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

May 18: NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship hosted by The College of St. Scholastica, No. 2 seed North Central College (28-12) vs. No. 5 seed University of Dubuque (Iowa) (24-15)
First Pitch: 3:00 p.m., Frank Wade Municipal Stadium, Duluth, Minnesota
Tournament Website: https://csssaints.com/sports/2018/5/6/umacbase2015.aspx
Live Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/css/baseball/
Live Video: https://csssaints.com/watch/?Archive=171&type=Live

Setting the Scene: 58 teams were selected to this year's NCAA Division III Tournament field, with three regionals featuring six teams and five regionals hosting eight teams. All eight regional sites will play a double elimination format, with the eight winners of each regional meeting in Appleton, Wis. for the NCAA Division III Championship at Fox Cities Stadium, May 25-30. The Cardinals enter the tournament with an overall record of 28-12 and received the No. 2 seed in the regional, taking on No. 5 seed University of Dubuque on Thursday, May 17 at 3:00 p.m. at Wade Stadium.  This mark's the program's 10th NCAA Regional appearance and third in as many years, also qualifying in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2010, 2016 and 2017.

Tournament Field: Concordia University Chicago (Illinois) received the No. 1 seed, while the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed.  Also playing in the regional are Bethel University (Minnesota) seeded fourth, followed by Dubuque with the fifth seed and Bethany Lutheran College (Minnesota) rounds out the field with the No. 6 seed.

About North Central: Winners of their fourth-consecutive College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) regular season title and second-straight CCIW Tournament title, the Cardinals earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships and were the lone team from the conference to earn a bid.  The Cardinals are the defending Central Region Champions, going 4-0 in the regional last season in Sauget, Illinois.

North Central enters with an overall record of 28-12 as head coach Ed Mathey earned his seventh career CCIW regular season title, leading the Cardinals to the title in each of his first four seasons in his return to the helm of the program.  Mathey was awarded CCIW Co-Coach of the Year honors, earning the award for the second-straight season and fifth time in his career and has been named Central Region Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons.

Five Cardinals were named to the All-CCIW teams, led by first-team selections Michael Mateja, Mike Wisz, Russell Hoh and Rob Marinec, while Eric Outlaw was named to the second team.  Mateja and Wisz were named Co-Players of the Year, as Mateja becomes the first player in program history to earn Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons.

Wisz was also named Newcomer of the Year after leading the conference in batting (.430), slugging percentage (.760), hits (43), doubles (14), while breaking the conference's single-season RBI record with 47 over 24 conference games.  Hoh was named Pitcher of the Year after going 5-0 in his five starts with a 1.07 ERA, striking out 22 and walking just three batters.  The Cardinals are the first team in CCIW history to sweep all four awards.

The Cardinal lineup enters the regional batting .342 as a team, led by Mateja's .444 average to go along with a team-leading 51 runs scored, 20 doubles, four triples, 26 walks and a .534 on-base percentage.
Wisz currently leads all NCAA Division III players with 72 RBI on the season, while leading the team with 70 hits, 20 doubles, nine homeruns and a .732 slugging percentage.

Marinec is batting .350 in his first collegiate campaign, ranking second on the team with 54 RBI and seven homeruns.  Colin Weilbacher enters regional play hitting .370, while Outlaw is batting .338 and ranks third on the team with 52 hits.

The Cardinal pitching staff features a pair of six-game winners in Hoh and Charlie Klemm, as the freshman is 6-1 over nine appearances, including eight starts, striking out 38 batters over 48 innings, walking just 14.

Hoh, the elder statesman of the staff, is 6-0 on the year over 10 starts with two complete-game shutouts and a 3.45 ERA, striking out 35 over 60 innings, surrendering only 14 walks. 

Nick Rogalski has appeared in a team-leading 18 games, all out of the bullpen, recording five saves with a 3.27 ERA over 22 innings pitched.  Patrick Schaefer is 4-0 over 15 appearances, sporting a 3.13 ERA, while Jason Shanner has also appeared in 15 games with a 3.51 ERA.

Scouting Dubuque: Winners of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), Dubuque went a perfect 3-0 in the conference tournament to clinch the first regional appearance in program history.

The Spartans are riding an 11-game win streak heading into the regional, as Jarad Clevenger leads the team batting .360.  Dalton Garst leads the team with 37 runs scored and 21 walks, while Jack Lasswell has recorded a team-leading 56 hits and Will Doherty has driven in a team-high 35.

Chase Kueter leads the Dubuque pitching staff with a 7-4 record with a 2.25 ERA and six complete games over 12 starts spanning 88 innings pitched, striking out 75 and walking just eight.  Doug Van Dyke sports a 6-2 record with a 2.99 ERA over 10 starts, while Nathan Schneider has appeared in a team-leading 17 games with eight saves.

Scouting Concordia-Chicago: North Central and Concordia-Chicago met in the final game of the regular season with the Cougars coming away with a 13-1 win as the Cardinals were playing their eighth game in eight days.  The defending Midwest Regional champions were one of 16 teams to earn a pool C at-large bid, falling in the final of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament in 13 innings to Aurora University, 5-4.  The Cougars are making their ninth regional appearance in program history.

Concordia enters regional play ranked eighth in the final regular season poll released by D3baseball.com on Tuesday with a record of 33-12 and are a force to be reckoned with on the base paths, successfully stealing 139 of 165 stolen base attempts.  Jose Mercado is 34-of-40 in steal attempts, while Joe Silva is 20-of-23 and three other Cougars have also recorded double-digit stolen bases.

Silva is batting .392 while also leading the team with 74 hits, good for ninth nationally, 53 runs scored, 16 doubles and four triples.  Andrew Massey leads the team with 44 RBI, while ranking second with 66 hits and 14 doubles.
Connor Keaton is 4-2 over 10 starts on the mound this season with a 3.88 ERA, while Mike Formella leads the team with 22 appearances, all out of the bullpen, with a 1.98 ERA over 54.2 innings with 14 saves to lead the nation.

Scouting UW-Oshkosh: With the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament cancelled to due weather, UW-Oshkosh received one of two pool B selections, entering regional play with a record of 31-8 and ranked seventh by D3baseball.com.

UW-Oshkosh is no stranger to postseason play, posting a 104-51 record in the NCAA postseason while winning two national championships in 1985 and 1994.

The Titans feature a powerful offense, hitting .324 as a team with 100 doubles and 31 homeruns on the season, led by seven homeruns and 55 hits from each of Taylor Grimm and Alex Koch, while Grimm leads the team with 51 RBI and 17 doubles.  Andy Brahier leads the team batting .437 with 52 hits over just 29 games played, to go along with five homeruns and 12 doubles.

On the mound, Colan Treml enters with a perfect 9-0 record over 11 starts with a 2.28 ERA, striking out 70 over 79 innings.  Nick McLees is 8-2 with a 2.72 ERA over 72.2 innings, striking out 56.

Scouting Bethel: Bethel also makes their first NCAA Regional appearance in program history after winning the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Tournament and are riding an eight-game win streak.
The Royals ride their dazzling pitching staff, holding a 1.80 ERA as a team, as Bethel has yet to allow more than six runs in a single game and has posted eight shutouts this season and one run in 13 contests.

Michael Bohlke is 5-1 over 11 starts with a 2.11 ERA, leading the team with 64 innings pitched.  Noah Luedtke sports an identical 2.11 ERA with a perfect 5-0 record over 11 appearances, including eight starts, while Jake Marsh leads the team with 18 appearances, tossing 28.2 innings and allowing just two runs all season while posting nine saves and 21 strikeouts to just three walks.

Sam Horner leads the Bethel offense hitting .369 with 55 hits and 39 runs scored, while Austin Ledin leads the way with nine homeruns, 23 walks and 36 RBI.

Scouting Bethany Lutheran: The final of the three teams making their first regional appearance this weekend, the Vikings won their first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament title, sweeping the College of St. Scholastica on the final day to earn the conference's automatic bid.

Ben Boran leads the Bethany Lutheran offense with 45 hits on the season, while John Brown and Nick Caldeen have each scored 34 runs.  Caldeen also leads the team with seven homeruns, while Mylo Hommes has struck six long balls.

Alex Babcock has appeared in 15 games to lead the pitching staff, while also winning a team-leading seven games.  Cody Leitner has pitched a team-leading 51.1 innings with a 3-2 record over 11 appearances and eight starts.

Cardinals in the Record Book: Wisz is currently two RBI shy of tying Ken Ritter '88 atop the single-season list, a record that has stood since 1986.  His seven sacrifice flies are one away from the single-season lead, while his 20 doubles are two shy.  Wisz also ranks fourth on the single-season list with 123 total bases and fifth with 70 hits

Mateja is currently tied with Wisz with 20 doubles this season, while his 51 runs scored rank sixth and 67 hits rank tied for eighth.  Mateja recently became just the third Cardinal in program history to record 200 hits, as his 203 ranks 11 behind Craig Stefan '87. Mateja also ranks first all-time with 12 sacrifice flies, third in runs scored (152) and stolen bases (51), fourth in total bases (291) and triples (12), and fifth in doubles (40) and hit by pitches (25).

Last season Quade broke the program record with 211 at-bats, while his 564 career at-bats rank fourth.  Quade also ranks fourth all-time in runs scored (142) and stolen bases (48), while ranking ninth in hits (174) and sacrifice flies (seven).

Marinec also ranks in the top-10 on the single-season RBI list, as his 54 runs batted in this season ranks tied for ninth.

On the mound, Rogalski holds the all-time record with 16 career saves, while ranking fourth all-time with 65 appearances.  Last season Rogalski and Anthony Serafini broke the single-season appearances list with 27 each, while Rogalski's seven saves were tied for first in a single-season.

Hoh currently ranks tied for sixth all-time with 16 career victories, while his three career shutouts rank tied for first.

Team Single-Season Records: The Cardinals entered the top-10 in multiple single-season categories so far this season, breaking the single-season record with 101 doubles this season, while ranking second in sacrifice flies (27) third in total bases (724), RBI (329), runs scored (370), fourth in hits (496) and hit by pitches (54), fifth in homeruns (33) and eighth in walks (194).

National Rankings: Entering regional play, Wisz currently leads all NCAA Division III players with 72 RBI, while also ranking seventh alongside Mateja with 20 doubles.  Wisz also ranks fifth nationally with 123 total bases and ninth with seven sacrifice flies, while Mateja ranks 14^th in on-base percentage (.534) and 19^th in batting average (.444).