always remember and cherish forever. The last time North Central was here was the year after I graduated and a lot of my former teammates were here with us this weekend.  Whether it was here physically or support through various messages it was a great show of support from all of Cardinal Nation."